Population Vector Decoding of Motor Cortex Spikes

This simulation models the core algorithm behind intracortical brain-computer interfaces: a ring of implanted electrodes records a population of cosine-tuned motor-cortex neurons, each preferring a different reach direction, firing Poisson-distributed spikes whose rate depends on how close the intended movement direction is to the neuron's preferred direction. A population-vector decoder — the same weighted-sum algorithm from the landmark Georgopoulos motor-cortex studies, and the ancestor of every modern intracortical BCI decoder — reconstructs the intended direction purely from the spike counts, letting you see in real time how electrode count, tuning strength and neural noise trade off against decode accuracy.