Biology subjects

McCullough, M. H.

Publications and source records attributed to McCullough, M. H..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Preventing Data Leakage in Neural Decoding

Neural decoding is a widely-used machine learning technique for investigating how behavior, perception and cognition are represented in neural activity. However without careful application data leakage can occur, where information from the test set contaminates the training set, leading to biased estimates of decoding performance and potentially invalidating biological conclusions. Here we show that leakage can be introduced in neural decoding studies by common supervised and unsupervised preprocessing steps, including dimensionality reduction. We reveal that in some cases leakage can paradoxically decrease decoding performance relative to unbiased estimates, and we provide theoretical analyses explaining how this occurs. We also show that, for autocorrelated neural time series, randomized k-fold cross-validation can dramatically overstate decoding performance. Based on these findings, we provide detailed recommendations for avoiding data leakage in neural decoding.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Maladaptation of Memory Systems Impairs Dorsal CA1-Dependent Temporal Binding and Declarative Memory in The Cntnap2 Knockout Mouse Model of Autism

Growing evidence implicates the hippocampus in the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder, particularly in the domains of social interactions and cognition. Yet, the mechanisms driving hippocampal-dependent cognitive atypicalities in autism remain poorly defined. Here, we characterized how dysfunction of the CA1 subfield of the dorsal hippocampus drives critical components of declarative memory. Using trace fear conditioning in the Cntnap2 knockout mouse model of autism, we found that capabilities to retain the association of temporally distant stimuli (i.e. temporal binding) were reduced relative to wildtype mice. Fiber photometry and optogenetic experiments demonstrated that reduced CA1 activity during temporal gaps underlies this impairment, linking CA1 dysfunction to a deficit of long-term memory retention in autism. Using a relational/declarative memory task, we also revealed a deficit in flexible spatial memory, and a preferential use of egocentric learning strategy. This unflexible learning strategy resulted from the imbalance between memory system activity, promoting frontostriatal-dependent procedural learning instead of dorsal CA1/hippocampus-dependent relational/declarative memory. Overall, this study establishes dorsal CA1 dysfunction as a circuit-level mechanism underlying cognitive inflexibility in autism, providing a neurobiological framework for hippocampal-dependent memory deficits in the condition.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Behavioral adaptation to changing energy constraints via altered frequency of movement selection

Animal behavior is strongly constrained by energy consumption. A natural manipulation which provides insight into this constraint is development, where an animal must adapt its movement to a changing energy landscape as its body grows. Unlike many other animals, for fish it is relatively easy to estimate the energy consumed by their movements via fluid mechanics. Here we simulated the fluid mechanics of >100,000 experimentally-recorded movement bouts from larval zebrafish across different ages and fluid conditions as they hunted Paramecia. We find that these fish adapt to their changing relationship with the fluid environment as they grow by adjusting the frequency with which they select different types of movements, so that more expensive movements are chosen less often. This strategy was preserved when fish were raised in an unnaturally viscous environment. This work suggests a general principle by which animals could minimize energy consumption in the face of changing energy costs over development.

animal behavior and cognition↗