Distinct mesoscale cortical dynamics encode search strategies during spatial navigation.

ABSTRACT: Spatial navigation is a complex cognitive process that involves neural computations in distributed regions of the brain. Little is known about how cortical regions are coordinated when animals navigate novel spatial environments or how that coordination changes as environments become familiar. We recorded mesoscale calcium (Ca²⁺) dynamics across large swathes of the dorsal cortex in mice solving the Barnes maze, a 2D spatial navigation task where mice used random, serial, and spatial search strategies to navigate to the goal. Cortical dynamics exhibited patterns of repeated calcium activity with rapid and abrupt shifts between cortical activation patterns at sub-second time scales. We used a clustering algorithm to decompose the spatial patterns of cortical calcium activity in a

SUBMITTER: Surinach D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10081171 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature