Review
Physics, Applied
Albert Lin, Daniel Witvliet, Luis Hernandez-Nunez, Scott W. Linderman, Aravinthan D. T. Samuel, Vivek Venkatachalam
Summary: Most brain studies have focused on small groups of neurons, but whole-brain activity requires the coordination of multiple circuits in different brain regions. Whole-brain recording with cellular resolution offers a new opportunity to understand the neural basis of behavior, but it requires new theoretical approaches that integrate brain dynamics with behavioral dynamics.
NATURE REVIEWS PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Carolin Schonard, Tobias Heed, Christian Seegelke
Summary: This study investigated the time course of attention build-up during motor preparation using behavioral experiments, psychophysics, and computational decision-making models. The findings revealed that visuospatial attentional prioritization during motor preparation is not solely based on the time requirement of attention formation, but also reflects the emergence of movement decisions.
Article
Biology
Gayane Ghazaryan, Marijn van Vliet, Lotta Lammi, Tiina Lindh-Knuutila, Sasa Kivisaari, Annika Hulten, Riitta Salmelin
Summary: This study combines magnetoencephalography and machine learning to investigate the representation and access of concepts in the brain over time, showing dynamic changes in visual and semantic information processing.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Cendri A. Hutcherson, Anita Tusche
Summary: The study suggests that the activation of dlPFC during normative choice may depend more on value-based evidence accumulation than inhibition of default hedonistic preferences. Deliberate self-regulation focusing on normative goals may decrease or even reverse the pattern of dlPFC response, showing greater activation for hedonistic, self-interested choices.
Article
Psychiatry
Yilin Chen, Ying Liu, Zhen Wang, Tianming Yang, Qing Fan
Summary: This study compared OCD patients with a control group and found that OCD patients process evidence differently during decision-making. While their decision-making accuracy was similar to the control group, OCD patients took longer to accumulate evidence, especially in difficult trials with low evidence strength. Model analysis showed that the OCD group was less sensitive to evidence.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Peter R. Murphy, Niklas Wilming, Diana C. Hernandez-Bocanegra, Genis Prat-Ortega, Tobias H. Donner
Summary: The study reveals that adaptive evidence accumulation is present during decision-making under uncertainty, and this computation is reflected in the recurrent dynamics of human parietal and motor cortices, with feedback to the sensory cortex.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michael Pereira, Pierre Megevand, Mi Xue Tan, Wenwen Chang, Shuo Wang, Ali Rezai, Margitta Seeck, Marco Corniola, Shahan Momjian, Fosco Bernasconi, Olaf Blanke, Nathan Faivre
Summary: Using single-neuron recordings, electroencephalographic recordings, and computational methods, the researchers found that conscious experience and self-reflection are related to a common mechanism of evidence accumulation in the posterior parietal cortex.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Yuan Chang Leong, Roma Dziembaj, Mark D'Esposito
Summary: People's perceptual reports are biased toward percepts they are motivated to see. The arousal system coordinates the body's response to motivationally significant events and is well positioned to regulate motivational effects on perceptual judgments. Heightened arousal biases people toward what they want to see and away from an objective representation of the environment.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Alexander J. Smith, Genevieve L. Noyce, James Patrick Megonigal, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Matthew L. Kirwan
Summary: Coastal marshes are important carbon dense ecosystems that are both maintained and threatened by sea-level rise. This study found that moderate temperature increases can maximize root growth, marsh elevation gain, and belowground carbon accumulation. However, higher temperatures were associated with marsh elevation loss and increased carbon mineralization, suggesting potential risks of marsh drowning.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Ali Ataei, Arash Amini, Ali Ghazizadeh
Summary: Food choice is a fundamental and frequent value-based decision, and the right temporal-parietal operculum and medial insula play significant roles in this decision-making process. EEG-fMRI analysis is beneficial for understanding the neural circuitry involved in food-based decisions.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Zhewei Zhang, Chaoqun Yin, Tianming Yang
Summary: The study demonstrates that the accumulation signal in the posterior parietal cortex during decision making is generated locally, providing important insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the decision-making process.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Yusuke Morito, Tsutomu Murata
Summary: This study investigates the neural substrates of evidence accumulation during decision-making tasks using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The findings suggest the existence of different types of accumulators in various brain regions, which are involved in decision timing and competition among alternative choices.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Joshua A. Seideman, Terrence R. Stanford, Emilio Salinas
Summary: The study shows that spatial selection in LIP is distinct from, and may even conflict with, evidence accumulation during saccadic choices. This finding is important for understanding the guidance mechanisms of eye movements.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Elisabeth Pares-Pujolras, Eoin Travers, Yoana Ahmetoglu, Patrick Haggard
Summary: This study identifies a neural correlate that tracks asymmetries between competing alternatives over the course of a decision. The neural dynamics and behavioral effects can be explained by competition between inhibiting accumulators and a context-dependent urgency signal. Urgency increases faster when evidence is presented at a lower rate.
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
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
K. P. Siju, Vilim Stih, Sophie Aimon, Julijana Gjorgjieva, Ruben Portugues, Ilona C. Grunwald Kadow
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Tugce Yildizoglu, Clemens Riegler, James E. Fitzgerald, Ruben Portugues
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Natalia V. Barykina, Vladimir P. Sotskov, Anna M. Gruzdeva, You Kure Wu, Ruben Portugues, Oksana M. Subach, Elizaveta S. Chefanova, Viktor V. Plusnin, Olga I. Ivashkina, Konstantin V. Anokhin, Anna V. Vlaskina, Dmitry A. Korzhenevskiy, Alena Y. Nikolaeva, Konstantin M. Boyko, Tatiana V. Rakitina, Anna M. Varizhuk, Galina E. Pozmogova, Fedor V. Subach
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2020)
Article
Neurosciences
Mehrnoosh Jafari, Adrian-Minh Schumacher, Nicolas Snaidero, Emily M. Ullrich Gavilanes, Tradite Neziraj, Virag Kocsis-Jutka, Daniel Engels, Tanja Jurgens, Ingrid Wagner, Juan Daniel Florez Weidinger, Stephanie S. Schmidt, Eduardo Beltran, Nellwyn Hagan, Lisa Woodworth, Dimitry Ofengeim, Joseph Gans, Fred Wolf, Mario Kreutzfeldt, Ruben Portugues, Doron Merkler, Thomas Misgeld, Martin Kerschensteiner
Summary: Synapse loss in the cortex is a key pathological feature in multiple sclerosis, which contributes to chronic cognitive impairment. Gray matter inflammation affects neuronal structure and function, and targeting synapse loss through immunomodulatory therapy could be a potential treatment strategy.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Gema Valera, Daniil A. Markov, Kayvan Bijari, Owen Randlett, Amir Asgharsharghi, Jean-Pierre Baudoin, Giorgio A. Ascoli, Ruben Portugues, Hernan Lopez-Schier
Summary: This study investigates rheotaxis in larval zebrafish using the lateral line system, finding structural constancy among lateral-line afferent neurons (LANs) and that precise topographic mapping of lateral-line receptors is not essential for the behavior. The data suggest that the integration of signals from direction-selective LANs influences the encoding of water-flow direction in the brain.
Article
Biology
Federico Claudi, Adam L. Tyson, Luigi Petrucco, Troy W. Margrie, Ruben Portugues, Tiago Branco
Summary: The study introduces brainrender, an open-source Python package for interactive visualization of multidimensional datasets registered to brain atlases. This tool facilitates the creation of complex renderings with different data types in the same visualization, accelerating the analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of brain-wide multidimensional data.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Peter Engerer, Eleni Petridou, Philip R. Williams, Sachihiro C. Suzuki, Takeshi Yoshimatsu, Ruben Portugues, Thomas Misgeld, Leanne Godinho
Summary: Studies have shown spontaneous neuronal fate re-specification in the zebrafish retina, challenging the traditional view of neuronal identity as immutable. This unexpected plasticity in cell fate during retinal development suggests that post-mitotic neurons can switch their identity, highlighting a new aspect of neural development.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Iris Odstrcil, Mariela D. Petkova, Martin Haesemeyer, Jonathan Boulanger-Weill, Maxim Nikitchenko, James A. Gagnon, Pablo Oteiza, Richard Schalek, Adi Peleg, Ruben Portugues, Jeff W. Lichtman, Florian Engert
Summary: The study provides detailed characterization of how hair cells in zebrafish larvae can discriminate between reafferent and exafferent signals, revealing factors that influence lateral line sensitivity. Through dye labeling, organ circuit reconstruction, and investigation of neural signals, the core mechanism of internal stimulus suppression is uncovered.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Daniil A. Markov, Luigi Petrucco, Andreas M. Kist, Ruben Portugues
Summary: The study shows that zebrafish can adjust their behavior through feedback control and internal model control mechanisms in response to changes in the environment, highlighting the role of the cerebellum in encoding internal models and calibrating neuronal circuits involved in reactive behaviors.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Yan Xiao, Laura J. Hoodless, Luigi Petrucco, Ruben Portugues, Tim Czopka
Summary: Oligodendrocyte precursor cells have a regulatory role in the precise formation of retinal ganglion cell arbors and visual processing. They can fine-tune neural circuits independently of their canonical role to make myelin.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Developmental Biology
Maria Hernandez-Bejarano, Gaia Gestri, Clinton Monfries, Lisa Tucker, Elena I. Dragomir, Isaac H. Bianco, Paols Bovlenia, Stephen W. Wilson, Florencia Cavodeassi
Summary: This study demonstrates the importance of appropriate retinal patterning during embryonic development for specific visual functions. The interplay of transcription factor Rx3 with Fibroblast Growth Factor and Hedgehog signals regulates the expression of specific regions, leading to the establishment of specialized visual features.
Article
Neurosciences
Luigi Petrucco, Hagar Lavian, You Kure Wu, Fabian Svara, Vilim Stih, Ruben Portugues
Summary: In this study, the researchers discovered a circuit in the hindbrain of larval zebrafish that persistently encodes heading direction. This neuronal network supports ring attractor dynamics through inhibitory connections between neurons. The findings show a topographical representation of heading direction in the zebrafish anterior hindbrain, with a sinusoidal bump of activity rotating as the fish swims in different directions. The electron microscopy reconstructions revealed that these neurons arborize in the interpeduncular nucleus and exhibit similar architectural principles to those found in the fly central complex, suggesting a common mechanism for representing heading direction across different animal species.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
