Neural recordings in behaving animals has revealed the types of sensory and motor information represented by cortical neurons. However, we do not know the functional organization of the neural circuits that generate these representations. Neural circuits with different structures produce different activity dynamics. Therefore, analyses of the dynamics of neural activity may provide insights into the underlying neural circuit organization. We record single unit and population neural activity from mice performing sensory-motor tasks. We compare the neural activity dynamics with those produced by simple circuit models. These analyses enable us to predict the neural circuit organization underlying task-dependent cortical activity.

Prof. Edward Zagha