Somatosensory cortex microstimulation modulates primary motor and premotor cortex neurons with extensive spatial convergence and divergence.

Ruszala and colleagues show that multi-channel intracortical microstimulation in a small patch of somatosensory cortex modulates neurons distributed widely in both the primary motor and premotor cortex, with more effects being inhibitory than excitatory. Such modulation may complicate decoding motor intent when artificial sensation is delivered in bidirectional brain-computer interfaces.