Biology subjects

Rueda-Orozco, P. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Rueda-Orozco, P. E..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Preconfigured cortico-thalamic neural dynamics constrain movement-associated thalamic activity

Neural preconfigured activity patterns (nPAPs) have been proposed as building blocks for cognitive and sensory processing. However, their existence and function in motor networks have not been explicitly studied. Here, we explore the possibility that nPAPs are present in the motor thalamus (VL/VM) and their potential contribution to motor-related activity. To this end, we developed a preparation where VL/VM multiunitary activity could be robustly recorded in mouse behavior evoked by primary motor cortex (M1) optogenetic stimulation and forelimb movements. VL/VM-evoked activity was organized as rigid stereotypical activity patterns at the single and population levels. These activity patterns were unable to dynamically adapt to different temporal architectures of M1 stimulation. Moreover, they were experience-independent and present in virtually all animals, confirming their preconfigured nature. Finally, subpopulations expressing specific M1-evoked patterns also displayed specific movement-related patterns. Our data demonstrate that the behaviorally related identity of specific neural subpopulations is tightly linked to nPAPs.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Manipulation of striatal population dynamics using temperature warps judgment of time

The basal ganglia (BG) are thought to contribute to decision-making and motor control by influencing action selection based on consequences. These functions are critically dependent on timing information that can be extracted from the evolving state of neural populations in the striatum, the major input area of the BG. However, it is debated whether striatal activity underlies latent, dynamic decision processes or kinematics of overt movement. Here, we measured the impact of temperature on striatal population activity and the behavior of rats and compared the observed effects to neural activity and behavior collected in multiple versions of a temporal categorization task. Cooler temperatures caused dilation, and warmer temperatures contraction, of both neural activity and patterns of judgment in time, mimicking endogenous decision-related variability in striatal activity. However, temperature did not similarly affect movement kinematics. These data provide compelling evidence that the time course of evolving striatal population activity dictates the speed of a latent process that is used to guide choices, but not moment by moment kinematics. More broadly, they establish temporal scaling of population activity as a likely cause and not simply a correlate of timing behavior in the brain.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Response outcomes gate the impact of expectations on perceptual decisions

Perceptual decisions are not only determined by current sensory information but are also influenced by recent experience. Can the magnitude of expectation-based decision biases be flexibly modulated based on the outcome of previous decisions? We trained rats in several two-alternative forced choice auditory tasks, where the probability to repeat the previous stimulus category was varied in blocks of trials. All rats capitalized on the serial correlations of the stimulus sequence by consistently exploiting a transition bias: a tendency to repeat or alternate their previous response using an internal trial-by-trial estimate of the sequence repeating probability. Surprisingly, this expectation bias was null in trials immediately following an error. The internal estimate however was not reset and it became effective again causing a bias after the next correct response. This ability to rapidly activate and inactivate the bias was captured by a non-linear generative model of rat behavior, whereby a reward-driven modulatory signal gated the use of the latent estimate of the environment statistics on the current decision. These results demonstrate that rats use behavioral outcomes to flexibly modulate how expectations derived from the recent history influence their decisions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

A minority-ruled population coding of kinematics in the striatum

The structure of population activity in the dorsolateral striatum during the performance of motor sequences has not been characterized and it is unclear if striatal ensembles encode (predict) kinematic parameters defining how sequences are executed. Here we analyzed hundreds of striatal spike trains from naive and trained rats performing a running sequence. We found that the population response was composed of a diversity of phasic modulations covering the entire sequence. The accuracy of kinematics encoding by single neurons was around chance level but improved when neuronal ensembles were considered. The distribution of single-neuron contributions to ensemble encoding was highly skewed with a minority of neurons responsible for most of the encoding accuracy. Importantly, running speed ensemble encoding improved after learning. We propose that during motor learning, striatal ensembles adjust their task representation by tuning the activity of a minority of neurons to the kinematic parameters most relevant to motor performance.

neuroscience↗