Distributed coding of choice, action and engagement across the mouse brain

Vision, choice, action and behavioural engagement arise from neuronal activity that may be distributed across brain regions. Here we delineate the spatial distribution of neurons underlying these processes. We used Neuropixels probes 1 , 2 to record from approximately 30,000 neurons in 42 brain regi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) Vol. 576; no. 7786; pp. 266 - 273
Main Authors: Steinmetz, Nicholas A., Zatka-Haas, Peter, Carandini, Matteo, Harris, Kenneth D.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.12.2019
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
631/378/2629/1409
631/378/3920
Animals
Basal ganglia
Brain
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Cerebral cortex
Choice Behavior
Female
Forebrain
Ganglia
Humanities and Social Sciences
Male
Mesencephalon
Mice
multidisciplinary
Neocortex
Neural coding
Neurons
Potassium channels
Reward
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spatial distribution
Task Performance and Analysis
Visual discrimination
Visual Perception
Visual stimuli
Visual tasks
ISSN:0028-0836, 1476-4687, 1476-4687
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Vision, choice, action and behavioural engagement arise from neuronal activity that may be distributed across brain regions. Here we delineate the spatial distribution of neurons underlying these processes. We used Neuropixels probes 1 , 2 to record from approximately 30,000 neurons in 42 brain regions of mice performing a visual discrimination task 3 . Neurons in nearly all regions responded non-specifically when the mouse initiated an action. By contrast, neurons encoding visual stimuli and upcoming choices occupied restricted regions in the neocortex, basal ganglia and midbrain. Choice signals were rare and emerged with indistinguishable timing across regions. Midbrain neurons were activated before contralateral choices and were suppressed before ipsilateral choices, whereas forebrain neurons could prefer either side. Brain-wide pre-stimulus activity predicted engagement in individual trials and in the overall task, with enhanced subcortical but suppressed neocortical activity during engagement. These results reveal organizing principles for the distribution of neurons encoding behaviourally relevant variables across the mouse brain. Recordings from 30,000 neurons in 42 brain regions are used to delineate the spatial distribution of neuronal activity underlying vision, choice, action and behavioural engagement in mice.
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Present address: Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
These authors jointly supervised this work: Matteo Carandini, Kenneth D. Harris
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1787-x