Exploring the many scales of neural activity underlying perception and decision making
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Experimental technologies that probe neural circuits from single neuron to brain-wide scales have allowed us to deepen our understanding of neural phenomena ranging from perception to decision making. For example in visual perception, orientation tuning in primary visual cortex (V1) has long been thought to play an important functional role in perception, but tests of this role have only recently been made possible through direct optogenetic stimulation of mouse cortex. Indeed, optogenetic stimulation reveals that a surprisingly small number of excited neurons (~20) can drive both large-scale neural ensembles (~1000) and perception. We develop a mean field neural circuit theory for how such small stimulation can create large responses. Our theory also explains constraints on avalanche like behavior widely observed in the spontaneous activity of many species. We further study decision-making at a global-brain scale leveraging multi-region neuropixel recordings collected across a collaboration of 11 experimental labs (part of "the International Brain Lab" (IBL)). We analyzed a massive dataset consisting of the neural activity of 300,000 neurons in mice performing a decision making task and developed techniques to elucidate the contribution of many different brain regions to decision making. Through decoding analyses, we discovered that task and behavioral variables can be decoded from regions which are both classically known as well as other regions which are functionally surprising. Overall, through theoretical analysis of unprecedented datasets, we propose a mechanism for perception in V1 and uncover region-specific details of brain-wide activity underlying decision making.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2023; ©2023 |
| Publication date | 2023; 2023 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Benson, Brandon |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Ganguli, Surya |
| Thesis advisor | Ganguli, Surya |
| Thesis advisor | Baccus, Stephen |
| Thesis advisor | Good, Benjamin |
| Degree committee member | Baccus, Stephen |
| Degree committee member | Good, Benjamin |
| Associated with | Stanford University, School of Humanities and Sciences |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Applied Physics |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Brandon Benson. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Applied Physics. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2023. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/wp132vx8882 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2023 by Brandon Benson
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
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