Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Simon Nougaret, Valeria Fascianelli, Sabrina Ravel, Aldo Genovesio
Summary: Recent studies have shown that intrinsic timescales of neuronal populations can be estimated by spike-count autocorrelation structure and reflect a scale of temporal receptive windows between brain areas. This study conducted autocorrelation analysis on neuronal populations of three basal ganglia nuclei, revealing longer intrinsic timescales in the striatum and subthalamic nucleus compared to the external globus pallidus (GPe). These findings provide insights into the placement of subcortical structures within the scale of cortical temporal receptive windows.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Cell Biology
Aidan Schneider, Mehdi Azabou, Louis McDougall-Vigier, David F. Parks, Sahara Ensley, Kiran Bhaskaran-Nair, Tomasz Nowakowski, Eva L. Dyer, Keith B. Hengen
Summary: Cell type is a crucial factor in determining the role of neurons in a circuit. This study investigates the influence of a neuron's transcriptomic type on the timing of its activity. The researchers develop a deep-learning architecture that can analyze interevent intervals across various timescales. They find that transcriptomic cell-class information is present in the timing of single neuron activity in the brain and can be universal across different stimuli.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Abigail Kalmbach, Vanessa Winiger, Nuri Jeong, Arun Asok, Charles R. Gallistel, Peter D. Balsam, Eleanor H. Simpson
Summary: Dopamine levels in mice accurately reflect reward availability and rapidly respond to transitions between reward availability states.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Ana M. G. Manea, Anna Zilverstand, Kamil Ugurbil, Sarah R. Heilbronner, Jan Zimmermann
Summary: This study used ultrahigh field functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the timescales of neural processing in the whole brain. The results showed consistency between fMRI and electrophysiological estimates of timescales, and extended the application of electrophysiological hierarchies to whole-brain topographies. The study also demonstrated that intrinsic timescales are a unifying organizational principle of neural processing across the whole brain.
Article
Neurosciences
Martina Brofiga, Marietta Pisano, Mariateresa Tedesco, Anna Boccaccio, Paolo Massobrio
Summary: The brain is a complex organ composed of billions of neurons. Its structure, which exhibits a modular topological organization, is influenced by network heterogeneity and the topological properties of the underlying connectivity. This study explores the functional and structural connections between interconnected subpopulations of cortical and hippocampal neurons, and their impact on the patterns of electrophysiological activity. The results reveal the differences in connectivity and activity patterns between the two types of neurons, and the influence of the physical environment on the development and maturation of neuronal networks.
Article
Neurosciences
Jianxun Ren, Catherine S. Hubbard, Jyrki Ahveninen, Weigang Cui, Meiling Li, Xiaolong Peng, Guoming Luan, Ying Han, Yang Li, Ann K. Shinn, Danhong Wang, Luming Li, Hesheng Liu
Summary: This study identified multiple auditory cortico-cerebellar pathways, revealing different levels of functional connectivity between auditory subareas and cerebellar regions. It also showed divergent connectivity patterns between auditory and sensorimotor areas, as well as the potential for functional segmentation of the AC based on different connectivity methods.
Article
Neurosciences
Harish RaviPrakash, Syed Muhammad Anwar, Nadia M. Biassou, Ulas Bagci
Summary: This study explores the functional and anatomical differences in the brains of chess players, finding that the saliency and ventral attention network are different between amateur and professional players. The researchers utilize resting-state functional magnetic resonance images and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging to develop a new connectivity matrix called the functional morphometric similarity connectome (FMSC) and validate an existing neuroscience hypothesis about skill learning and brain changes.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Georgette Argiris, Yaakov Stern, Christian Habeck
Summary: This study found that four reference abilities play a significant role in age-related changes in cognition, with different functional connectivity patterns varying with age and behavior. Fluid reasoning showed the most extensive connectivity and selectivity footprint among the reference abilities, indicating a special status in functional networks.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2021)
Article
Cell Biology
Stephen P. Currie, Julian J. Ammer, Brian Premchand, Joshua Dacre, Yufei Wu, Constantinos Eleftheriou, Matt Colligan, Thomas Clarke, Leah Mitchell, A. Aldo Faisal, Matthias H. Hennig, Ian Duguid
Summary: The motor cortex generates descending output necessary for limb movements, but the organization of movement-specific signaling in deep layers is not well understood. In this study, the authors recorded the activity of layer 5B neurons in the caudal forelimb area of motor cortex while mice performed a push/pull task. They found that most neurons showed movement-invariant responses, while a minority displayed movement specificity. The activity of pyramidal tract neurons mainly represented movement-invariant signaling, while a small subpopulation of these neurons represented movement type. In contrast, a larger proportion of intratelencephalic neurons displayed movement-type-specific signaling. The authors suggest that layer 5B population dynamics largely reflect movement-invariant signaling, with information related to movement type being routed through a small proportion of projection neurons.
Article
Biology
Lucas Pinto, David W. Tank, Carlos D. Brody
Summary: It has been found that cortical areas form a hierarchy of intrinsic timescales which plays an important role in cognitive behavior. In decision-making processes that require the gradual accumulation of sensory evidence over time, widespread areas across this hierarchy are involved. The inactivation of different cortical areas affects the evidence-accumulation computation in distinct ways, with frontal inactivations leading to more severe deficits on long timescales than posterior cortical ones.
Article
Neurosciences
Ethan G. McBride, Saurabh R. Gandhi, Jacqulyn R. Kuyat, Douglas R. Ollerenshaw, Anton Arkhipov, Christof Koch, Shawn R. Olsen
Summary: Using optogenetics and multi-regional Neuropixels recordings, the study found that the claustrum has different effects on cortical activity depending on brain area, layer, and cell type. Brief claustrum stimulation mainly affects fast spiking neurons and leads to a modest decrease in population activity. Prolonged claustrum stimulation affects a larger number of cortical neurons and can either increase or decrease spiking activity. Excitation occurs more in posterior regions and superficial layers, while inhibition predominates in frontal regions and deeper layers. These findings suggest organization of claustro-cortical circuits into functional modules.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Majid Saberi, Reza Khosrowabadi, Ali Khatibi, Bratislav Misic, Gholamreza Jafari
Summary: This study focused on the organization of brain functional links and found a U-shape functionality of the requirement to change in the resting-state network over the lifespan, correlated with the presence of negative links. Additionally, the brain negative subnetwork exhibited a special topology with a log-normal degree distribution at all stages, but its global measures were altered by adulthood. The results highlight the study of functional negative links as a source of between-regions conflicts in the brain and suggest exploring the attribute of the requirement to change along with other neural change factors.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wonseok Whi, Youngmin Huh, Seunggyun Ha, Hyekyoung Lee, Hyejin Kang, Dong Soo Lee
Summary: Hyperbolic disc embedding and k-core percolation reveal the hierarchical structure of functional connectivity on resting-state fMRI. By visualizing inter-voxel relations and classifying core voxels, typical characteristics of individuals and dominant subnetworks can be identified.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Biology
Ole Numssen, Danilo Bzdok, Gesa Hartwigsen
Summary: The study revealed that the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) plays a global role in cognition, with domain-specific modulation of effective connectivity between its subregions in the left and right hemispheres. Functional interactions between the anterior and posterior IPL subregions during tasks involve different lateralized coupling patterns. These findings shed light on the under-appreciated hemispheric specialization of the IPL in supporting distinctive human mental capacities.
Article
Economics
Dongna Zhang, Xingyu Dai, Qunwei Wang, Chi Keung Marco Lau
Summary: This study examines the relationship between weather conditions and the interdependence of the US commodities system. Various measures such as dynamic equicorrelation, total returns spillover, and tail risk spillover are used to investigate this relationship in time-frequency domains. The findings reveal that temperature plays a significant role in driving the interdependence of commodities, and factors like high temperature, global horizontal irradiance, and wind speed impact total returns spillover. Additionally, temperature, cloud coverage, precipitation, and runoff have leading influences on tail risk spillover. The study also suggests practical implications for commodity investors in adapting to climate change.
Article
Neurosciences
Ilenna Simone Jones, Konrad Paul Kording
Summary: Computation on dendritic trees of neurons is subject to important constraints, but these constraints do not negatively impact the performance of dendritic models in machine learning tasks and may even be beneficial. These results suggest that single real dendritic trees may have the ability to learn a surprisingly broad range of tasks.
Article
Biology
Stephen A. Antos, Konrad P. Kording, Keith E. Gordon
Summary: Healthy young adults have preferred walking speed, step length, and step width that are close to energetically optimal. However, people can choose from various step lengths and widths, which can differ in energy expenditure and preference.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Tony Liu, Jonah Meyerhoff, Johannes C. Eichstaedt, Chris J. Karr, Susan M. Kaiser, Konrad P. Kording, David C. Mohr, Lyle H. Ungar
Summary: Personal sensing through analysis of text message sentiment shows promise for detecting symptoms of depression and can be combined with other personal sensors for comprehensive mental health monitoring and intervention.
JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS
(2022)
Review
Neurosciences
Shan H. Siddiqi, Konrad P. Kording, Josef Parvizi, Michael D. Fox
Summary: Mapping human brain function is crucial for developing treatments for brain disorders. The combination of causal mapping approaches and modern neuroimaging techniques provides new insights into the functions of specific brain areas.
NATURE REVIEWS NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Ben Baker, Benjamin Lansdell, Konrad P. Kording
Summary: This article provides a comprehensive account of the concept of "representation" in neuroscience and discusses its three key aspects: correlation, causal role, and teleology. Drawing on literature in both neuroscience and philosophy, the authors demonstrate how these aspects are rooted in the study of the brain and mind.
TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Daniel E. Acuna, Misha Teplitskiy, James A. Evans, Konrad Kording
Summary: Peer review is an important aspect of science, but the practice of authors suggesting reviewers has been controversial. This article examines the association between author-suggested reviewers and review invitation, review scores, acceptance rates, and subjective review quality, and finds that author-suggested review panels can increase the chances of acceptance but reviewers are less likely to agree to review.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Loana Marinescu, Sofia Triantafillou, Konrad Kording
Summary: This study explores the optimization of policy thresholds by using regression discontinuity methods and machine learning predictions to estimate the treatment threshold that produces the best cumulative effect for the treated individuals.
Editorial Material
Engineering, Biomedical
Max Dabagia, Konrad P. Kording, Eva L. Dyer
Summary: Comparing neural recordings requires alignment of low-dimensional latent representations.
NATURE BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2023)
Review
Neurosciences
Blake Aaron Richards, Konrad Paul Kording
Summary: The study of learning and plasticity has always been driven by the question of how physiological changes can be adaptive and improve performance. Different mechanisms such as Hebbian plasticity and dopamine-gated learning show that synapse changes depend on activity and reward, respectively. By examining the existing literature, we argue that gradients are a unifying idea to explain the mechanisms of neuronal plasticity.
JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-LONDON
(2023)
Review
Neurosciences
Adrien Doerig, Rowan P. Sommers, Katja Seeliger, Blake Richards, Jenann Ismael, Grace W. Lindsay, Konrad P. Kording, Talia Konkle, Marcel A. J. van Gerven, Nikolaus Kriegeskorte, Tim C. Kietzmann
Summary: Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are widely used for modeling behavioral and neural data. The authors present neuroconnectionism as a research program using ANNs as a language for expressing falsifiable theories about brain computations. They argue that focusing on the successes and failures of current ANNs is not the right approach to assess the promise of neuroconnectionism, and instead propose to evaluate its capacity to generate novel insights. Reviewing past and present neuroconnectionist projects, they conclude that the research program is highly progressive in providing new understanding of the brain.
NATURE REVIEWS NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Fengrong He, Ian J. Stevenson, Monty Escabi
Summary: Theories of efficient coding propose that the auditory system is optimized for the statistical structure of natural sounds. This study examines the transformations of peripheral and mid-level auditory filters on the representation of natural sound spectra and modulation statistics. The findings suggest that the tuning characteristics of the peripheral and mid-level auditory system produce a whitened output representation that reduces redundancies and allows for a more efficient use of neural resources.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Benjamin James Lansdell, Konrad Paul Kording
Summary: Despite significant research, models of spiking neural networks still lag behind artificial neural networks in performance. In this work, the authors show that the discontinuous spiking response of a neuron can be used to estimate its causal effect on downstream processes. This proposal provides insights into a novel function of spiking and aids in solving causal estimation problems in simple networks and learning tasks.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Psychology, Biological
Timothy Verstynen, Konrad Paul Kording
NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Marie A. R. Manalili, Amy Pearson, Justin Sulik, Louise Creechan, Mahmoud Elsherif, Inika Murkumbi, Flavio Azevedo, Kathryn L. Bonnen, Judy S. Kim, Konrad Kording, Julie J. Lee, Manifold Obscura, Steven K. Kapp, Jan P. Roeer, Talia Morstead
Summary: In cognitive science, there is a biased perception that certain forms of cognitive diversity, such as cultural variation or synaesthesia, are valuable for understanding cognition, while others, like autism or ADHD, are seen as deficits. The neurodiversity paradigm challenges this, arguing that these experiences are natural reflections of biodiversity. This paper proposes that neurodiversity is an important topic for future research in cognitive science, as it will lead to better theories of human cognition and empower marginalized researchers.
Article
Computer Science, Theory & Methods
David Rolnick, Priya L. Donti, Lynn H. Kaack, Kelly Kochanski, Alexandre Lacoste, Kris Sankaran, Andrew Slavin Ross, Nikola Milojevic-Dupont, Natasha Jaques, Anna Waldman-Brown, Alexandra Sasha Luccioni, Tegan Maharaj, Evan D. Sherwin, S. Karthik Mukkavilli, Konrad P. Kording, Carla P. Gomes, Andrew Y. Ng, Demis Hassabis, John C. Platt, Felix Creutzig, Jennifer Chayes, Yoshua Bengio
Summary: This article discusses the importance of machine learning in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping society adapt to climate change. It identifies existing gaps and proposes solutions and opportunities.
ACM COMPUTING SURVEYS
(2023)