Brain measurements could lead to better devices to move injured or artificial limbs

Neural activity in the premotor cortex carries information about reaching and grasping. Information can be obtained from local field potentials (top left, blue signal), spikes or individual neuronal action potentials (green), and multi-unit activity (red), measuring the activity of populations of neurons. The most accurate information is obtained by combining multi-unit activity from multiple electrodes, depicted by the red-colored shadow hand of the monkey. Credit: Sandrine Alon