Temporal firing patterns

In sensory systems, stimuli are represented through the diverse firing responses and receptive fields of neurons. These features emerge from the interaction between excitatory (E) and inhibitory (I) neuron populations within the network. Changes in sensory inputs alter this balance, leading to shifts in firing patterns and the input-output properties of individual neurons and the network. While these phenomena have been studied extensively with experiments and theory, the underlying principles for combining E and I inputs are still unclear. Here, the rules for probabilistically combining E and

The ability to sense elapsed time is central to complex cognitive functions, informing every day the decisions we take and the actions we make. Yet, how neural populations distributed across the brain keep track of time remains unclear. Here, we set out to investigate large-scale neural population activity associated with timing behaviour. We developed a self-paced behavioural paradigm in which head-fixed mice learn to initiate reaching movements towards a spout dispensing drops of water reward. Mice start each trial themselves by holding onto a bar; the reward is then only dispensed if a cert