Kelly Clancy
UC Berkeley

Volitional control of neural assemblies in L2/3 of motor and somotosensory cortices

Wednesday 02nd of July 2014 at 12:00pm
560 Evans

I'll be talking about a joint effort between the Feldman, Carmena and Costa labs to study abstract task learning by small neuronal assemblies in intact networks. Brain-machine interfaces are a unique tool for studying learning, thanks to the direct mapping between neural activity and reward. We trained mice to operantly control an auditory cursor using spike-related calcium signals recorded with two-photon imaging in motor and somatosensory cortex, allowing us to assess the effects of learning with great spatial detail. Mice rapidly learned to modulate activity in layer 2/3 neurons, evident both across and within sessions. Interestingly, even neurons that exhibited very low or no spontaneous spiking--so-called 'silent' cells that are invisible to electrode-based techniques--could be behaviorally up-modulated for task performance. Learning was accompanied by modifications of firing correlations in spatially localized networks at fine scales.
(video)

Join Email List

You can subscribe to our weekly seminar email list by sending an email to majordomo@lists.berkeley.edu that contains the words subscribe redwood in the body of the message.
(Note: The subject line can be arbitrary and will be ignored)