Computational dynamics in neural populations of freely foraging vs. restrained monkeys

总结 这项提议将调查三维觅食行为背后的神经动力学， 总体目标。第一个是评估在动态环境中觅食的神经计算， 自然主义的设置。第二个是比较算法行为计算和它们的神经 在自然与传统的实验室设置下的基质。大多数神经科学研究认为， 实验室行为具有现实意义，因此我们观察到的任何差异都将具有显着意义。 神经科学的未来。第三个目标是测试海马结构，额叶， 和顶叶区域的不同组成部分的觅食。我们将在两个实验中比较三种行为 设置。这些行为是自由觅食，以获得不可预测的随机奖励，这是一项目标驱动的觅食任务， 在视觉不确定性和随机奖励呈现下在三个资源斑块之间导航，以及 在没有导航的情况下在三个资源块中觅食。后两项任务涉及形成和 维持内部模型，记忆，依赖时间的感觉和奖励的偶然性， 动物自己的行为，以及对世界状态的动态变化的信念。前两项任务将 在觅食室中的无头部导航期间以及在虚拟现实中的头部固定导航期间执行。 在这两种环境中，我们将同时记录从几个相互关联的领域涉及的视觉 导航、空间记忆、路径整合和决策。目标区域包括后顶叶皮层， 前额叶皮层、压后皮层、内嗅皮层和海马。我们将使用先进的行为 模型和理论来推断内部状态，并确定它们的神经表征和相互作用， 由相互连接的大脑区域组成的广阔网络。此外，我们将回归神经元活动对任务相关的 变量来识别编码它们的神经子空间。总的来说，我们希望这些实验 严格阐明觅食和空间导航行为的神经动力学，并严格询问 是否以及如何限制实验室条件与头部固定，限制动物不同于生态， 自然环境--当代系统神经科学的一个关键但尚未经过检验的假设。

Summary This proposal will investigate the neural dynamics underlying three-dimensional foraging behavior, with three overarching goals. The first is to evaluate the neural computations of foraging in dynamic environments in naturalistic settings. The second is to compare the algorithmic behavioral computations and their neural substrates under naturalistic versus traditional laboratory settings. Most neuroscience studies assume that laboratory behavior has real-world implications, so any differences we observe would have remarkable consequences for the future of neuroscience. The third goal is to test the role of hippocampal formation, frontal, and parietal areas in the different components of foraging. We will compare three behaviors in two experimental setups. The behaviors are free-foraging for unpredictable, random rewards, a goal-driven foraging task with navigation among three resource patches under visual uncertainty and stochastic reward presentation, and foraging among three resource patches without navigation. The latter two tasks involve the formation and maintenance of internal models, memories, time-dependent sensory and reward contingencies, the costs of an animal’s own actions, and dynamically changing beliefs about the state of the world. The former two tasks will be performed during head-free navigation in a foraging room, and during head-fixed navigation in virtual reality. In both environments, we will record simultaneously from several mutually interconnected areas involved in visual navigation, spatial memory, path integration, and decision-making. Target areas include posterior parietal cortex, prefrontal cortex, retrosplenial cortex, entorhinal cortex, and hippocampus. We will use advanced behavioral models and theory to infer internal states and to identify their neural representation and interactions across a broad network of interconnected brain areas. In addition, we will regress neuronal activity against task-relevant variables to identify neural subspaces that encode them. Collectively, we expect that these experiments will rigorously illuminate the neural dynamics of foraging and spatial navigation behaviors and critically interrogate whether and how constrained laboratory conditions with head-fixed, restrained animals differ from ecological and naturalistic environments—a critical but still untested assumption of contemporary systems neuroscience.