🧠 New by Codol et al. who show that #MotorCortex dynamics are remarkably conserved across #mice, #monkeys, and #humans. Despite very different #behaviors, #NeuralPopulation activity follows similar dynamical rules on low-dimensional #manifolds. Species differences arise mainly from the geometry of trajectories within this shared #DynamicalSystem.
There is a new episode on the #TheoreticalNeurosciencePodcast on low-dimensional #manifolds in #MotorCortex with Sara Solla ✌️, one of the pioneers of the manifold modelling approach in #Neuroscience.
There's a great talk by Juan Gallego on how low-dimensional #NeuralManifolds arise from biological constraints, remain invariant across states and inputs, and support cross-animal alignment. Examples span #HeadDirection rings, #gridcell tori, #MotorCortex prep vs movement, striatal timing dynamics, and C. elegans #behavior loops. Cool talk as it shows how #manifold-level structure can generalize across tasks and organisms.
🧠 New preprint by Codol et al. (2025): Brain-like #NeuralDynamics for #behavioral control develop through #ReinforcementLearning. They show that only #RL, not #SupervisedLearning, yields neural activity geometries & dynamics matching monkey #MotorCortex recordings. RL-trained #RNNs operate at the edge of #chaos, reproduce adaptive reorganization under #visuomotor rotation, and require realistic limb #biomechanics to achieve brain-like control.
🧠 New preprint by Kashefi et al. (2025): High-density #Neuropixels recordings in monkeys reveal compositional #NeuralDynamics in #MotorCortex. A posture subspace anchors fixed points, rotational dynamics link them to generate movement, and a uniform shift tracks trial state. Recurrent models show this geometry emerges only when controlling a full arm, suggesting posture-dependent control as a core principle:
🌍 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.04.674069v1
Movements can be initiated before or when one becomes aware of the intention to move. This study shows that spiking activity in the human primary motor cortex coincides with the onset of subjective intention, extending prior work on pre-motor and parietal brain areas.
What are the neural correlates of the multiple competing processes that occur simultaneously during sensorimotor learning? This study reveals three distinct neural connectivity patterns with the motor cortex that are associated with implicit learning, explicit learning, and the tracking of performance.
#PatrickHaggard - What is the #Problem with #FreeWill?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b24jxQpLZsk
#Philosophy #PhilosophyOfFreeWill #Psychology #Neuroscience #Choice #Intention #Intentionality #Cortex #MotorCortex #Decision #Decisions #Mind #PhilosophyOfMind #StrongWill #WeakWill #CloserToTruth #RobertKuhn
PLOS Biology
Fabrizio Musacchio
Fabrizio Musacchio
Fabrizio Musacchio
Jim Donegan 🎵 ✅