Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making

Findling, Charles, Hubert, Felix, International Brain Laboratory, Acerbi, Luigi, Benson, Brandon, Benson, Julius, Birman, Daniel, Bonacchi, Niccolò, Buchanan, E Kelly, Bruijns, Sebastian, Carandini, Matteo, Catarino, Joana A, Chapuis, Gaelle A, Churchland, Anne K, Dan, Yang, Davatolhagh, Felicia, DeWitt, Eric EJ, Engel, Tatiana A, Fabbri, Michele, Faulkner, Mayo A, Fiete, Ila Rani, Freitas-Silva, Laura, Gerçek, Berk, Harris, Kenneth D, Häusser, Michael, Hofer, Sonja B, Hu, Fei, Huntenburg, Julia M, Khanal, Anup, Krasniak, Chris, Langdon, Christopher, Langfield, Christopher A, Latham, Peter E, Lau, Petrina YP, Mainen, Zach, Meijer, Guido T, Miska, Nathaniel J, Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D, Noel, Jean-Paul, Nylund, Kai, Pan-Vazquez, Alejandro, Paninski, Liam, Pillow, Jonathan, Rossant, Cyrille, Roth, Noam, Schaeffer, Rylan, Schartner, Michael, Shi, Yanliang, Socha, Karolina Z, Steinmetz, Nicholas A, Svoboda, Karel, Tessereau, Charline, Urai, Anne E, Wells, Miles J, West, Steven Jon, Whiteway, Matthew R, Winter, Olivier, Witten, Ilana B, Zador, Anthony, Zhang, Yizi, Dayan, Peter, Pouget, Alexandre (September 2025) Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making. Nature, 645 (8079). pp. 192-200. ISSN 0028-0836

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Abstract

The neural representations of prior information about the state of the world are poorly understood1. Here, to investigate them, we examined brain-wide Neuropixels recordings and widefield calcium imaging collected by the International Brain Laboratory. Mice were trained to indicate the location of a visual grating stimulus, which appeared on the left or right with a prior probability alternating between 0.2 and 0.8 in blocks of variable length. We found that mice estimate this prior probability and thereby improve their decision accuracy. Furthermore, we report that this subjective prior is encoded in at least 20% to 30% of brain regions that, notably, span all levels of processing, from early sensory areas (the lateral geniculate nucleus and primary visual cortex) to motor regions (secondary and primary motor cortex and gigantocellular reticular nucleus) and high-level cortical regions (the dorsal anterior cingulate area and ventrolateral orbitofrontal cortex). This widespread representation of the prior is consistent with a neural model of Bayesian inference involving loops between areas, as opposed to a model in which the prior is incorporated only in decision-making areas. This study offers a brain-wide perspective on prior encoding at cellular resolution, underscoring the importance of using large-scale recordings on a single standardized task.

Item Type:	Paper
Subjects:	organism description > animal organism description > animal behavior organism description > animal behavior > decision making organism description > animal > mammal organism description > animal > mammal > rodent > mouse organism description > animal > mammal > rodent
CSHL Authors:	Krasniak, Christopher Zador, Anthony M.
Communities:	CSHL labs > Zador lab School of Biological Sciences > Publications
SWORD Depositor:	CSHL Elements
Depositing User:	CSHL Elements
Date:	September 2025
Date Deposited:	08 Sep 2025 18:42
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2025 18:42
PMCID:	PMC12408363
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/41954

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