Cortical areas

…patterns across multiple cortical areas [1]. In the following two weeks (p22-43), these activity patterns undergo a transition similar in all areas, and show a gradual increase in dimensionality in most areas, suggesting an expansion of representational capacity [2]. However, it is unclear what the functional role of having low-dimensional activity patterns at the initial stage of development is, since one would expect the limited dimensionality to restrict representational learning. In this work, we investi

…a myriad of direct connections from subcortical nuclei to all cortical areas [1,2]. These enable fast information transfer and facilitate hierarchical compositionality but have not yet been explored in artificial systems [3]. In this work, we present the Shallow Hierarchical Artificial Neural Network (SHANN), a novel brain-inspired architecture with shallow connections from the input to all the hierarchical processing layers. Like conventional deep networks, SHANNs can achieve high levels of abstraction in more hierarchical layers.

…of functional coupling across multiple cortical areas. To this end, we utilized a multisite approach to obtain a time-resolved definition of phase and amplitude coupling parameters. Ana

…observer-independent insights into cortical structure.We propose a deep-learning model for segmenting the cerebral cortex into areas and layers. We tested this solution on a dataset of one-dimensional cortical profiles derived from a non-human primate - common marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus) brain.

…whether further dynamical features of cortical activity follow a hierarchical organization remains an open question.To address this question, we measured single-neuron statistics from the resting-state activity of macaque neocortex (N=6) from several cortical areas (V1, V4, DP, 7A, M1, PMd, vlPFC). We found some non-systemati

…triggering precise activation across cortical areas accompanied by strong inhibition in subcortical areas (Logothetis et. al. 2012, Pedrosa et. al 2022) while other subtypes preferentially activates neuromodulatory structures such as the dorsal raphe nucleus and the locus coeruleus (Ramirez-Villega et. al 2015).

Jointly designing computational signal extraction and optics allows scalability to larger fields-of-view, lighter and faster functional neuroimaging devices. Using this insight, we developed a modular, mesoscale light field (MesoLF) imaging hardware and software solution (Nature Methods 20(4), 2023) that allows recording from thousands of neurons within volumes of ⌀ 4 × 0.2 mm located at depths of up to 350 μm in the mouse cortex. MesoLF achieves an imaging rate of 18 volumes per second and an effective voxel rate of approximately 40 Megavoxels per second. By using our optical design and compu

Goal-directed behavior requires the coordinated activity of sensory and motor areas across the brain. Recent advances in large-scale neural recordings allow studying brain-wide dynamics during behavior at cellular resolution. We used mesoscale calcium imaging to record the activity of up to ~30,000 neurons simultaneously (~1,000,000 neurons total) from over 10 cortical areas while mice performed a novel goal-directed naturalistic behavior. The behavior consisted of multipositional tongue-reaching movements to a target to obtain a water reward, with the target presented on a grid (typically con

Early in development, spontaneous cortical activity in ferrets is organised into modular, low-dimensional patterns, and this organisation is highly similar across multiple cortical areas [1]. Currently, it is unclear how cortical activity changes in development, whether these changes reflect the different functional specialisations across cortical areas, and what circuit changes underlie these changes.Here, we investigated how the structure of spontaneous cortical activity changes over the course of development by recording it with two-photon calcium imaging before (P21-24), around (P27-32) an

…BOLD dynamics within a striato-thalamo-cortical circuit in mice. Our findings indicate that CPdm neuromodulation alters BOLD dynamics in thalamic subregions projecting to the dorsomedial striatu

The brain relies on communication between specialized cortical areas to accomplish complex cognitive tasks. To understand this ability of the brain, we need a deeper understanding of information transfer across cortical areas. There are two leading hypotheses for communication between cortical areas: 1) The communication through coherence (CTC) hypothesis posits that coherent oscillations between source and target populations of neurons are required for information propagation. 2) The information transmission via communication subspace (CS) hypothesis, recently introduced by Semedo et al., adv

…and motor learning, use different cortical areas and neural activity patterns to solve the same task, revealing past learning as a critical determinant of whether cortex is necessary for decision tasks. We used optogenetics and calcium imaging to study the necessity and neural activity of multiple cortical areas in mice with diffe

Brain states are conventionally divided into wake, slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep based on distinct patterns of neural activity and muscle tone. However, recently available large-scale recordings indicate that this conventional division of brain states is insufficient to account for rich heterogeneity of neural dynamics on the global scale. During sleep, neural activity in some brain regions can exhibit awake signatures and vice versa [1,2]. While brain states provide the backdrop for any activity underlying behavioral functions, the spatiotemporal structure of multi-

Humans and other primates possess a wide range of complex visual functions ranging from invariant object recognition to fine pattern discrimination, visual memory, spatial reasoning etc. We would ideally like to study the neural basis of such visual computations in lower animal models like the mouse, which are amenable to modern neuroscience techniques. However, it is not known if mice can perform interesting visual computations, and are notoriously known as “non-visual” animals. Here we demonstrate advanced visual functions in mice navigating and foraging in an immersive virtual reality while

…we causally probed the roles of cortical areas and recorded from thousands of neurons throughout the brain, with an emphasis on frontal cortex. The results are not what we thought based on textbook notions of how the brain works. This talk is based on work led by Nick Steinmetz, Peter Zatka-Haas, Armin Lak, and Pip Coen, in the laboratory I s

…Recent work on a variety of cortical areas suggests that neural function may be built on the activation of population-wide activity patterns, the neural modes, rather than on the independent modulation of individual neural activity. These neural modes, the dominant covariation patterns within the neural population, define a low dimensional neural manifold that captures most of the

…Recent work on a variety of cortical areas suggests that neural function may be built on the activation of population-wide activity patterns, the neural modes, rather than on the independent modulation of individual neural activity. These neural modes, the dominant covariation patterns within the neural population, define a low dimensional neural manifold that captures m

Background: Recent discovery of hundreds of common gene variants associated with schizophrenia has enabled polygenic risk scores (PRS) to be measured in the population. It is hypothesized that normal variation in genetic risk of schizophrenia should be associated with MRI changes in brain morphometry and tissue composition. Methods: We used the largest extant genome-wide association dataset (N = 69,369 cases and N = 236,642 healthy controls) to measure PRS for schizophrenia in a large sample of adults from the UK Biobank (Nmax = 29,878) who had multiple micro- and macro-structural MRI metrics

…neural activity across different cortical areas and se

…studies indicate that distal brain areas appear to fluidly couple and decouple with one another depending on behavioral context. We investigated how the brain coordinates its activity across areas to inform complex, top-down control behaviors. Animals were trained to perform a novel brain machine interface task to guide a visual cursor to a reward zone, using activity recorded with widefield calcium imaging. This allowed us to screen for cortical areas