HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental data All Versions of this Article: 579/3/581    most recent jphysiol.2006.126698v1 Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Schwartz, A. B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Schwartz, A. B. Related Collections Review articles

¹ Departments of Neurobiology, Bioengineering, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Neural Engineering Program, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
² Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Historically, the motor cortical function has been explained as a funnel to muscle activation. This invokes the idea that motor cortical neurons, or ‘upper motoneurons’, directly cause muscle contraction just like spinal motoneurons. Thus, the motor cortex and muscle activity are inextricably entwined like a puppet master and his marionette. Recently, this concept has been challenged by current experimentation showing that many behavioural aspects of action are represented in motor cortical activity. Although this activity may still be related to muscle activation, the relation between the two is likely to be indirect and complex, whereas the relation between cortical activity and kinematic parameters is simple and robust. These findings show how to extract useful signals that help explain the underlying process that generates behaviour and to harness these signals for potentially therapeutic applications.

(Received 15 December 2006; accepted after revision 15 January 2007; first published online 18 January 2007)
Corresponding author A. B. Schwartz: Department of Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, E1440 BST, 200 Lothrope Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2536, USA. Email: abs21{at}pitt.edu

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. G. Cohen and N. Birbaumer The physiology of brain-computer interfaces J. Physiol., March 15, 2007; 579(3): 570 - 570. [Full Text] [PDF]