Readout and control of spatiotemporal neuronal codes for behavior

项目摘要 为了生存，生物体必须准确地表征外界的刺激，并使用这种表征 来产生有益的行为。从历史上看，这两个过程-从刺激到 神经反应以及从神经活动到行为的映射在很大程度上被分开对待。的 这两个，前者最受关注。通常被称为"神经编码问题"，其目标是 以确定神经活动的哪些特征携带关于外部刺激的信息。这种做法导致 许多关于神经群体的空间和时间特征的经验和理论建议 活动，或“神经代码”，代表感官信息。然而，对于以下问题仍然没有达成共识： 在神经系统的大部分区域中，大多数感官刺激的神经代码。缺乏共识 部分原因是，虽然已经确定神经群体反应的某些特征携带了 关于特定刺激的信息，目前还不清楚大脑是否使用（"读取"）这些信息。 形成感官知觉的特征。我们已经建立了一个理论框架， 来解决这个问题。实验性地为这个框架提供信息需要 操纵模式的神经元活动的基础上，并在相同的时空尺度， 在感官知觉中的自然放电模式这项工作必须在行为动物中进行，因为它 是了解哪些神经代码指导行为决策的关键。在该项目的第一阶段（资助 由BRAIN Initiative提供），我们开发了实现这一目标所需的技术。本 我们将扩展我们的模式化神经元刺激技术，并将其应用于回答长期存在的问题。 关于视觉、嗅觉和听觉系统中的神经编码和读出的问题。我们将开拓 确定网络中哪些神经元正在编码行为相关信息的能力， 并确定这些神经元活动的时间模式在多大程度上被用来 引导行为。最后，我们将研究这些神经编码原则在行为状态的变化， 在学习过程中确定内部环境和过去的经验如何塑造编码和读出。的 拟议工作的贡献将是三方面的。首先，我们将为神经科学界提供 测试神经群如何在整个大脑中编码和解码信息的理论所需的工具。 其次，我们将揭示视觉时空神经编码和读出的基本原理， 嗅觉和听觉系统。第三，我们的统一理论框架， 破解神经密码将使更广泛的神经科学界能够解决正在进行的争论 关于神经编码，以前只考虑一半的编码/读出， 问题.

Project Summary To survive, organisms must both accurately represent stimuli in the outside world, and use that representation to generate beneficial behavioral actions. Historically, these two processes – the mapping from stimuli to neural responses, and the mapping from neural activity to behavior – have largely been treated separately. Of the two, the former has received the most attention. Often referred to as the “neural coding problem,” its goal is to determine which features of neural activity carry information about external stimuli. This approach has led to many empirical and theoretical proposals about the spatial and temporal features of neural population activity, or “neural codes,” that represent sensory information. However, there is still no consensus about the neural code for most sensory stimuli in most areas of the nervous system. The lack of consensus arises in part because, while it is established that certain features of neural population responses carry information about specific stimuli, it is unclear whether the brain uses (“reads”) the information in these features to form sensory perceptions. We have developed a theoretical framework, based on the intersection of coding and readout, to approach this problem. Experimentally informing this framework requires manipulating patterns of neuronal activity based on, and at the same spatiotemporal scale as, their natural firing patterns during sensory perception. This work must be done in behaving animals because it is essential to know which neural codes guide behavioral decisions. In the first phase of this project (funded by the BRAIN Initiative), we developed the technology necessary for realizing this goal. In the present proposal, we will extend our patterned neuronal stimulation technology and apply it to answer long-standing questions about neural coding and readout in the visual, olfactory, and auditory systems. We will pioneer the capacity to determine which neurons within a network are encoding behaviorally relevant information, and also to determine the extent to which temporal patterns of those neurons’ activity are being used to guide behavior. Finally, we will study these neural coding principles across changes in behavioral state and during learning to determine how internal context and past experience shape coding and readout. The contributions of the proposed work will be three-fold. First, we will provide the neuroscience community with the tools needed to test theories of how neural populations encode and decode information throughout the brain. Second, we will reveal fundamental principles of spatiotemporal neural coding and readout in the visual, olfactory, and auditory systems of behaving animals. And third, our unifying theoretical framework for cracking neural codes will allow the broader neuroscience community to resolve ongoing debates regarding neural coding that have been previously stalemated by considering only half of the coding/readout problem.