Figure 4. Cursor control was impacted by simultaneously speaking.

a. Overview of the Simultaneous Speech and Cursor Task. Each trial may or may not have a speech go cue (an auditory beep), which could occur during the move period or dwell period. b. Trial-averaged firing rates (mean ± s.e.) recorded from three example electrodes during the Simultaneous Speech and Cursor Task. Activity during cursor control alone (left and center columns) is aligned first to target presentation and then to cursor go cue, and is colored by cued target direction. Activity during simultaneous cursor control and attempted speech (right column) is aligned to speech go cue, and is colored by prompted word. Firing rates were Gaussian smoothed (std 50 ms) before trial-averaging. c. Comparison of target acquisition times in different trial conditions in the Simultaneous Speech and Cursor Task. Target acquisition times in the only condition requiring speaking were significantly longer than the other conditions (* p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001, rank-sum test, Bonferroni correction).