Topic: line attractors

Many animals rely on persistent internal representations of continuous angular variables for working memory, motor control, and navigation. Theories have proposed that such representations are maintained by a class of recurrently connected networks called ring attractor networks. These networks rely on large numbers of neurons to maintain continuous and stable representations and to accurately integrate incoming signals. The head direction system of the fruit fly, however, seems to achieve these properties with a remarkably small network. These findings challenge our understanding of ring attr

Cognitive flexibility is characterized by the ability to adapt behavior in response to changing environments. When the environment changes, previously appropriate behavior can lead to negative feedback. Surprising negative feedback – failure to receive a reward when strongly expected – may signal a change in the environment and the need to adjust action plans. Thus, processes that compute confidence and detect feedback at the timescale of individual decisions should interact with slower processes that infer environment changes. The neural mechanisms that underlie these hierarchical decisions r