Featured
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| Open AccessConjunctive encoding of exploratory intentions and spatial information in the hippocampus
The hippocampus maps space, but its role in encoding investigatory intentions is unclear. Here the authors show that certain CA1 neurons encode both spatial information and animals’ intention to explore, depending on input from lateral entorhinal cortex.
- Yi-Fan Zeng
- , Ke-Xin Yang
- & Ning Zhou
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Article
| Open AccessStimulus encoding by specific inactivation of cortical neurons
How neural ensembles encode information remains poorly understood. Here, the authors identify “offsembles”—neurons that are specifically inactivated by sensory stimuli—which, when combined with “onsemble” neurons that are turned on by the stimulus, provide enhanced encoding power to the cortex.
- Jesús Pérez-Ortega
- , Alejandro Akrouh
- & Rafael Yuste
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Article
| Open AccessMultiplicative joint coding in preparatory activity for reaching sequence in macaque motor cortex
Understanding the link between multiple movement elements and sequence-related responses in the motor cortex remains elusive. This study reveals a multiplicative joint coding mechanism during motor preparation which transfers to additive during execution, potentially explaining the linear readout of elemental movements.
- Tianwei Wang
- , Yun Chen
- & He Cui
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Article
| Open AccessAlignment of brain embeddings and artificial contextual embeddings in natural language points to common geometric patterns
Here, using neural activity patterns in the inferior frontal gyrus and large language modeling embeddings, the authors provide evidence for a common neural code for language processing.
- Ariel Goldstein
- , Avigail Grinstein-Dabush
- & Uri Hasson
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Article
| Open AccessImproved modeling of human vision by incorporating robustness to blur in convolutional neural networks
The phenomenon of blurry or degraded visual input in humans has been overlooked in the training of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Here, the authors show that blur-trained CNNs outperform standard CNNs in predicting neural responses to objects and show improved correspondence with human perception.
- Hojin Jang
- & Frank Tong
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Article
| Open AccessDirect contribution of the sensory cortex to the judgment of stimulus duration
The neural substrates of time perception are still unclear. Here, the authors show that as rats judged tactile stimuli, optogenetic manipulation of somatosensory cortex systematically altered perception of stimulus intensity and of duration, unveiling a multiplexed code.
- Sebastian Reinartz
- , Arash Fassihi
- & Mathew E. Diamond
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Article
| Open AccessAcoustic and language-specific sources for phonemic abstraction from speech
How speech sounds come to be understood as language remains unclear. Here, the authors find that brain responses to speech in part reflect abstraction of phonological units specific to the language being spoken, mediated through relationships between acoustic features.
- Anna Mai
- , Stephanie Riès
- & Timothy Q. Gentner
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Article
| Open AccessRamping dynamics and theta oscillations reflect dissociable signatures during rule-guided human behavior
The authors show that neuronal populations in the human prefrontal-motor network interact via two discernible communication modes – ramping dynamics and neural oscillations. These modes operate in concert to facilitate rule-guided behavior.
- Jan Weber
- , Anne-Kristin Solbakk
- & Randolph F. Helfrich
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Article
| Open AccessDistinguishing examples while building concepts in hippocampal and artificial networks
While the hippocampus is well-known to store specific memories, it can also learn common features that are shared across individual memories. Here, the authors show how this ability arises from dual input pathways and how it can inspire better machine learning methods.
- Louis Kang
- & Taro Toyoizumi
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Article
| Open AccessA power law describes the magnitude of adaptation in neural populations of primary visual cortex
How cortical populations adapt to the statistics of sensory input is not fully understood. Here the authors show that a power law captures how the magnitude of population responses change across different sensory environments.
- Elaine Tring
- , Mario Dipoppa
- & Dario L. Ringach
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Article
| Open AccessAugmenting interpretable models with large language models during training
Prediction and interpretation tasks may be challenging in high-stakes applications, such as medical decision-making, or systems with compute-limited hardware. The authors introduce an augmented framework for leveraging the knowledge learned by Large Language Models to build interpretable models which are both accurate and efficient.
- Chandan Singh
- , Armin Askari
- & Jianfeng Gao
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Article
| Open AccessContinuous multiplexed population representations of task context in the mouse primary visual cortex
Sensory cortex has been primarily shown to represent environmental stimuli. Here, the authors find that the geometry of visual cortical activity permits the parallel representation of stimuli and task context in a format that prevents interference.
- Márton Albert Hajnal
- , Duy Tran
- & Gergő Orbán
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Article
| Open AccessHuman thalamic low-frequency oscillations correlate with expected value and outcomes during reinforcement learning
The functional role of the human thalamus in reinforcement learning is debated. Here, using intra-thalamic recordings in humans, the authors report that thalamic low-frequency oscillations correlate with variables for learning from both reward and punishment.
- Antoine Collomb-Clerc
- , Maëlle C. M. Gueguen
- & Julien Bastin
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Article
| Open AccessPhase information is conserved in sparse, synchronous population-rate-codes via phase-to-rate recoding
How neural codes are passed from one brain area to the next remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show how neuronal feedback inhibition converts incoming temporal information into sparse rate information in a biophysical network model of the dentate gyrus.
- Daniel Müller-Komorowska
- , Baris Kuru
- & Oliver Braganza
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Article
| Open AccessThe spatial and temporal structure of neural activity across the fly brain
Neuropil regions across the fly brain are activated by locomotion. Here, authors show that this movement-related activity involves most neurons in the dorsal fly brain, including genetically defined neurons with known, seemingly unrelated functions.
- Evan S. Schaffer
- , Neeli Mishra
- & Richard Axel
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Article
| Open AccessNeural tuning instantiates prior expectations in the human visual system
Perception is often modelled using a Bayesian framework, but its neural instantiation remains unclear. Using a novel modelling approach, the authors reveal an empirical encoding scheme for visual orientation sufficient for optimal inference.
- William J. Harrison
- , Paul M. Bays
- & Reuben Rideaux
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Article
| Open AccessNeural manifolds for odor-driven innate and acquired appetitive preferences
It remains unclear how odorants with diverse appetitive preferences are encoded by an ensemble of neurons. Here, the authors show that such odorants can be succinctly described using low-dimensional neural representations or ‘neural manifolds.’
- Rishabh Chandak
- & Baranidharan Raman
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Article
| Open AccessRepresentations in human primary visual cortex drift over time
It is unclear whether human visual cortex exhibits representational drift. Here, the authors test the stability of visual representations and find that responsivity drifts over time, yet dissimilarities remain stable, suggesting a neural mechanism to overcome cumulative changes.
- Zvi N. Roth
- & Elisha P. Merriam
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Article
| Open AccessPhonemic segmentation of narrative speech in human cerebral cortex
The neural dynamics underlying speech comprehension are not well understood. Here, the authors show that phonemic-to-lexical processing is localized to a large region of the temporal cortex, and that segmentation of the speech stream occurs mostly at the level of diphones.
- Xue L. Gong
- , Alexander G. Huth
- & Frédéric E. Theunissen
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Article
| Open AccessDetailed characterization of neural selectivity in free viewing primates
Studying visual processing during natural eye movements in untrained animals is challenging. Here, the authors provide a method for accurately measuring the retinal input to study visual processing and neural selectivity during natural oculomotor behavior in non-human primates.
- Jacob L. Yates
- , Shanna H. Coop
- & Jude F. Mitchell
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Article
| Open AccessWaves traveling over a map of visual space can ignite short-term predictions of sensory input
Waves of neural activity travel across single regions in the visual cortex, but their computational role is unclear. Here, the authors present a neural network model demonstrating that waves traveling over retinotopic maps can enable short-term predictions of future inputs.
- Gabriel B. Benigno
- , Roberto C. Budzinski
- & Lyle Muller
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| Open AccessBrain-optimized deep neural network models of human visual areas learn non-hierarchical representations
Whether or not deep neural networks require hierarchical representations to predict brain activity is not known. Here, the authors show that a multi-branch deep neural network can predict neural activity independently in visual areas in the absence of hierarchical representations.
- Ghislain St-Yves
- , Emily J. Allen
- & Thomas Naselaris
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Article
| Open AccessRobust encoding of natural stimuli by neuronal response sequences in monkey visual cortex
How the brain analyzes complex visual scenes within a fraction of a second remains poorly understood. Here, the authors suggest that this might be accomplished through the use of a temporal code by exploiting the sequence order of responses generated in networks of recurrently coupled neurons that harbor the priors of natural image statistics.
- Yang Yiling
- , Katharine Shapcott
- & Wolf Singer
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Article
| Open AccessSemantic novelty modulates neural responses to visual change across the human brain
Movies are complex, continuous stimuli that are characterized by visual and semantic novelty. Here, by leveraging intracranial recordings from 23 humans, the authors find that responses to novelty across film cuts and saccades are widespread in the brain.
- Maximilian Nentwich
- , Marcin Leszczynski
- & Lucas C. Parra
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Article
| Open AccessMultidimensional cerebellar computations for flexible kinematic control of movements
Moving precisely in natural environments requires adapting to multiple demands arising dynamically. Here, the authors show that the cerebellum’s capacity for multidimensional computations allows it to flexibly control multiple movement parameters guaranteeing movement precision.
- Akshay Markanday
- , Sungho Hong
- & Peter Thier
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Article
| Open AccessUnsupervised approach to decomposing neural tuning variability
Accurately capturing the tuning variability directly from the noisy neural responses is an important and challenging issue. Here, the authors introduce an unsupervised statistical approach to decomposing tuning variability, leading to a simple and unifying rule of tuning modulation in V1.
- Rong J. B. Zhu
- & Xue-Xin Wei
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Article
| Open AccessAbstract representations emerge naturally in neural networks trained to perform multiple tasks
How animals learn to generalize from one context to another remains unresolved. Here, the authors show that the abstract representations that are thought to underlie this form of generalization emerge naturally in neural networks trained to perform multiple tasks.
- W. Jeffrey Johnston
- & Stefano Fusi
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Article
| Open AccessInferring visual space from ultra-fine extra-retinal knowledge of gaze position
It is unknown how humans establish stable visual percepts despite the incessant motion of their eyes. Here the authors report that visual judgments of spatial relations incorporate fine-scale motor knowledge of eye position.
- Zhetuo Zhao
- , Ehud Ahissar
- & Michele Rucci
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Article
| Open AccessNatural scene sampling reveals reliable coarse-scale orientation tuning in human V1
Whether orientation-selectivity is discernable via fMRI remains unclear. Here, by analyzing a public dataset of responses to natural scenes using neurally-inspired image-computable models, the authors isolate and characterize a coarse-scale orientation map and demonstrate that orientation-selective BOLD responses reflect multiple distinct computations at a range of spatial scales.
- Zvi N. Roth
- , Kendrick Kay
- & Elisha P. Merriam
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Article
| Open AccessContext-dependent selectivity to natural images in the retina
Ganglion cells classically respond to either light increase (ON) or decrease (OFF). Here, the authors show that during natural scene stimulation, a single ganglion cell can switch between ON and OFF depending on the visual context.
- Matías A. Goldin
- , Baptiste Lefebvre
- & Olivier Marre
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Article
| Open AccessCompulsive alcohol drinking in rodents is associated with altered representations of behavioral control and seeking in dorsal medial prefrontal cortex
Compulsive alcohol drinking is a core feature of alcohol use disorder. Here the authors find that in rodents, neural signals in a key decision-making brain region (dmPFC) shift from behavioral control to alcohol seeking during compulsive alcohol drinking behaviour.
- Nicholas M. Timme
- , Baofeng Ma
- & Christopher C. Lapish
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Article
| Open AccessStable choice coding in rat frontal orienting fields across model-predicted changes of mind
A leaky accumulation model can predict rats’ changes of mind during decision making in a dynamic environment explaining reversals in frontal cortical activity and demonstrating a stable choice code despite environmental uncertainty.
- J. Tyler Boyd-Meredith
- , Alex T. Piet
- & Carlos D. Brody
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Article
| Open AccessAngular and linear speed cells in the parahippocampal circuits
It remains unclear how the hippocampal region integrates position and self-motion information to update spatial representations. Here, the authors report grid and head direction cells as well as cells encoding self-motion parameters such as angular head velocity and speed, and find conjunctive representations of these different parameters.
- Davide Spalla
- , Alessandro Treves
- & Charlotte N. Boccara
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Article
| Open AccessTexture is encoded in precise temporal spiking patterns in primate somatosensory cortex
Neuroscientists seek to understand how neuronal signals carry information and drive perception. Here, the authors show that millisecond-level spike timing in somatosensory cortex is informative about texture and shapes the evoked sensory experience.
- Katie H. Long
- , Justin D. Lieber
- & Sliman J. Bensmaia
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Article
| Open AccessCerebellar connectivity maps embody individual adaptive behavior in mice
The variability in synaptic connectivity observed at the cerebellar granule cell - Purkinje cell connection in mice accounts for motor behavior traits at the individual level, suggesting that cerebellar networks encode internal models underlying individual-specific motor adaptation.
- Ludovic Spaeth
- , Jyotika Bahuguna
- & Philippe Isope
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Article
| Open AccessContext-independent encoding of passive and active self-motion in vestibular afferent fibers during locomotion in primates
Using experimental and computational approaches the authors show that the vestibular efferent system does not modulate peripheral coding during locomotion. Instead, vestibular afferents unambiguously convey information in a context independent manner.
- Isabelle Mackrous
- , Jérome Carriot
- & Kathleen E. Cullen
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Article
| Open AccessFace detection in untrained deep neural networks
Face-selective neurons are observed in the primate visual pathway and are considered as the basis of face detection in the brain. Here, using a hierarchical deep neural network model of the ventral visual stream, the authors suggest that face selectivity arises in the complete absence of training.
- Seungdae Baek
- , Min Song
- & Se-Bum Paik
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Article
| Open AccessPrimary visual cortex straightens natural video trajectories
Many behaviours depend on predictions about the environment. Here the authors find neural populations in primary visual cortex to straighten the temporal trajectories of natural video clips, facilitating the extrapolation of past observations.
- Olivier J. Hénaff
- , Yoon Bai
- & Robbe L. T. Goris
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Article
| Open AccessGraded heterogeneity of metabotropic signaling underlies a continuum of cell-intrinsic temporal responses in unipolar brush cells
The authors show that graded molecular heterogeneity in metabotropic pathways underlies a continuum of temporal responses in cerebellar unipolar brush cells (UBCs). This allows the UBC population to serve as a cell-autonomous basis for temporal integration and learning over multiple time scales.
- Chong Guo
- , Vincent Huson
- & Wade G. Regehr
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Article
| Open AccessComputational models of category-selective brain regions enable high-throughput tests of selectivity
Distinct brain regions are claimed to respond selectively to faces, places and bodies, but what counts as a face, place or body is less well defined. Here we build computational models that accurately predict the response of these regions to novel images, enabling stronger tests and confirmation of their selectivity.
- N. Apurva Ratan Murty
- , Pouya Bashivan
- & Nancy Kanwisher
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Article
| Open AccessStable representation of a naturalistic movie emerges from episodic activity with gain variability
Here the authors show that individual neural responses in mouse V1 to a repeated natural movie clip consist of episodic activity which is unstable in gain across weeks. Despite of the gain variability, time in the natural movie is stably represented by population activity in V1.
- Ji Xia
- , Tyler D. Marks
- & Ralf Wessel
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Article
| Open AccessOpposing effects of selectivity and invariance in peripheral vision
Visual processing necessitates both extracting and discarding information. Here, the authors use a specialized set of stimuli and two complementary discrimination tasks to demonstrate the opposing perceptual implications of these two aspects of information processing.
- Corey M. Ziemba
- & Eero P. Simoncelli
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Article
| Open AccessDecision-related feedback in visual cortex lacks spatial selectivity
Feedback modulates visual neurons, thought to help achieve flexible task performance. Here, the authors show decision-related feedback is not only relayed to task-relevant neurons, suggesting a broader mechanism and supporting a previously hypothesized link to feature-based attention.
- Katrina R. Quinn
- , Lenka Seillier
- & Hendrikje Nienborg
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Article
| Open AccessTemporal stability of stimulus representation increases along rodent visual cortical hierarchies
Understanding stability of representation in the visual system can benefit by use of non-static, naturalistic stimuli. Here the authors examine stability of neural representations along the rat ventral stream while viewing naturalistic and synthetic movies.
- Eugenio Piasini
- , Liviu Soltuzu
- & Davide Zoccolan
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Article
| Open AccessObject representations in the human brain reflect the co-occurrence statistics of vision and language
When people view an object, they can often guess the setting from which it was drawn and the other objects that might be found in that setting. Here the authors identify regions of the human visual system that represent this information about which objects tend to appear together in the world.
- Michael F. Bonner
- & Russell A. Epstein
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Article
| Open AccessNeuronal variability reflects probabilistic inference tuned to natural image statistics
The neural sampling theory suggests that neuronal variability encodes the uncertainty of probabilistic inferences. This paper shows that response variability in primary visual cortex reflects the statistical structure of visual inputs, as required for inferences correctly tuned to the statistics of the natural environment.
- Dylan Festa
- , Amir Aschner
- & Ruben Coen-Cagli
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Article
| Open AccessMultiscale low-dimensional motor cortical state dynamics predict naturalistic reach-and-grasp behavior
Motor control involves neural dynamics at multiple spatiotemporal scales. Here the authors show that a multiscale, low-dimensional dynamical structure that is shared between scales and subjects reflects naturalistic reach-and-grasp movements in macaques.
- Hamidreza Abbaspourazad
- , Mahdi Choudhury
- & Maryam M. Shanechi
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Article
| Open AccessLanguage prediction mechanisms in human auditory cortex
The human brain fluently parses continuous speech during perception and production. Using direct brain recordings coupled with stimulation, the authors identify separable substrates underlying two distinct predictive mechanisms of “when” in Heschl’s gyrus and “what” in planum temporale.
- K. J. Forseth
- , G. Hickok
- & N. Tandon
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Matters Arising
| Open AccessReply to ‘Forward models of repetition suppression depend critically on assumptions of noise and granularity’
- Arjen Alink
- , Hunar Abdulrahman
- & Richard N. Henson