biostudies-literatureGolub MDNICHD NIH HHSNINDS NIH HHS607-616https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC5876156biostudies-literatureUnknown21(4)Behavior is driven by coordinated activity across a population of neurons. Learning requires the brain to change the neural population activity produced to achieve a given behavioral goal. How does population activity reorganize during learning? We studied intracortical population activity in the primary motor cortex of rhesus macaques during short-term learning in a brain-computer interface (BCI) task. In a BCI, the mapping between neural activity and behavior is exactly known, enabling us to rigorously define hypotheses about neural reorganization during learning. We found that changes in population activity followed a suboptimal neural strategy of reassociation: animals relied on a fixed repertoire of activity patterns and associated those patterns with different movements after learning. These results indicate that the activity patterns that a neural population can generate are even more constrained than previously thought and might explain why it is often difficult to quickly learn to a high level of proficiency.Nature neuroscienceLearning by neural reassociation.PMC5876156R01 NS105318R01 HD071686Batista APChase SMRyu SIYu BMGolub MDTyler-Kabara ECSadtler PTOby ERQuick KMfalseLearning by neural reassociation.Behavior is driven by coordinated activity across a population of neurons. Learning requires the brain to change the neural population activity produced to achieve a given behavioral goal. How does population activity reorganize during learning? We studied intracortical population activity in the primary motor cortex of rhesus macaques during short-term learning in a brain-computer interface (BCI) task. In a BCI, the mapping between neural activity and behavior is exactly known, enabling us to rigorously define hypotheses about neural reorganization during learning. We found that changes in population activity followed a suboptimal neural strategy of reassociation: animals relied on a fixed repertoire of activity patterns and associated those patterns with different movements after learning. These results indicate that the activity patterns that a neural population can generate are even more constrained than previously thought and might explain why it is often difficult to quickly learn to a high level of proficiency.2018-01-01T00:00:00Z2018 Apr2024-11-13T12:44:21.548Z2019-03-26T23:55:21ZS-EPMC58761562953136410.1038/s41593-018-0095-3