1
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Branam K, Gold JI, Ding L. The subthalamic nucleus contributes causally to perceptual decision-making in monkeys. eLife 2024; 13:RP98345. [PMID: 39311685 PMCID: PMC11419670 DOI: 10.7554/elife.98345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The subthalamic nucleus (STN) plays critical roles in the motor and cognitive function of the basal ganglia (BG), but the exact nature of these roles is not fully understood, especially in the context of decision-making based on uncertain evidence. Guided by theoretical predictions of specific STN contributions, we used single-unit recording and electrical microstimulation in the STN of healthy monkeys to assess its causal, computational roles in visual-saccadic decisions based on noisy evidence. The recordings identified subpopulations of STN neurons with distinct task-related activity patterns that related to different theoretically predicted functions. Microstimulation caused changes in behavioral choices and response times that reflected multiple contributions to an 'accumulate-to-bound'-like decision process, including modulation of decision bounds and evidence accumulation, and to non-perceptual processes. These results provide new insights into the multiple ways that the STN can support higher brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn Branam
- Department of Neuroscience, University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
| | - Joshua I Gold
- Department of Neuroscience, University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
| | - Long Ding
- Department of Neuroscience, University of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
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2
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Luo TZ, Kim TD, Gupta D, Bondy AG, Kopec CD, Elliot VA, DePasquale B, Brody CD. Transitions in dynamical regime and neural mode underlie perceptual decision-making. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.10.15.562427. [PMID: 37904994 PMCID: PMC10614809 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.15.562427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2023]
Abstract
Perceptual decision-making is the process by which an animal uses sensory stimuli to choose an action or mental proposition. This process is thought to be mediated by neurons organized as attractor networks 1,2 . However, whether attractor dynamics underlie decision behavior and the complex neuronal responses remains unclear. Here we use an unsupervised, deep learning-based method to discover decision-related dynamics from the simultaneous activity of neurons in frontal cortex and striatum of rats while they accumulate pulsatile auditory evidence. We found that trajectories evolved along two sequential regimes, the first dominated by sensory inputs, and the second dominated by the autonomous dynamics, with flow in a direction (i.e., "neural mode") largely orthogonal to that in the first regime. We propose that the second regime corresponds to decision commitment. We developed a simplified model that approximates the coupled transition in dynamics and neural mode and allows precise inference, from each trial's neural activity, of a putative internal decision commitment time in that trial. The simplified model captures diverse and complex single-neuron temporal profiles, such as ramping and stepping 3-5 . It also captures trial-averaged curved trajectories 6-8 , and reveals distinctions between brain regions. The putative neurally-inferred commitment times ("nTc") occurred at times broadly distributed across trials, and not time-locked to stimulus onset, offset, or response onset. Nevertheless, when trials were aligned to nTc, behavioral analysis showed that, as predicted by a decision commitment time, sensory evidence before nTc affected the subjects' decision, but evidence after nTc did not. Our results show that the formation of a perceptual choice involves a rapid, coordinated transition in both the dynamical regime and the neural mode of the decision process, and suggest the moment of commitment to be a useful entry point for dissecting mechanisms underlying rapid changes in internal state.
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3
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Rogers K, Gold JI, Ding L. The subthalamic nucleus contributes causally to perceptual decision-making in monkeys. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.09.588715. [PMID: 38645039 PMCID: PMC11030388 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.09.588715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/23/2024]
Abstract
The subthalamic nucleus (STN) plays critical roles in the motor and cognitive function of the basal ganglia (BG), but the exact nature of these roles is not fully understood, especially in the context of decision-making based on uncertain evidence. Guided by theoretical predictions of specific STN contributions, we used single-unit recording and electrical microstimulation in the STN of healthy monkeys to assess its causal, computational roles in visual-saccadic decisions based on noisy evidence. The recordings identified subpopulations of STN neurons with distinct task-related activity patterns that related to different theoretically predicted functions. Microstimulation caused changes in behavioral choices and response times that reflected multiple contributions to an "accumulate-to-bound"-like decision process, including modulation of decision bounds and evidence accumulation, and to non-perceptual processes. These results provide new insights into the multiple ways that the STN can support higher brain function.
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4
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Subramanian DL, Miller AMP, Smith DM. A comparison of hippocampal and retrosplenial cortical spatial and contextual firing patterns. Hippocampus 2024; 34:357-377. [PMID: 38770779 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Revised: 03/22/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
The hippocampus (HPC) and retrosplenial cortex (RSC) are key components of the brain's memory and navigation systems. Lesions of either region produce profound deficits in spatial cognition and HPC neurons exhibit well-known spatial firing patterns (place fields). Recent studies have also identified an array of navigation-related firing patterns in the RSC. However, there has been little work comparing the response properties and information coding mechanisms of these two brain regions. In the present study, we examined the firing patterns of HPC and RSC neurons in two tasks which are commonly used to study spatial cognition in rodents, open field foraging with an environmental context manipulation and continuous T-maze alternation. We found striking similarities in the kinds of spatial and contextual information encoded by these two brain regions. Neurons in both regions carried information about the rat's current spatial location, trajectories and goal locations, and both regions reliably differentiated the contexts. However, we also found several key differences. For example, information about head direction was a prominent component of RSC representations but was only weakly encoded in the HPC. The two regions also used different coding schemes, even when they encoded the same kind of information. As expected, the HPC employed a sparse coding scheme characterized by compact, high contrast place fields, and information about spatial location was the dominant component of HPC representations. RSC firing patterns were more consistent with a distributed coding scheme. Instead of compact place fields, RSC neurons exhibited broad, but reliable, spatial and directional tuning, and they typically carried information about multiple navigational variables. The observed similarities highlight the closely related functions of the HPC and RSC, whereas the differences in information types and coding schemes suggest that these two regions likely make somewhat different contributions to spatial cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Adam M P Miller
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
| | - David M Smith
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
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5
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Gherman S, Markowitz N, Tostaeva G, Espinal E, Mehta AD, O'Connell RG, Kelly SP, Bickel S. Intracranial electroencephalography reveals effector-independent evidence accumulation dynamics in multiple human brain regions. Nat Hum Behav 2024:10.1038/s41562-024-01824-9. [PMID: 38366105 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01824-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
Neural representations of perceptual decision formation that are abstracted from specific motor requirements have previously been identified in humans using non-invasive electrophysiology; however, it is currently unclear where these originate in the brain. Here we capitalized on the high spatiotemporal precision of intracranial EEG to localize such abstract decision signals. Participants undergoing invasive electrophysiological monitoring for epilepsy were asked to judge the direction of random-dot stimuli and respond either with a speeded button press (N = 24), or vocally, after a randomized delay (N = 12). We found a widely distributed motor-independent network of regions where high-frequency activity exhibited key characteristics consistent with evidence accumulation, including a gradual buildup that was modulated by the strength of the sensory evidence, and an amplitude that predicted participants' choice accuracy and response time. Our findings offer a new view on the brain networks governing human decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabina Gherman
- The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA.
| | - Noah Markowitz
- The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
| | - Gelana Tostaeva
- The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
| | - Elizabeth Espinal
- The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Ashesh D Mehta
- The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA
- Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA
| | - Redmond G O'Connell
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Simon P Kelly
- School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and UCD Centre for Biomedical Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Stephan Bickel
- The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY, USA.
- Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA.
- Center for Biomedical Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA.
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6
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Pusch R, Packheiser J, Azizi AH, Sevincik CS, Rose J, Cheng S, Stüttgen MC, Güntürkün O. Working memory performance is tied to stimulus complexity. Commun Biol 2023; 6:1119. [PMID: 37923920 PMCID: PMC10624839 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05486-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Working memory is the cognitive capability to maintain and process information over short periods. Behavioral and computational studies have shown that visual information is associated with working memory performance. However, the underlying neural correlates remain unknown. To identify how visual information affects working memory performance, we conducted behavioral experiments in pigeons (Columba livia) and single unit recordings in the avian prefrontal analog, the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL). Complex pictures featuring luminance, spatial and color information, were associated with higher working memory performance compared to uniform gray pictures in conjunction with distinct neural coding patterns. For complex pictures, we found a multiplexed neuronal code displaying visual and value-related features that switched to a representation of the upcoming choice during a delay period. When processing gray stimuli, NCL neurons did not multiplex and exclusively represented the choice already during stimulus presentation and throughout the delay period. The prolonged representation possibly resulted in a decay of the memory trace ultimately leading to a decrease in performance. In conclusion, we found that high stimulus complexity is associated with neuronal multiplexing of the working memory representation possibly allowing a facilitated read-out of the neural code resulting in enhancement of working memory performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roland Pusch
- Department of Biopsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780, Bochum, Germany.
| | - Julian Packheiser
- Department of Biopsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780, Bochum, Germany
- Social Brain Lab, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Amir Hossein Azizi
- Department of Systems Biology, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), Karaj, Iran
| | - Celil Semih Sevincik
- Department of Biopsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780, Bochum, Germany
| | - Jonas Rose
- Neural Basis of Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780, Bochum, Germany
| | - Sen Cheng
- Institute for Neural Computation, Faculty of Computer Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780, Bochum, Germany
| | - Maik C Stüttgen
- Institute of Pathophysiology, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Duesbergweg 6, D-55128, Mainz, Germany
| | - Onur Güntürkün
- Department of Biopsychology, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, D-44780, Bochum, Germany
- Research Center One Health Ruhr, Research Alliance Ruhr, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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7
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Boucher PO, Wang T, Carceroni L, Kane G, Shenoy KV, Chandrasekaran C. Initial conditions combine with sensory evidence to induce decision-related dynamics in premotor cortex. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6510. [PMID: 37845221 PMCID: PMC10579235 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41752-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/18/2023] Open
Abstract
We used a dynamical systems perspective to understand decision-related neural activity, a fundamentally unresolved problem. This perspective posits that time-varying neural activity is described by a state equation with an initial condition and evolves in time by combining at each time step, recurrent activity and inputs. We hypothesized various dynamical mechanisms of decisions, simulated them in models to derive predictions, and evaluated these predictions by examining firing rates of neurons in the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) of monkeys performing a perceptual decision-making task. Prestimulus neural activity (i.e., the initial condition) predicted poststimulus neural trajectories, covaried with RT and the outcome of the previous trial, but not with choice. Poststimulus dynamics depended on both the sensory evidence and initial condition, with easier stimuli and fast initial conditions leading to the fastest choice-related dynamics. Together, these results suggest that initial conditions combine with sensory evidence to induce decision-related dynamics in PMd.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre O Boucher
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, 02115, MA, USA
| | - Tian Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, 02115, MA, USA
| | - Laura Carceroni
- Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, 02115, MA, USA
| | - Gary Kane
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, 02115, MA, USA
| | - Krishna V Shenoy
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, CA, USA
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, HHMI, Chevy Chase, 20815-6789, MD, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, CA, USA
- Stanford Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, CA, USA
- Bio-X Program, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, CA, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, CA, USA
| | - Chandramouli Chandrasekaran
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, 02115, MA, USA.
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, 02115, MA, USA.
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, 02115, MA, USA.
- Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Boston University, Boston, 02118, MA, USA.
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8
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Matsumiya K, Furukawa S. Perceptual decisions interfere more with eye movements than with reach movements. Commun Biol 2023; 6:882. [PMID: 37648896 PMCID: PMC10468498 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05249-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Perceptual judgements are formed through invisible cognitive processes. Reading out these judgements is essential for advancing our understanding of decision making and requires inferring covert cognitive states based on overt motor actions. Although intuition suggests that these actions must be related to the formation of decisions about where to move body parts, actions have been reported to be influenced by perceptual judgements even when the action is irrelevant to the perceptual judgement. However, despite performing multiple actions in our daily lives, how perceptual judgements influence multiple judgement-irrelevant actions is unknown. Here we show that perceptual judgements affect only saccadic eye movements when simultaneous judgement-irrelevant saccades and reaches are made, demonstrating that perceptual judgement-related signals continuously flow into the oculomotor system alone when multiple judgement-irrelevant actions are performed. This suggests that saccades are useful for making inferences about covert perceptual decisions, even when the actions are not tied to decision making.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Shota Furukawa
- Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
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9
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Safaai H, Wang AY, Kira S, Malerba SB, Panzeri S, Harvey CD. Specialized structure of neural population codes in parietal cortex outputs. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.08.24.554635. [PMID: 37662297 PMCID: PMC10473762 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.24.554635] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Do cortical neurons that send axonal projections to the same target area form specialized population codes for transmitting information? We used calcium imaging in mouse posterior parietal cortex (PPC), retrograde labeling, and statistical multivariate models to address this question during a delayed match-to-sample task. We found that PPC broadcasts sensory, choice, and locomotion signals widely, but sensory information is enriched in the output to anterior cingulate cortex. Neurons projecting to the same area have elevated pairwise activity correlations. These correlations are structured as information-limiting and information-enhancing interaction networks that collectively enhance information levels. This network structure is unique to sub-populations projecting to the same target and strikingly absent in surrounding neural populations with unidentified projections. Furthermore, this structure is only present when mice make correct, but not incorrect, behavioral choices. Therefore, cortical neurons comprising an output pathway form uniquely structured population codes that enhance information transmission to guide accurate behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Houman Safaai
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
- Neural Computation Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
| | - Alice Y. Wang
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
| | - Shinichiro Kira
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
| | - Simone Blanco Malerba
- Department of Excellence for Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology (ZMNH), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
| | - Stefano Panzeri
- Neural Computation Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
- Department of Excellence for Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology (ZMNH), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
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10
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Vaccari FE, Diomedi S, Filippini M, Hadjidimitrakis K, Fattori P. New insights on single-neuron selectivity in the era of population-level approaches. Front Integr Neurosci 2022; 16:929052. [PMID: 36249900 PMCID: PMC9554653 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2022.929052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In the past, neuroscience was focused on individual neurons seen as the functional units of the nervous system, but this approach fell short over time to account for new experimental evidence, especially for what concerns associative and motor cortices. For this reason and thanks to great technological advances, a part of modern research has shifted the focus from the responses of single neurons to the activity of neural ensembles, now considered the real functional units of the system. However, on a microscale, individual neurons remain the computational components of these networks, thus the study of population dynamics cannot prescind from studying also individual neurons which represent their natural substrate. In this new framework, ideas such as the capability of single cells to encode a specific stimulus (neural selectivity) may become obsolete and need to be profoundly revised. One step in this direction was made by introducing the concept of “mixed selectivity,” the capacity of single cells to integrate multiple variables in a flexible way, allowing individual neurons to participate in different networks. In this review, we outline the most important features of mixed selectivity and we also present recent works demonstrating its presence in the associative areas of the posterior parietal cortex. Finally, in discussing these findings, we present some open questions that could be addressed by future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Stefano Diomedi
- Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Matteo Filippini
- Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Alma Mater Research Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- *Correspondence: Patrizia Fattori
| | | | - Patrizia Fattori
- Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Alma Mater Research Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Matteo Filippini
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11
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Lee JJ, Krumin M, Harris KD, Carandini M. Task specificity in mouse parietal cortex. Neuron 2022; 110:2961-2969.e5. [PMID: 35963238 PMCID: PMC9616730 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.07.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2020] [Revised: 01/16/2022] [Accepted: 07/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Parietal cortex is implicated in a variety of behavioral processes, but it is unknown whether and how its individual neurons participate in multiple tasks. We trained head-fixed mice to perform two visual decision tasks involving a steering wheel or a virtual T-maze and recorded from the same parietal neurons during these two tasks. Neurons that were active during the T-maze task were typically inactive during the steering-wheel task and vice versa. Recording from the same neurons in the same apparatus without task stimuli yielded the same specificity as in the task, suggesting that task specificity depends on physical context. To confirm this, we trained some mice in a third task combining the steering wheel context with the visual environment of the T-maze. This hybrid task engaged the same neurons as those engaged in the steering-wheel task. Thus, participation by neurons in mouse parietal cortex is task specific, and this specificity is determined by physical context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie J Lee
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6AE, UK.
| | - Michael Krumin
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6AE, UK
| | - Kenneth D Harris
- UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6AE, UK
| | - Matteo Carandini
- UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6AE, UK
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12
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Manneschi L, Gigante G, Vasilaki E, Del Giudice P. Signal neutrality, scalar property, and collapsing boundaries as consequences of a learned multi-timescale strategy. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1009393. [PMID: 35930590 PMCID: PMC9462745 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
We postulate that three fundamental elements underlie a decision making process: perception of time passing, information processing in multiple timescales and reward maximisation. We build a simple reinforcement learning agent upon these principles that we train on a random dot-like task. Our results, similar to the experimental data, demonstrate three emerging signatures. (1) signal neutrality: insensitivity to the signal coherence in the interval preceding the decision. (2) Scalar property: the mean of the response times varies widely for different signal coherences, yet the shape of the distributions stays almost unchanged. (3) Collapsing boundaries: the “effective” decision-making boundary changes over time in a manner reminiscent of the theoretical optimal. Removing the perception of time or the multiple timescales from the model does not preserve the distinguishing signatures. Our results suggest an alternative explanation for signal neutrality. We propose that it is not part of motor planning. It is part of the decision-making process and emerges from information processing on multiple timescales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luca Manneschi
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Guido Gigante
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
- INFN, Sezione di Roma, Rome, Italy
| | - Eleni Vasilaki
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Paolo Del Giudice
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
- INFN, Sezione di Roma, Rome, Italy
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13
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Qi Y, Gong P. Fractional neural sampling as a theory of spatiotemporal probabilistic computations in neural circuits. Nat Commun 2022; 13:4572. [PMID: 35931698 PMCID: PMC9356069 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32279-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
A range of perceptual and cognitive processes have been characterized from the perspective of probabilistic representations and inference. To understand the neural circuit mechanism underlying these probabilistic computations, we develop a theory based on complex spatiotemporal dynamics of neural population activity. We first implement and explore this theory in a biophysically realistic, spiking neural circuit. Population activity patterns emerging from the circuit capture realistic variability or fluctuations of neural dynamics both in time and in space. These activity patterns implement a type of probabilistic computations that we name fractional neural sampling (FNS). We further develop a mathematical model to reveal the algorithmic nature of FNS and its computational advantages for representing multimodal distributions, a major challenge faced by existing theories. We demonstrate that FNS provides a unified account of a diversity of experimental observations of neural spatiotemporal dynamics and perceptual processes such as visual perception inference, and that FNS makes experimentally testable predictions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Qi
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia
- Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China
- Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
- MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China
| | - Pulin Gong
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
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14
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Suda Y, Uka T. The NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine impairs and delays context-dependent decision making in the parietal cortex. Commun Biol 2022; 5:690. [PMID: 35858997 PMCID: PMC9300646 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03626-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Flexible decision making is an indispensable ability for humans. A subanesthetic dose of ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, impairs this flexibility in a manner that is similar to patients with schizophrenia; however how it affects neural processes related to decision making remains unclear. Here, we report that ketamine administration impairs neural processing related to context-dependent decision making, and delays the onset of decision making. We recorded single unit activity in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) while monkeys switched between a direction-discrimination task and a depth-discrimination task. Ketamine impaired choice accuracy for incongruent stimuli that required different decisions depending on the task, for the direction-discrimination task. Neural sensitivity to irrelevant depth information increased with ketamine during direction discrimination in LIP, indicating impaired processing of irrelevant information. Furthermore, the onset of decision-related neural activity was delayed in conjunction with an increased reaction time irrespective of task and stimulus congruency. Neural sensitivity and response onset of the middle temporal area (MT) were not modulated by ketamine, indicating that ketamine worked on neural decision processes downstream of MT. These results suggest that ketamine administration may impair what information to process and when to process it for the purpose of achieving flexible decision making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuki Suda
- Department of Integrative Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Chuo, Yamanashi, 409-3898, Japan.,Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, 6-1-1 Tamagawagakuen, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan.,Department of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Juntendo University, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan
| | - Takanori Uka
- Department of Integrative Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Chuo, Yamanashi, 409-3898, Japan. .,Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, 6-1-1 Tamagawagakuen, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan. .,Department of Neurophysiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Juntendo University, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan.
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15
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Derosiere G, Thura D, Cisek P, Duque J. Hasty sensorimotor decisions rely on an overlap of broad and selective changes in motor activity. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001598. [PMID: 35389982 PMCID: PMC9017893 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2021] [Revised: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 03/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans and other animals are able to adjust their speed–accuracy trade-off (SAT) at will depending on the urge to act, favoring either cautious or hasty decision policies in different contexts. An emerging view is that SAT regulation relies on influences exerting broad changes on the motor system, tuning its activity up globally when hastiness is at premium. The present study aimed to test this hypothesis. A total of 50 participants performed a task involving choices between left and right index fingers, in which incorrect choices led either to a high or to a low penalty in 2 contexts, inciting them to emphasize either cautious or hasty policies. We applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on multiple motor representations, eliciting motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in 9 finger and leg muscles. MEP amplitudes allowed us to probe activity changes in the corresponding finger and leg representations, while participants were deliberating about which index to choose. Our data indicate that hastiness entails a broad amplification of motor activity, although this amplification was limited to the chosen side. On top of this effect, we identified a local suppression of motor activity, surrounding the chosen index representation. Hence, a decision policy favoring speed over accuracy appears to rely on overlapping processes producing a broad (but not global) amplification and a surround suppression of motor activity. The latter effect may help to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the chosen representation, as supported by single-trial correlation analyses indicating a stronger differentiation of activity changes in finger representations in the hasty context. Many have argued that the regulation of the speed-accuracy tradeoff relies on an urgency signal, which implements "collapsing decision thresholds" by tuning neural activity in a global manner in decision-related structures. This study indicates that the reality is more subtle, with several aspects of "urgency" being specifically targeted to particular corticospinal populations within the motor system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerard Derosiere
- Institute of Neuroscience, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
- * E-mail:
| | - David Thura
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center–Impact Team, Inserm U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon 1 University, Bron, France
| | - Paul Cisek
- Department of Neuroscience, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
| | - Julie Duque
- Institute of Neuroscience, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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16
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Lisi M, Morgan MJ, Solomon JA. Perceptual decisions and oculomotor responses rely on temporally distinct streams of evidence. Commun Biol 2022; 5:189. [PMID: 35233079 PMCID: PMC8888581 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03141-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2020] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Perceptual decisions often require the integration of noisy sensory evidence over time. This process is formalized with sequential sampling models, where evidence is accumulated up to a decision threshold before a choice is made. Although intuition suggests that decision formation must precede the preparation of a motor response (i.e., the action used to communicate the choice), neurophysiological findings have suggested that these two processes might be one and the same. To test this idea, we developed a reverse-correlation protocol in which the visual stimuli that influence decisions can be distinguished from those guiding motor responses. In three experiments, we found that the temporal weighting function of oculomotor responses did not overlap with the relatively early weighting function of stimulus properties having an impact on decision formation. These results support a timeline in which perceptual decisions are formed, at least in part, prior to the preparation of a motor response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Lisi
- Centre for Applied Vision Research, City, University of London, London, UK.
- Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK.
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK.
| | - Michael J Morgan
- Centre for Applied Vision Research, City, University of London, London, UK
| | - Joshua A Solomon
- Centre for Applied Vision Research, City, University of London, London, UK.
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17
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Gupta A, Bansal R, Alashwal H, Kacar AS, Balci F, Moustafa AA. Neural Substrates of the Drift-Diffusion Model in Brain Disorders. Front Comput Neurosci 2022; 15:678232. [PMID: 35069160 PMCID: PMC8776710 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2021.678232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2021] [Accepted: 11/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Many studies on the drift-diffusion model (DDM) explain decision-making based on a unified analysis of both accuracy and response times. This review provides an in-depth account of the recent advances in DDM research which ground different DDM parameters on several brain areas, including the cortex and basal ganglia. Furthermore, we discuss the changes in DDM parameters due to structural and functional impairments in several clinical disorders, including Parkinson's disease, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and schizophrenia. This review thus uses DDM to provide a theoretical understanding of different brain disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ankur Gupta
- CNRS UMR 5293, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
| | - Rohini Bansal
- Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Hany Alashwal
- College of Information Technology, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
- *Correspondence: Hany Alashwal
| | - Anil Safak Kacar
- Research Center for Translational Medicine (KUTTAM), Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Fuat Balci
- Research Center for Translational Medicine (KUTTAM), Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
| | - Ahmed A. Moustafa
- School of Psychology & Marcs Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- School of Psychology, Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University, Robina, QLD, Australia
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Human Anatomy and Physiology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
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18
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BDNF Val66Met gene polymorphism modulates brain activity following rTMS-induced memory impairment. Sci Rep 2022; 12:176. [PMID: 34997117 PMCID: PMC8741781 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-04175-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The BDNF Val66Met gene polymorphism is a relevant factor explaining inter-individual differences to TMS responses in studies of the motor system. However, whether this variant also contributes to TMS-induced memory effects, as well as their underlying brain mechanisms, remains unexplored. In this investigation, we applied rTMS during encoding of a visual memory task either over the left frontal cortex (LFC; experimental condition) or the cranial vertex (control condition). Subsequently, individuals underwent a recognition memory phase during a functional MRI acquisition. We included 43 young volunteers and classified them as 19 Met allele carriers and 24 as Val/Val individuals. The results revealed that rTMS delivered over LFC compared to vertex stimulation resulted in reduced memory performance only amongst Val/Val allele carriers. This genetic group also exhibited greater fMRI brain activity during memory recognition, mainly over frontal regions, which was positively associated with cognitive performance. We concluded that BDNF Val66Met gene polymorphism, known to exert a significant effect on neuroplasticity, modulates the impact of rTMS both at the cognitive as well as at the associated brain networks expression levels. This data provides new insights on the brain mechanisms explaining cognitive inter-individual differences to TMS, and may inform future, more individually-tailored rTMS interventions.
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19
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Urai AE, Doiron B, Leifer AM, Churchland AK. Large-scale neural recordings call for new insights to link brain and behavior. Nat Neurosci 2022; 25:11-19. [PMID: 34980926 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-021-00980-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 43.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2020] [Accepted: 11/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Neuroscientists today can measure activity from more neurons than ever before, and are facing the challenge of connecting these brain-wide neural recordings to computation and behavior. In the present review, we first describe emerging tools and technologies being used to probe large-scale brain activity and new approaches to characterize behavior in the context of such measurements. We next highlight insights obtained from large-scale neural recordings in diverse model systems, and argue that some of these pose a challenge to traditional theoretical frameworks. Finally, we elaborate on existing modeling frameworks to interpret these data, and argue that the interpretation of brain-wide neural recordings calls for new theoretical approaches that may depend on the desired level of understanding. These advances in both neural recordings and theory development will pave the way for critical advances in our understanding of the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne E Urai
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA.,Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | | | | | - Anne K Churchland
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA. .,University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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20
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Zheng Q, Zhou L, Gu Y. Temporal synchrony effects of optic flow and vestibular inputs on multisensory heading perception. Cell Rep 2021; 37:109999. [PMID: 34788608 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109999] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2020] [Revised: 08/21/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Precise heading perception requires integration of optic flow and vestibular cues, yet the two cues often carry distinct temporal dynamics that may confound cue integration benefit. Here, we varied temporal offset between the two sensory inputs while macaques discriminated headings around straight ahead. We find the best heading performance does not occur under natural condition of synchronous inputs with zero offset but rather when visual stimuli are artificially adjusted to lead vestibular by a few hundreds of milliseconds. This amount exactly matches the lag between the vestibular acceleration and visual speed signals as measured from single-unit-activity in frontal and posterior parietal cortices. Manually aligning cues in these areas best facilitates integration with some nonlinear gain modulation effects. These findings are consistent with predictions from a model by which the brain integrates optic flow speed with a faster vestibular acceleration signal for sensing instantaneous heading direction during self-motion in the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qihao Zheng
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031 Shanghai, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049 Beijing, China
| | - Luxin Zhou
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031 Shanghai, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049 Beijing, China
| | - Yong Gu
- CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031 Shanghai, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049 Beijing, China; Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, 201210 Shanghai, China.
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21
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D'Souza JF, Price NSC, Hagan MA. Marmosets: a promising model for probing the neural mechanisms underlying complex visual networks such as the frontal-parietal network. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 226:3007-3022. [PMID: 34518902 PMCID: PMC8541938 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02367-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
The technology, methodology and models used by visual neuroscientists have provided great insights into the structure and function of individual brain areas. However, complex cognitive functions arise in the brain due to networks comprising multiple interacting cortical areas that are wired together with precise anatomical connections. A prime example of this phenomenon is the frontal–parietal network and two key regions within it: the frontal eye fields (FEF) and lateral intraparietal area (area LIP). Activity in these cortical areas has independently been tied to oculomotor control, motor preparation, visual attention and decision-making. Strong, bidirectional anatomical connections have also been traced between FEF and area LIP, suggesting that the aforementioned visual functions depend on these inter-area interactions. However, advancements in our knowledge about the interactions between area LIP and FEF are limited with the main animal model, the rhesus macaque, because these key regions are buried in the sulci of the brain. In this review, we propose that the common marmoset is the ideal model for investigating how anatomical connections give rise to functionally-complex cognitive visual behaviours, such as those modulated by the frontal–parietal network, because of the homology of their cortical networks with humans and macaques, amenability to transgenic technology, and rich behavioural repertoire. Furthermore, the lissencephalic structure of the marmoset brain enables application of powerful techniques, such as array-based electrophysiology and optogenetics, which are critical to bridge the gaps in our knowledge about structure and function in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joanita F D'Souza
- Department of Physiology and Neuroscience Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, 26 Innovation Walk, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia.,Australian Research Council, Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Monash University Node, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia
| | - Nicholas S C Price
- Department of Physiology and Neuroscience Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, 26 Innovation Walk, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia.,Australian Research Council, Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Monash University Node, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia
| | - Maureen A Hagan
- Department of Physiology and Neuroscience Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, 26 Innovation Walk, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia. .,Australian Research Council, Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Monash University Node, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia.
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22
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Lee EK, Balasubramanian H, Tsolias A, Anakwe SU, Medalla M, Shenoy KV, Chandrasekaran C. Non-linear dimensionality reduction on extracellular waveforms reveals cell type diversity in premotor cortex. eLife 2021; 10:e67490. [PMID: 34355695 PMCID: PMC8452311 DOI: 10.7554/elife.67490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cortical circuits are thought to contain a large number of cell types that coordinate to produce behavior. Current in vivo methods rely on clustering of specified features of extracellular waveforms to identify putative cell types, but these capture only a small amount of variation. Here, we develop a new method (WaveMAP) that combines non-linear dimensionality reduction with graph clustering to identify putative cell types. We apply WaveMAP to extracellular waveforms recorded from dorsal premotor cortex of macaque monkeys performing a decision-making task. Using WaveMAP, we robustly establish eight waveform clusters and show that these clusters recapitulate previously identified narrow- and broad-spiking types while revealing previously unknown diversity within these subtypes. The eight clusters exhibited distinct laminar distributions, characteristic firing rate patterns, and decision-related dynamics. Such insights were weaker when using feature-based approaches. WaveMAP therefore provides a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of cell types in cortical circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Kenji Lee
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston UniversityBostonUnited States
| | - Hymavathy Balasubramanian
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Bernstein Center for Computational NeuroscienceBerlinGermany
| | - Alexandra Tsolias
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston UniversityBostonUnited States
| | | | - Maria Medalla
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston UniversityBostonUnited States
| | - Krishna V Shenoy
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
- Bio-X Institute, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford UniversityStanfordUnited States
| | - Chandramouli Chandrasekaran
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston UniversityBostonUnited States
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston UniversityBostonUnited States
- Center for Systems Neuroscience, Boston UniversityBostonUnited States
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston UniversityBostonUnited States
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23
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Derosiere G, Thura D, Cisek P, Duque J. Trading accuracy for speed over the course of a decision. J Neurophysiol 2021; 126:361-372. [PMID: 34191623 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00038.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans and other animals often need to balance the desire to gather sensory information (to make the best choice) with the urgency to act, facing a speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT). Given the ubiquity of SAT across species, extensive research has been devoted to understanding the computational mechanisms allowing its regulation at different timescales, including from one context to another, and from one decision to another. However, animals must frequently change their SAT on even shorter timescales-that is, over the course of an ongoing decision-and little is known about the mechanisms that allow such rapid adaptations. The present study aimed at addressing this issue. Human subjects performed a decision task with changing evidence. In this task, subjects received rewards for correct answers but incurred penalties for mistakes. An increase or a decrease in penalty occurring halfway through the trial promoted rapid SAT shifts, favoring speeded decisions either in the early or in the late stage of the trial. Importantly, these shifts were associated with stage-specific adjustments in the accuracy criterion exploited for committing to a choice. Those subjects who decreased the most their accuracy criterion at a given decision stage exhibited the highest gain in speed, but also the highest cost in terms of performance accuracy at that time. Altogether, the current findings offer a unique extension of previous work, by suggesting that dynamic cha*nges in accuracy criterion allow the regulation of the SAT within the timescale of a single decision.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Extensive research has been devoted to understanding the mechanisms allowing the regulation of the speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) from one context to another and from one decision to another. Here, we show that humans can voluntarily change their SAT on even shorter timescales-that is, over the course of a decision. These rapid SAT shifts are associated with dynamic adjustments in the accuracy criterion exploited for committing to a choice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerard Derosiere
- Institute of Neuroscience, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - David Thura
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Lyon 1 University, Bron, France
| | - Paul Cisek
- Department of Neuroscience, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Julie Duque
- Institute of Neuroscience, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
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24
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Abstract
Cognition can be defined as computation over meaningful representations in the brain to produce adaptive behaviour. There are two views on the relationship between cognition and the brain that are largely implicit in the literature. The Sherringtonian view seeks to explain cognition as the result of operations on signals performed at nodes in a network and passed between them that are implemented by specific neurons and their connections in circuits in the brain. The contrasting Hopfieldian view explains cognition as the result of transformations between or movement within representational spaces that are implemented by neural populations. Thus, the Hopfieldian view relegates details regarding the identity of and connections between specific neurons to the status of secondary explainers. Only the Hopfieldian approach has the representational and computational resources needed to develop novel neurofunctional objects that can serve as primary explainers of cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- David L Barack
- Department of Philosopy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. .,Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - John W Krakauer
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. .,Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. .,Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. .,The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
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25
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Ledergerber D, Battistin C, Blackstad JS, Gardner RJ, Witter MP, Moser MB, Roudi Y, Moser EI. Task-dependent mixed selectivity in the subiculum. Cell Rep 2021; 35:109175. [PMID: 34038726 PMCID: PMC8170370 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2020] [Revised: 01/25/2021] [Accepted: 05/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
CA1 and subiculum (SUB) connect the hippocampus to numerous output regions. Cells in both areas have place-specific firing fields, although they are more dispersed in SUB. Weak responses to head direction and running speed have been reported in both regions. However, how such information is encoded in CA1 and SUB and the resulting impact on downstream targets are poorly understood. Here, we estimate the tuning of simultaneously recorded CA1 and SUB cells to position, head direction, and speed. Individual neurons respond conjunctively to these covariates in both regions, but the degree of mixed representation is stronger in SUB, and more so during goal-directed spatial navigation than free foraging. Each navigational variable could be decoded with higher precision, from a similar number of neurons, in SUB than CA1. The findings point to a possible contribution of mixed-selective coding in SUB to efficient transmission of hippocampal representations to widespread brain regions. CA1 and subiculum neurons respond conjunctively to position, head direction, and speed The degree of conjunctive coding (“mixed selectivity”) is stronger in the subiculum Mixed selectivity is stronger during goal-directed navigation than in free foraging Decoding of each navigational covariate is more accurate with mixed selectivity
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Affiliation(s)
- Debora Ledergerber
- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrre s gate 9, MTFS, 7489 Trondheim, Norway.
| | - Claudia Battistin
- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrre s gate 9, MTFS, 7489 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Jan Sigurd Blackstad
- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrre s gate 9, MTFS, 7489 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Richard J Gardner
- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrre s gate 9, MTFS, 7489 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Menno P Witter
- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrre s gate 9, MTFS, 7489 Trondheim, Norway
| | - May-Britt Moser
- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrre s gate 9, MTFS, 7489 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Yasser Roudi
- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrre s gate 9, MTFS, 7489 Trondheim, Norway.
| | - Edvard I Moser
- Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Olav Kyrre s gate 9, MTFS, 7489 Trondheim, Norway.
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26
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Cavanagh SE, Hunt LT, Kennerley SW. A Diversity of Intrinsic Timescales Underlie Neural Computations. Front Neural Circuits 2020; 14:615626. [PMID: 33408616 PMCID: PMC7779632 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2020.615626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2020] [Accepted: 11/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Neural processing occurs across a range of temporal scales. To facilitate this, the brain uses fast-changing representations reflecting momentary sensory input alongside more temporally extended representations, which integrate across both short and long temporal windows. The temporal flexibility of these representations allows animals to behave adaptively. Short temporal windows facilitate adaptive responding in dynamic environments, while longer temporal windows promote the gradual integration of information across time. In the cognitive and motor domains, the brain sets overarching goals to be achieved within a long temporal window, which must be broken down into sequences of actions and precise movement control processed across much shorter temporal windows. Previous human neuroimaging studies and large-scale artificial network models have ascribed different processing timescales to different cortical regions, linking this to each region's position in an anatomical hierarchy determined by patterns of inter-regional connectivity. However, even within cortical regions, there is variability in responses when studied with single-neuron electrophysiology. Here, we review a series of recent electrophysiology experiments that demonstrate the heterogeneity of temporal receptive fields at the level of single neurons within a cortical region. This heterogeneity appears functionally relevant for the computations that neurons perform during decision-making and working memory. We consider anatomical and biophysical mechanisms that may give rise to a heterogeneity of timescales, including recurrent connectivity, cortical layer distribution, and neurotransmitter receptor expression. Finally, we reflect on the computational relevance of each brain region possessing a heterogeneity of neuronal timescales. We argue that this architecture is of particular importance for sensory, motor, and cognitive computations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean E. Cavanagh
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Laurence T. Hunt
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Max Planck-UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Aging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychiatry, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Steven W. Kennerley
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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27
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Fan Y, Gold JI, Ding L. Frontal eye field and caudate neurons make different contributions to reward-biased perceptual decisions. eLife 2020; 9:60535. [PMID: 33245044 PMCID: PMC7695458 DOI: 10.7554/elife.60535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2020] [Accepted: 11/18/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Many decisions require trade-offs between sensory evidence and internal preferences. Potential neural substrates include the frontal eye field (FEF) and caudate nucleus, but their distinct roles are not understood. Previously we showed that monkeys’ decisions on a direction-discrimination task with asymmetric rewards reflected a biased accumulate-to-bound decision process (Fan et al., 2018) that was affected by caudate microstimulation (Doi et al., 2020). Here we compared single-neuron activity in FEF and caudate to each other and to accumulate-to-bound model predictions derived from behavior. Task-dependent neural modulations were similar in both regions. However, choice-selective neurons in FEF, but not caudate, encoded behaviorally derived biases in the accumulation process. Baseline activity in both regions was sensitive to reward context, but this sensitivity was not reliably associated with behavioral biases. These results imply distinct contributions of FEF and caudate neurons to reward-biased decision-making and put experimental constraints on the neural implementation of accumulation-to-bound-like computations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunshu Fan
- Department of Neuroscience and Neuroscience Graduate Group, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Joshua I Gold
- Department of Neuroscience and Neuroscience Graduate Group, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Long Ding
- Department of Neuroscience and Neuroscience Graduate Group, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
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28
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Cone JJ, Bade ML, Masse NY, Page EA, Freedman DJ, Maunsell JHR. Mice Preferentially Use Increases in Cerebral Cortex Spiking to Detect Changes in Visual Stimuli. J Neurosci 2020; 40:7902-7920. [PMID: 32917791 PMCID: PMC7548699 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1124-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2020] [Revised: 07/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Whenever the retinal image changes, some neurons in visual cortex increase their rate of firing whereas others decrease their rate of firing. Linking specific sets of neuronal responses with perception and behavior is essential for understanding mechanisms of neural circuit computation. We trained mice of both sexes to perform visual detection tasks and used optogenetic perturbations to increase or decrease neuronal spiking primary visual cortex (V1). Perceptual reports were always enhanced by increments in V1 spike counts and impaired by decrements, even when increments and decrements in spiking were generated in the same neuronal populations. Moreover, detecting changes in cortical activity depended on spike count integration rather than instantaneous changes in spiking. Recurrent neural networks trained in the task similarly relied on increments in neuronal activity when activity has costs. This work clarifies neuronal decoding strategies used by cerebral cortex to translate cortical spiking into percepts that can be used to guide behavior.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Visual responses in the primary visual cortex (V1) are diverse, in that neurons can be either excited or inhibited by the onset of a visual stimulus. We selectively potentiated or suppressed V1 spiking in mice while they performed contrast change detection tasks. In other experiments, excitation or inhibition was delivered to V1 independent of visual stimuli. Mice readily detected increases in V1 spiking while equivalent reductions in V1 spiking suppressed the probability of detection, even when increases and decreases in V1 spiking were generated in the same neuronal populations. Our data raise the striking possibility that only increments in spiking are used to render information to structures downstream of V1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jackson J Cone
- Department of Neurobiology and Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
| | - Morgan L Bade
- Department of Neurobiology and Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
| | - Nicolas Y Masse
- Department of Neurobiology and Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
| | - Elizabeth A Page
- Department of Neurobiology and Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
| | - David J Freedman
- Department of Neurobiology and Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
| | - John H R Maunsell
- Department of Neurobiology and Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
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29
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Prefrontal cortex exhibits multidimensional dynamic encoding during decision-making. Nat Neurosci 2020; 23:1410-1420. [PMID: 33020653 PMCID: PMC7610668 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0696-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2018] [Accepted: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Recent work has suggested that prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in context-dependent perceptual decision-making. Here we address that role using a new method for identifying task-relevant dimensions of neural population activity. Specifically, we show that PFC has a multi-dimensional code for context, decisions, and both relevant and irrelevant sensory information. Moreover, these representations evolve in time, with an early linear accumulation phase followed by a phase with rotational dynamics. We identify the dimensions of neural activity associated with these phases, and show that they do not arise from distinct populations, but of a single population with broad tuning characteristics. Finally, we use model-based decoding to show that the transition from linear to rotational dynamics coincides with a plateau in decoding accuracy, revealing that rotational dynamics in PFC preserve sensory choice information for the duration of the stimulus integration period.
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30
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Filippini M, Morris AP, Breveglieri R, Hadjidimitrakis K, Fattori P. Decoding of standard and non-standard visuomotor associations from parietal cortex. J Neural Eng 2020; 17:046027. [PMID: 32698164 DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/aba87e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Neural signals can be decoded and used to move neural prostheses with the purpose of restoring motor function in patients with mobility impairments. Such patients typically have intact eye movement control and visual function, suggesting that cortical visuospatial signals could be used to guide external devices. Neurons in parietal cortex mediate sensory-motor transformations, encode the spatial coordinates for reaching goals, hand position and movements, and other spatial variables. We studied how spatial information is represented at the population level, and the possibility to decode not only the position of visual targets and the plans to reach them, but also conditional, non-spatial motor responses. APPROACH The animals first fixated one of nine targets in 3D space and then, after the target changed color, either reached toward it, or performed a non-spatial motor response (lift hand from a button). Spiking activity of parietal neurons was recorded in monkeys during two tasks. We then decoded different task related parameters. MAIN RESULTS We first show that a maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm trained separately in each task transformed neural activity into accurate metric predictions of target location. Furthermore, by combining MLE with a Naïve Bayes classifier, we decoded the monkey's motor intention (reach or hand lift) and the different phases of the tasks. These results show that, although V6A encodes the spatial location of a target during a delay period, the signals they carry are updated around the movement execution in an intention/motor specific way. SIGNIFICANCE These findings show the presence of multiple levels of information in parietal cortex that could be decoded and used in brain machine interfaces to control both goal-directed movements and more cognitive visuomotor associations.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Filippini
- Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Piazza di Porta San Donato 2, Bologna 40126, Italy. ALMA-AI: Alma Mater Research Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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31
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Dynamic coordination of the perirhinal cortical neurons supports coherent representations between task epochs. Commun Biol 2020; 3:406. [PMID: 32733065 PMCID: PMC7393175 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-01129-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Accepted: 07/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Cortical neurons show distinct firing patterns across multiple task epochs characterized by different computations. Recent studies suggest that such distinct patterns underlie dynamic population code achieving computational flexibility, whereas neurons in some cortical areas often show coherent firing patterns across epochs. To understand how coherent single-neuron code contributes to dynamic population code, we analyzed neural responses in the rat perirhinal cortex (PRC) during cue and reward epochs of a two-alternative forced-choice task. We found that the PRC neurons often encoded the opposite choice directions between those epochs. By using principal component analysis as a population-level analysis, we identified neural subspaces associated with each epoch, which reflected coordination across the neurons. The cue and reward epochs shared neural dimensions where the choice directions were consistently discriminated. Interestingly, those dimensions were supported by dynamically changing contributions of the individual neurons. These results demonstrated heterogeneity of coherent single-neuron representations in their contributions to population code.
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32
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Ter Wal M, Platonov A, Cardellicchio P, Pelliccia V, LoRusso G, Sartori I, Avanzini P, Orban GA, Tiesinga PHE. Human stereoEEG recordings reveal network dynamics of decision-making in a rule-switching task. Nat Commun 2020; 11:3075. [PMID: 32555174 PMCID: PMC7300004 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16854-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2019] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
The processing steps that lead up to a decision, i.e., the transformation of sensory evidence into motor output, are not fully understood. Here, we combine stereoEEG recordings from the human cortex, with single-lead and time-resolved decoding, using a wide range of temporal frequencies, to characterize decision processing during a rule-switching task. Our data reveal the contribution of rostral inferior parietal lobule (IPL) regions, in particular PFt, and the parietal opercular regions in decision processing and demonstrate that the network representing the decision is common to both task rules. We reconstruct the sequence in which regions engage in decision processing on single trials, thereby providing a detailed picture of the network dynamics involved in decision-making. The reconstructed timeline suggests that the supramarginal gyrus in IPL links decision regions in prefrontal cortex with premotor regions, where the motor plan for the response is elaborated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marije Ter Wal
- Department of Neuroinformatics, Donders Institute, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT, UK.
| | - Artem Platonov
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Volturno 39E, 43125, Parma, Italy
| | - Pasquale Cardellicchio
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Volturno 39E, 43125, Parma, Italy
| | - Veronica Pelliccia
- Claudio Munari Center for Epilepsy Surgery, Niguarda Hospital, Ospedale Ca'Granda Niguarda, Piazza dell'Ospedale Maggiore, 3, 20162, Milan, Italy
| | - Giorgio LoRusso
- Claudio Munari Center for Epilepsy Surgery, Niguarda Hospital, Ospedale Ca'Granda Niguarda, Piazza dell'Ospedale Maggiore, 3, 20162, Milan, Italy
| | - Ivana Sartori
- Claudio Munari Center for Epilepsy Surgery, Niguarda Hospital, Ospedale Ca'Granda Niguarda, Piazza dell'Ospedale Maggiore, 3, 20162, Milan, Italy
| | - Pietro Avanzini
- Institute of Neuroscience, CNR, via Volturno 39E, 43125, Parma, Italy
| | - Guy A Orban
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Volturno 39E, 43125, Parma, Italy
| | - Paul H E Tiesinga
- Department of Neuroinformatics, Donders Institute, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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33
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Bharmauria V, Sajad A, Li J, Yan X, Wang H, Crawford JD. Integration of Eye-Centered and Landmark-Centered Codes in Frontal Eye Field Gaze Responses. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:4995-5013. [PMID: 32390052 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2019] [Revised: 02/07/2020] [Accepted: 03/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The visual system is thought to separate egocentric and allocentric representations, but behavioral experiments show that these codes are optimally integrated to influence goal-directed movements. To test if frontal cortex participates in this integration, we recorded primate frontal eye field activity during a cue-conflict memory delay saccade task. To dissociate egocentric and allocentric coordinates, we surreptitiously shifted a visual landmark during the delay period, causing saccades to deviate by 37% in the same direction. To assess the cellular mechanisms, we fit neural response fields against an egocentric (eye-centered target-to-gaze) continuum, and an allocentric shift (eye-to-landmark-centered) continuum. Initial visual responses best-fit target position. Motor responses (after the landmark shift) predicted future gaze position but embedded within the motor code was a 29% shift toward allocentric coordinates. This shift appeared transiently in memory-related visuomotor activity, and then reappeared in motor activity before saccades. Notably, fits along the egocentric and allocentric shift continua were initially independent, but became correlated across neurons just before the motor burst. Overall, these results implicate frontal cortex in the integration of egocentric and allocentric visual information for goal-directed action, and demonstrate the cell-specific, temporal progression of signal multiplexing for this process in the gaze system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vishal Bharmauria
- Centre for Vision Research and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) Program, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
| | - Amirsaman Sajad
- Centre for Vision Research and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) Program, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3.,Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
| | - Jirui Li
- Centre for Vision Research and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) Program, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
| | - Xiaogang Yan
- Centre for Vision Research and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) Program, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
| | - Hongying Wang
- Centre for Vision Research and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) Program, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
| | - John Douglas Crawford
- Centre for Vision Research and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) Program, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3.,Departments of Psychology, Biology and Kinesiology & Health Sciences, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
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34
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Hart E, Huk AC. Recurrent circuit dynamics underlie persistent activity in the macaque frontoparietal network. eLife 2020; 9:e52460. [PMID: 32379044 PMCID: PMC7205463 DOI: 10.7554/elife.52460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2019] [Accepted: 04/23/2020] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
During delayed oculomotor response tasks, neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) and the frontal eye fields (FEF) exhibit persistent activity that reflects the active maintenance of behaviorally relevant information. Despite many computational models of the mechanisms of persistent activity, there is a lack of circuit-level data from the primate to inform the theories. To fill this gap, we simultaneously recorded ensembles of neurons in both LIP and FEF while macaques performed a memory-guided saccade task. A population encoding model revealed strong and symmetric long-timescale recurrent excitation between LIP and FEF. Unexpectedly, LIP exhibited stronger local functional connectivity than FEF, and many neurons in LIP had longer network and intrinsic timescales. The differences in connectivity could be explained by the strength of recurrent dynamics in attractor networks. These findings reveal reciprocal multi-area circuit dynamics in the frontoparietal network during persistent activity and lay the groundwork for quantitative comparisons to theoretical models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Hart
- Center for Perceptual Systems, Department of Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at AustinAustinUnited States
| | - Alexander C Huk
- Center for Perceptual Systems, Department of Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at AustinAustinUnited States
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35
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Bitzer S, Park H, Maess B, von Kriegstein K, Kiebel SJ. Representation of Perceptual Evidence in the Human Brain Assessed by Fast, Within-Trial Dynamic Stimuli. Front Hum Neurosci 2020; 14:9. [PMID: 32116600 PMCID: PMC7010639 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.00009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2019] [Accepted: 01/13/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
In perceptual decision making the brain extracts and accumulates decision evidence from a stimulus over time and eventually makes a decision based on the accumulated evidence. Several characteristics of this process have been observed in human electrophysiological experiments, especially an average build-up of motor-related signals supposedly reflecting accumulated evidence, when averaged across trials. Another recently established approach to investigate the representation of decision evidence in brain signals is to correlate the within-trial fluctuations of decision evidence with the measured signals. We here report results of this approach for a two-alternative forced choice reaction time experiment measured using magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings. Our results show: (1) that decision evidence is most strongly represented in the MEG signals in three consecutive phases and (2) that posterior cingulate cortex is involved most consistently, among all brain areas, in all three of the identified phases. As most previous work on perceptual decision making in the brain has focused on parietal and motor areas, our findings therefore suggest that the role of the posterior cingulate cortex in perceptual decision making may be currently underestimated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Bitzer
- Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Hame Park
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.,Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Burkhard Maess
- Brain Networks Group, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Katharina von Kriegstein
- Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.,Max Planck Research Group Neural Mechanisms of Human Communication, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Stefan J Kiebel
- Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
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36
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Hou H, Zheng Q, Zhao Y, Pouget A, Gu Y. Neural Correlates of Optimal Multisensory Decision Making under Time-Varying Reliabilities with an Invariant Linear Probabilistic Population Code. Neuron 2019; 104:1010-1021.e10. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.08.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2019] [Revised: 07/21/2019] [Accepted: 08/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
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37
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Schall JD. Accumulators, Neurons, and Response Time. Trends Neurosci 2019; 42:848-860. [PMID: 31704180 PMCID: PMC6981279 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2019.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2019] [Revised: 10/02/2019] [Accepted: 10/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The marriage of cognitive neurophysiology and mathematical psychology to understand decision-making has been exceptionally productive. This interdisciplinary area is based on the proposition that particular neurons or circuits instantiate the accumulation of evidence specified by mathematical models of sequential sampling and stochastic accumulation. This linking proposition has earned widespread endorsement. Here, a brief survey of the history of the proposition precedes a review of multiple conundrums and paradoxes concerning the accuracy, precision, and transparency of that linking proposition. Correctly establishing how abstract models of decision-making are instantiated by particular neural circuits would represent a remarkable accomplishment in mapping mind to brain. Failing would reveal challenging limits for cognitive neuroscience. This is such a vigorous area of research because so much is at stake.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey D Schall
- Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, and Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA.
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38
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Remington ED, Narain D, Hosseini EA, Jazayeri M. Flexible Sensorimotor Computations through Rapid Reconfiguration of Cortical Dynamics. Neuron 2019; 98:1005-1019.e5. [PMID: 29879384 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.05.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 154] [Impact Index Per Article: 30.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2017] [Revised: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 05/11/2018] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Neural mechanisms that support flexible sensorimotor computations are not well understood. In a dynamical system whose state is determined by interactions among neurons, computations can be rapidly reconfigured by controlling the system's inputs and initial conditions. To investigate whether the brain employs such control mechanisms, we recorded from the dorsomedial frontal cortex of monkeys trained to measure and produce time intervals in two sensorimotor contexts. The geometry of neural trajectories during the production epoch was consistent with a mechanism wherein the measured interval and sensorimotor context exerted control over cortical dynamics by adjusting the system's initial condition and input, respectively. These adjustments, in turn, set the speed at which activity evolved in the production epoch, allowing the animal to flexibly produce different time intervals. These results provide evidence that the language of dynamical systems can be used to parsimoniously link brain activity to sensorimotor computations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan D Remington
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Devika Narain
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Eghbal A Hosseini
- Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Mehrdad Jazayeri
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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39
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Freedman DJ, Ibos G. An Integrative Framework for Sensory, Motor, and Cognitive Functions of the Posterior Parietal Cortex. Neuron 2019; 97:1219-1234. [PMID: 29566792 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.01.044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2017] [Revised: 01/12/2018] [Accepted: 01/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Throughout the history of modern neuroscience, the parietal cortex has been associated with a wide array of sensory, motor, and cognitive functions. The use of non-human primates as a model organism has been instrumental in our current understanding of how areas in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) modulate our perception and influence our behavior. In this Perspective, we highlight a series of influential studies over the last five decades examining the role of the PPC in visual perception and motor planning. We also integrate long-standing views of PPC functions with more recent evidence to propose a more general model framework to explain integrative sensory, motor, and cognitive functions of the PPC.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Freedman
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
| | - Guilhem Ibos
- Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Institut de Neuroscience de la Timone, UMR 7289 CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
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40
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Abstract
In this issue of Neuron, Rossi-Pool et al. (2017) show that the complex and heterogeneous response profiles of individual neurons in the dorsal premotor cortex during comparison of tactile temporal patterns can be understood in terms of two robust activity patterns that emerge across the population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehrdad Jazayeri
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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41
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Tsunada J, Cohen Y, Gold JI. Post-decision processing in primate prefrontal cortex influences subsequent choices on an auditory decision-making task. eLife 2019; 8:46770. [PMID: 31169495 PMCID: PMC6570479 DOI: 10.7554/elife.46770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2019] [Accepted: 06/05/2019] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Perceptual decisions do not occur in isolation but instead reflect ongoing evaluation and adjustment processes that can affect future decisions. However, the neuronal substrates of these across-decision processes are not well understood, particularly for auditory decisions. We measured and manipulated the activity of choice-selective neurons in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) while monkeys made decisions about the frequency content of noisy auditory stimuli. As the decision was being formed, vlPFC activity was not modulated strongly by the task. However, after decision commitment, vlPFC population activity encoded the sensory evidence, choice, and outcome of the current trial and predicted subject-specific choice biases on the subsequent trial. Consistent with these patterns of neuronal activity, electrical microstimulation in vlPFC tended to affect the subsequent, but not current, decision. Thus, distributed post-commitment representations of graded decision-related information in prefrontal cortex can play a causal role in evaluating past decisions and biasing subsequent ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joji Tsunada
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States.,Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka, Japan
| | - Yale Cohen
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States.,Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States.,Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Joshua I Gold
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
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42
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Zoltowski DM, Latimer KW, Yates JL, Huk AC, Pillow JW. Discrete Stepping and Nonlinear Ramping Dynamics Underlie Spiking Responses of LIP Neurons during Decision-Making. Neuron 2019; 102:1249-1258.e10. [PMID: 31130330 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2019.04.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2018] [Revised: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 04/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Neurons in LIP exhibit ramping trial-averaged responses during decision-making. Recent work sparked debate over whether single-trial LIP spike trains are better described by discrete "stepping" or continuous "ramping" dynamics. We extended latent dynamical spike train models and used Bayesian model comparison to address this controversy. First, we incorporated non-Poisson spiking into both models and found that more neurons were better described by stepping than ramping, even when conditioned on evidence or choice. Second, we extended the ramping model to include a non-zero baseline and compressive output nonlinearity. This model accounted for roughly as many neurons as the stepping model. However, latent dynamics inferred under this model exhibited high diffusion variance for many neurons, softening the distinction between continuous and discrete dynamics. Results generalized to additional datasets, demonstrating that substantial fractions of neurons are well described by either stepping or nonlinear ramping, which may be less categorically distinct than the original labels implied.
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Affiliation(s)
- David M Zoltowski
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
| | - Kenneth W Latimer
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Jacob L Yates
- Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
| | - Alexander C Huk
- Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Center for Perceptual Systems, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - Jonathan W Pillow
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
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43
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Sarafyazd M, Jazayeri M. Hierarchical reasoning by neural circuits in the frontal cortex. Science 2019; 364:364/6441/eaav8911. [DOI: 10.1126/science.aav8911] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2018] [Accepted: 04/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Humans process information hierarchically. In the presence of hierarchies, sources of failures are ambiguous. Humans resolve this ambiguity by assessing their confidence after one or more attempts. To understand the neural basis of this reasoning strategy, we recorded from dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of monkeys in a task in which negative outcomes were caused either by misjudging the stimulus or by a covert switch between two stimulus-response contingency rules. We found that both areas harbored a representation of evidence supporting a rule switch. Additional perturbation experiments revealed that ACC functioned downstream of DMFC and was directly and specifically involved in inferring covert rule switches. These results reveal the computational principles of hierarchical reasoning, as implemented by cortical circuits.
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44
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Huk AC, Hart E. Parsing signal and noise in the brain. SCIENCE (NEW YORK, N.Y.) 2019; 364:236-237. [PMID: 31000652 DOI: 10.1126/science.aax1512] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alexander C Huk
- Center for Perceptual Systems, Departments of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
| | - Eric Hart
- Center for Perceptual Systems, Departments of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA
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45
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Wang M, Montanède C, Chandrasekaran C, Peixoto D, Shenoy KV, Kalaska JF. Macaque dorsal premotor cortex exhibits decision-related activity only when specific stimulus-response associations are known. Nat Commun 2019; 10:1793. [PMID: 30996222 PMCID: PMC6470163 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09460-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2018] [Accepted: 03/12/2019] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
How deliberation on sensory cues and action selection interact in decision-related brain areas is still not well understood. Here, monkeys reached to one of two targets, whose colors alternated randomly between trials, by discriminating the dominant color of a checkerboard cue composed of different numbers of squares of the two target colors in different trials. In a Targets First task the colored targets appeared first, followed by the checkerboard; in a Checkerboard First task, this order was reversed. After both cues appeared in both tasks, responses of dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) units covaried with action choices, strength of evidence for action choices, and RTs- hallmarks of decision-related activity. However, very few units were modulated by checkerboard color composition or the color of the chosen target, even during the checkerboard deliberation epoch of the Checkerboard First task. These findings implicate PMd in the action-selection but not the perceptual components of the decision-making process in these tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan Wang
- Neurosciences Graduate Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Christéva Montanède
- Département de Neurosciences, Pavillon Paul-G.-Desmarais, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada
| | - Chandramouli Chandrasekaran
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02118, USA
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Diogo Peixoto
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, 1400-038, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Krishna V Shenoy
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Bio-X Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Stanford Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - John F Kalaska
- Département de Neurosciences, Pavillon Paul-G.-Desmarais, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada.
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46
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Roth N, Rust NC. Rethinking assumptions about how trial and nuisance variability impact neural task performance in a fast-processing regime. J Neurophysiol 2019; 121:115-130. [PMID: 30403544 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00503.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Task performance is determined not only by the amount of task-relevant signal present in our brains but also by the presence of noise, which can arise from multiple sources. Internal noise, or "trial variability," manifests as trial-by-trial variations in neural responses under seemingly identical conditions. External factors can also translate into noise, particularly when a task requires extraction of a particular type of information from our environment amid changes in other task-irrelevant "nuisance" parameters. To better understand how signal, trial variability, and nuisance variability combine to determine neural task performance, we explored their interactions, both in simulation and when applied to recorded neural data. This exploration revealed that trial variability is typically larger than a neuron's task-relevant signal for tasks with fast reaction times, where spike count integration windows are short. In this low signal-to-trial variability regime, nuisance variability has the counterintuitive property of having a negligible impact on single-neuron task performance, even when it dominates the task-relevant signal. The inconsequential impact of nuisance variability on individual neurons also extends to descriptions of population performance, under the assumption that both trial and nuisance variability are uncorrelated between neurons. These results demonstrate that some basic intuitions about neural coding are misguided in the context of a fast-processing, low-spike-count regime. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Many everyday tasks require us to extract specific information from our environment while ignoring other things. When the neurons in our brains that carry task-relevant signals are also modulated by task-irrelevant "nuisance" information, nuisance modulation is expected to act as performance-limiting noise. Using both simulated and recorded neural data, we demonstrate that these intuitions are misguided when the brain operates in a fast-processing, low-spike-count regime, where nuisance variability is largely inconsequential for performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noam Roth
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Nicole C Rust
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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47
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Howard MW, Luzardo A, Tiganj Z. Evidence accumulation in a Laplace domain decision space. COMPUTATIONAL BRAIN & BEHAVIOR 2018; 1:237-251. [PMID: 31131363 PMCID: PMC6530931 DOI: 10.1007/s42113-018-0016-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Evidence accumulation models of simple decision-making have long assumed that the brain estimates a scalar decision variable corresponding to the log-likelihood ratio of the two alternatives. Typical neural implementations of this algorithmic cognitive model assume that large numbers of neurons are each noisy exemplars of the scalar decision variable. Here we propose a neural implementation of the diffusion model in which many neurons construct and maintain the Laplace transform of the distance to each of the decision bounds. As in classic findings from brain regions including LIP, the firing rate of neurons coding for the Laplace transform of net accumulated evidence grows to a bound during random dot motion tasks. However, rather than noisy exemplars of a single mean value, this approach makes the novel prediction that firing rates grow to the bound exponentially; across neurons there should be a distribution of different rates. A second set of neurons records an approximate inversion of the Laplace transform; these neurons directly estimate net accumulated evidence. In analogy to time cells and place cells observed in the hippocampus and other brain regions, the neurons in this second set have receptive fields along a "decision axis." This finding is consistent with recent findings from rodent recordings. This theoretical approach places simple evidence accumulation models in the same mathematical language as recent proposals for representing time and space in cognitive models for memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc W Howard
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Department of Physics, Boston University
| | - Andre Luzardo
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Department of Physics, Boston University
| | - Zoran Tiganj
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Department of Physics, Boston University
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48
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Distinct roles of prefrontal and parietal areas in the encoding of attentional priority. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:E8755-E8764. [PMID: 30154164 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1804643115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
When searching for an object in a crowded scene, information about the similarity of stimuli to the target object is thought to be encoded in spatial priority maps, which are subsequently used to guide shifts of attention and gaze to likely targets. Two key cortical areas that have been described as holding priority maps are the frontal eye field (FEF) and the lateral intraparietal area (LIP). However, little is known about their distinct contributions in priority encoding. Here, we compared neuronal responses in FEF and LIP during free-viewing visual search. Although saccade selection signals emerged earlier in FEF, information about the target emerged at similar latencies in distinct populations within the two areas. Notably, however, effects in FEF were more pronounced. Moreover, LIP neurons encoded the similarity of stimuli to the target independent of saccade selection, whereas in FEF, encoding of target similarity was strongly modulated by saccade selection. Taken together, our findings suggest hierarchical processing of saccade selection signals and parallel processing of feature-based attention signals within the parietofrontal network with FEF having a more prominent role in priority encoding. Furthermore, they suggest discrete roles of FEF and LIP in the construction of priority maps.
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49
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Roth N, Rust NC. Inferotemporal cortex multiplexes behaviorally-relevant target match signals and visual representations in a manner that minimizes their interference. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0200528. [PMID: 30024905 PMCID: PMC6053150 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2018] [Accepted: 06/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Finding a sought visual target object requires combining visual information about a scene with a remembered representation of the target to create a "target match" signal that indicates when a target is in view. Target match signals have been reported to exist within high-level visual brain areas including inferotemporal cortex (IT), where they are mixed with representations of image and object identity. However, these signals are not well understood, particularly in the context of the real-world challenge that the objects we search for typically appear at different positions, sizes, and within different background contexts. To investigate these signals, we recorded neural responses in IT as two rhesus monkeys performed a delayed-match-to-sample object search task in which target objects could appear at a variety of identity-preserving transformations. Consistent with the existence of behaviorally-relevant target match signals in IT, we found that IT contained a linearly separable target match representation that reflected behavioral confusions on trials in which the monkeys made errors. Additionally, target match signals were highly distributed across the IT population, and while a small fraction of units reflected target match signals as target match suppression, most units reflected target match signals as target match enhancement. Finally, we found that the potentially detrimental impact of target match signals on visual representations was mitigated by target match modulation that was approximately (albeit imperfectly) multiplicative. Together, these results support the existence of a robust, behaviorally-relevant target match representation in IT that is configured to minimally interfere with IT visual representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noam Roth
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Nicole C. Rust
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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50
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Pho GN, Goard MJ, Woodson J, Crawford B, Sur M. Task-dependent representations of stimulus and choice in mouse parietal cortex. Nat Commun 2018; 9:2596. [PMID: 29968709 PMCID: PMC6030204 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05012-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2017] [Accepted: 06/11/2018] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has been implicated in perceptual decisions, but whether its role is specific to sensory processing or sensorimotor transformation is not well understood. Here, we trained mice to perform a go/no-go visual discrimination task and imaged the activity of neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) and PPC during engaged behavior and passive viewing. Unlike V1 neurons, which respond robustly to stimuli in both conditions, most PPC neurons respond exclusively during task engagement. To test whether signals in PPC primarily encoded the stimulus or the animal's impending choice, we image the same neurons before and after re-training mice with a reversed sensorimotor contingency. Unlike V1 neurons, most PPC neurons reflect the animal's choice of the new target stimulus after re-training. Mouse PPC is therefore strongly task-dependent, reflects choice more than stimulus, and may play a role in the transformation of visual inputs into motor commands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerald N Pho
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.,Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.,Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | - Michael J Goard
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.,Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.,Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA.,Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - Jonathan Woodson
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.,Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Benjamin Crawford
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.,Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Mriganka Sur
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA. .,Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
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