Topic: Single unit recording

Brendan Ito (Cornell University, USA) and Teja Bollu (Salk Institute, USA) share unique insights into rapid online motor corrections during mouse licking, analogous to primate goal-oriented reaching. Techniques covered include large-scale single unit recording during behaviour with optogenetics, and a deep-learning-based neural network to resolve 3D tongue kinematics during licking.

During primate evolution, prefrontal cortex (PFC) expanded substantially relative to other cortical areas. The expansion of PFC circuits likely supported the increased cognitive abilities of humans and anthropoids to sample information about their environment, evaluate that information, plan, and decide between different courses of action. What quantities do these circuits compute as information is being sampled towards and a decision is being made? And how can they be related to anatomical specialisations within and across PFC? To address this, we recorded PFC activity during value-based deci