Even Simple Motions Make Ripples Across Brain - Neuroscience News

Summary: A simple motion like a push of a button can send ripples of activity across neurons spanning the entire brain, a new study reports.

Even a simple movement like pushing a button sends ripples of activity throughout networks of neurons spanning across the brain, new University of Oregon research shows.

“It’s really well known that the primary motor cortex controls movement output,” said Alex Rockhill, a graduate student in the lab of human physiology professor Nicki Swann.

Swann and her team are studying brain networks in humans thanks to a collaboration with Oregon Health & Science University doctors and researchers.

Their findings complement a study published in 2019 in the journal Nature, in which other researchers showed similar far-reaching brain networks related to movement in mice.

Less work has attempted to decode movement based on electrophysiological recordings from a broader array of brain areas such as those sampled by stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG), especially in humans.