MOJO

MOJO framework combines masked autoencoding with supervised learning for generalizable neural population decoding

Researchers introduce MOJO (Masked autOencoder-based JOint training), a training framework that augments spike-tokenizing neural decoding models with self-supervised learning via masked autoencoding alongside supervised objectives. Evaluated on spiking datasets from monkey motor cortex and multi-regional mouse recordings, MOJO outperforms purely supervised models, with especially strong gains in few-shot and label-limited settings. The framework also generalizes to human electrocorticography during speech, achieving performance comparable to neuro-foundation models designed for continuous signals. The work advances a path toward more scalable and flexible training of neural foundation models using unlabelled data.