An International Laboratory for Systems and Computational Neuroscience

Abstract

The neural basis of decision-making has been elusive and involves the coordinated activity of multiple brain structures. This NeuroView, by the International Brain Laboratory (IBL), discusses their efforts to develop a standardized mouse decision-making behavior, to make coordinated measurements of neural activity across the mouse brain, and to use theory and analyses to uncover the neural computations that support decision-making.

Figure 1

Probing Decisions Based on Perception and Value in Head-Fixed Mice (A) Finding prey requires making decisions based on sensory systems and on prior experience of cost and value. (B) A laboratory task to probe decision-making. Mice select a visual stimulus and report their choice by moving the stimulus to the center with a steering wheel (Burgess et al., 2017). (C) Schematic of mouse decisions as a function of stimulus strength (e.g., visual contrast). When the stimulus is strong (50% contrast left or right), it drives most choices. When the stimulus is weak or absent (0 contrast), choices depend on whether rewards are larger for rightward choices (red) or leftward choices (blue).

Figure 2

Three Modalities for Measuring Neural Activity (A) Neuropixels recordings from multiple brain areas. (B) Two-photon imaging across cortical regions. (C) Fiber photometry of neuromodulator pathways.

Figure 3

Architecture for Sharing Data Collaboration-Wide Using a Cloud-Based System Experimentalists collect data in three modalities (left), which is then preprocessed and uploaded to a cloud-based server. All members of the collaboration then have full and immediate access to the data for analysis and modeling (right).