Unsupervised discovery of behaviorally relevant brain states in rats playing hide-and-seek.

ABSTRACT: In classical neuroscience experiments, neural activity is measured across many identical trials of animals performing simple tasks and is then analyzed, associating neural responses to pre-defined experimental parameters. This type of analysis is not suitable for patterns of behavior that unfold freely, such as play behavior. Here, we attempt an alternative approach for exploratory data analysis on a single-trial level, applicable in more complex and naturalistic behavioral settings in which no two trials are identical. We analyze neural population activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of rats playing hide-and-seek and show that it is possible to discover what aspects of the task are reflected in the recorded activity with a limited number of simultaneously recorded cells (≤ 31). Using h

SUBMITTER: Bagi B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9245901 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature