Topic: perceptual variability

Perception is inherently variable; the same external stimulus might be detected or missed in different instances. Neuronal signals governing this variability remain elusive. Past studies have shown that mice can be trained to report optogenetic stimulation of primary somatosensory cortex (S1), bypassing the trial-by-trial perceptual variability associated with external stimuli. These studies, however, stimulated different populations of S1 neurons on different trials which may also contribute to perceptual variability. Our aim is to use spatial light modulation (SLM) to stimulate the same S1 n