Long-term stability of single neuron activity in the motor system

Jensen, KT and Kadmon Harpaz, N and Dhawale, AK and Wolff, SBE and �lveczky, BP (2022) Long-term stability of single neuron activity in the motor system. In: Nature Neuroscience, 25 (12). pp. 1664-1674.

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Abstract

How an established behavior is retained and consistently produced by a nervous system in constant flux remains a mystery. One possible solution to ensure long-term stability in motor output is to fix the activity patterns of single neurons in the relevant circuits. Alternatively, activity in single cells could drift over time provided that the population dynamics are constrained to produce the same behavior. To arbitrate between these possibilities, we recorded single-unit activity in motor cortex and striatum continuously for several weeks as rats performed stereotyped motor behaviors—both learned and innate. We found long-term stability in single neuron activity patterns across both brain regions. A small amount of drift in neural activity, observed over weeks of recording, could be explained by concomitant changes in task-irrelevant aspects of the behavior. These results suggest that long-term stable behaviors are generated by single neuron activity patterns that are themselves highly stable.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Nature Neuroscience
Publisher:	Nature Research
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Nature Research.
Keywords:	animal experiment; article; brain region; corpus striatum; locomotion; male; motor cortex; nerve cell; nonhuman; rat; single unit activity
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Neuroscience
Date Deposited:	04 Jan 2023 09:16
Last Modified:	04 Jan 2023 09:16
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/78730

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