Mental navigation and telekinesis with a hippocampal map-based brain-machine interface

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bioRxiv. 2023 Apr 10;. doi: 10.1101/2023.04.07.536077

Mental navigation and telekinesis with a hippocampal map-based brain-machine interface Harris LabLee (Albert) Lab

Lai Chongxi, Tanaka Shinsuke, Harris Timothy, Lee Albert

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Abstract

The hippocampus is critical for recollecting and imagining experiences. This is believed to involve voluntarily drawing from hippocampal memory representations of people, events, and places, including the hippocampus’ map-like representations of familiar environments. However, whether the representations in such “cognitive maps” can be volitionally and selectively accessed is unknown. We developed a brain-machine interface to test if rats could control their hippocampal activity in a flexible, goal-directed, model-based manner. We show that rats can efficiently navigate or direct objects to arbitrary goal locations within a virtual reality arena solely by activating and sustaining appropriate hippocampal representations of remote places. This should provide insight into the mechanisms underlying episodic memory recall, mental simulation/planning, and imagination, and open up possibilities for high-level neural prosthetics utilizing hippocampal representations.

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bioRxiv PrePrint https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.07.536077

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Janelia Authors

Chongxi Lai

Shinsuke Tanaka

Tim Harris

Albert Lee

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Mental navigation and telekinesis with a hippocampal map-based brain-machine interface

Abstract

Janelia Authors