Correlations enhance the behavioral readout of neural population activity in association cortex.

ABSTRACT: Noise correlations (that is, trial-to-trial covariations in neural activity for a given stimulus) limit the stimulus information encoded by neural populations, leading to the widely held prediction that they impair perceptual discrimination behaviors. However, this prediction neglects the effects of correlations on information readout. We studied how correlations affect both encoding and readout of sensory information. We analyzed calcium imaging data from mouse posterior parietal cortex during two perceptual discrimination tasks. Correlations reduced the encoded stimulus information, but, seemingly paradoxically, were higher when mice made correct rather than incorrect choices. Single-trial behavioral choices depended not only on the stimulus information encoded by the whole population, b

SUBMITTER: Valente M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8559600 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature