Extraction of cortical modularity patterns for neural prosthetics

Abstract

Cortical modularity is a fundamental microanatomic feature of the brain with direct implications for the cognitive function of cortical microcircuits. Neural activity recorded simultaneously with multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) from supra- and infra-granular layers along adjacent cortical minicolumns in PFC was shown to extract microanatomic codes relevant for successful behavioral performance. In addition, it is shown that pharmacologic agents disrupt the micro-anatomic processing and cognitive performance, but that recovery from cognitive impairment is produced by application of a cognitive prosthesis, via nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO) model stimulation of microanatomic outputs with successful MIMO codes. The functional basis of this approach provides the potential for applying cognitive prostheses to a broad range of neurological and psychiatric dysfunctions involving cortical processes.