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Bashford, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Bashford, L..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Deep Multi-State Dynamic Recurrent Neural Networks Operating on Wavelet Based Neural Features for Robust Brain Machine Interfaces

We present a new deep multi-state Dynamic Recurrent Neural Network (DRNN) architecture for Brain Machine Interface (BMI) applications. Our DRNN is used to predict Cartesian representation of a computer cursor movement kinematics from open-loop neural data recorded from the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of a human subject in a BMI system. We design the algorithm to achieve a reasonable trade-off between performance and robustness, and we constrain memory usage in favor of future hardware implementation. We feed the predictions of the network back to the input to improve prediction performance and robustness. We apply a scheduled sampling approach to the model in order to solve a statistical distribution mismatch between the ground truth and predictions. Additionally, we configure a small DRNN to operate with a short history of input, reducing the required buffering of input data and number of memory accesses. This configuration lowers the expected power consumption in a neural network accelerator. Operating on wavelet-based neural features, we show that the average performance of DRNN surpasses other state-of-the-art methods in the literature on both single- and multi-day data recorded over 43 days. Results show that multi-state DRNN has the potential to model the nonlinear relationships between the neural data and kinematics for robust BMIs.

neuroscience

Motor skill learning leads to the increase of planning horizon

We investigated motor skill learning using a path tracking task, where human subjects had to track various curved paths at a constant speed while maintaining the cursor within the path width. Subjects accuracy increased with practice, even when tracking novel untrained paths. Using a "searchlight" paradigm, where only a short segment of the path ahead of the cursor was shown, we found that subjects with a higher tracking skill differed from the novice subjects in two respects. First, they had lower motor variability, in agreement with previous findings. Second, they took a longer section of the future path into account when performing the task, i.e. had a longer planning horizon. We estimate that between one third and one half of the performance increase was due to the increase in planning horizon. An optimal control model with a fixed horizon (receding horizon control) that increases with tracking skill quantitatively captured the subjects movement behaviour. These findings demonstrate that human subjects not only increase their motor acuity but also their planning horizon when acquiring a motor skill. New and NoteworthyWe show that when learning a motor skill humans are using information about the environment from an increasingly longer amount of the movement path ahead to improve performance. Crucial features of the behavioural performance can be captured by modelling the behavioural data with a receding horizon optimal control model.

neuroscience