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4 - Neural population recording in behaving animals: constituents of a neural code for behavioral decisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2009

By
Robert E. Hampson  and
Sam A. Deadwyler
Edited by
Christian Holscher  and
Matthias Munk
Christian Holscher
Affiliation:
University of Ulster
Matthias Munk
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik, Tübingen
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Summary

Introduction

A major advantage conferred by recording from populations of neurons from any brain area is the potential to determine how that population encodes or represents information about a sensory input, behavioral task, motor movement, or cognitive decision. The ultimate purpose of populations of neural ensemble, recording and analysis can then be characterized as understanding: (1) what does the ensemble encode? (2) how does the ensemble encode it? and finally, (3) how do brain structures use that ensemble code?

In the hippocampus, the anatomy has been studied extensively such that connections between the major principal cell groups are well characterized and the local “functional” circuitry is currently under intense investigation. Neurons have been recorded in all major subfields in the hippocampus, and cell identification via firing signature or local analysis is not a problem in most cases. In the same manner, anatomical connections between subfields are also known; therefore, it is possible to position recording electrodes along specific anatomic projections to record ensembles of neurons with known anatomic connectivity. Given these factors, we have used multineuron recording techniques to determine how neural activity within hippocampal circuits is integrated with behavioral and cognitive events. However, as in many brain systems, the make-up of the ensembles is at least as critical as the techniques used to analyze the ensemble data, or “codes.” In addition, the functional connectivity that gives rise to such codes may not be constant; in fact variations in functional connectivity may produce different codes for different cognitive events.

Type
Chapter
Information
Information Processing by Neuronal Populations , pp. 74 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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