A category-free neural population supports evolving demands during decision-making

Raposo, David, Kaufman, Matthew T., Churchland, Anne K. (December 2014) A category-free neural population supports evolving demands during decision-making. Nature Neuroscience, 17 (12). pp. 1784-1792. ISSN 1546-1726

URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25383902
DOI: 10.1038/nn.3865

Abstract

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) receives diverse inputs and is involved in a dizzying array of behaviors. These many behaviors could rely on distinct categories of neurons specialized to represent particular variables or could rely on a single population of PPC neurons that is leveraged in different ways. To distinguish these possibilities, we evaluated rat PPC neurons recorded during multisensory decisions. Newly designed tests revealed that task parameters and temporal response features were distributed randomly across neurons, without evidence of categories. This suggests that PPC neurons constitute a dynamic network that is decoded according to the animal's present needs. To test for an additional signature of a dynamic network, we compared moments when behavioral demands differed: decision and movement. Our new state-space analysis revealed that the network explored different dimensions during decision and movement. These observations suggest that a single network of neurons can support the evolving behavioral demands of decision-making.

Item Type: Paper
Additional Information: Datasets and code related to this publication are available via the links listed in the Related URL's section.
Subjects: organism description > animal behavior > decision making
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > parietal cortex
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Churchland lab
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: 17 December 2014
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2014 20:52
Last Modified: 17 Dec 2015 19:40
PMCID: PMC4294797
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/30911

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