Decision-making behaviors: weighing ethology, complexity, and sensorimotor compatibility

Juavinett, Ashley L.; Erlich, Jeffrey C; Churchland, Anne K.

doi:10.1016/j.conb.2017.11.001

Cited by 68 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Moreover, when combined with tasks, free behavior may in fact allow subjects to adopt strategies akin to those used under native conditions, whether behavioral or covert (Buzsaki, ; Redish, ). This matter of synthesizing ethology with controlled experimentation remains an open question (Cisek & Kalaska, ; Juavinett, Erlich, & Churchland, ; Krakauer, Ghazanfar, Gomez‐Marin, MacIver, & Poeppel, ; Yartsev, ).…”

Section: Three Brain States In the Hippocampusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three brain states in the hippocampus and cortex

Kay

Frank

2019

Hippocampus

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Contemporary brain research seeks to understand how cognition is reducible to neural activity. Crucially, much of this effort is guided by a scientific paradigm that views neural activity as essentially driven by external stimuli. In contrast, recent perspectives argue that this paradigm is by itself inadequate, and that understanding patterns of activity intrinsic to the brain is needed to explain cognition. Yet despite this critique, the stimulus-driven paradigm still dominates - possibly because a convincing alternative has not been clear. Here we review a series of experimental findings in the hippocampus suggesting such an alternative. These findings indicate that hippocampal neural activity occurs in one of three brain states that have radically different anatomical, physiological, representational, and behavioral correlates, together implying different roles in cognition. This three-state framework also indicates that hippocampal neural representations follow a surprising pattern of organization at the timescale of ∼1 s or longer. Lastly, beyond the hippocampus, recent breakthroughs indicate three parallel states in cortex, suggesting shared principles and brain-wide organization of intrinsic neural activity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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Section: Three Brain States In the Hippocampusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three brain states in the hippocampus and cortex

Kay

Frank

2019

Hippocampus

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“…They allow for testing of multiple brain manipulation techniques, pharmacological agents or strains of animals . However, too much focus on the simplest behavioral models generates a serious risk of reducing ecological validity . In this review, we define the latter as generalizability of findings to the field context (for discussion of the original meaning proposed by Brunswik, see Reference ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Choosing ecologically relevant stimuli should also improve robustness and stability of results. It would increase the chance of animals mastering the task quickly, reacting in a coherent way and—crucially for brain studies— consistently using similar, well‐conserved neural circuitry . Finally, some neuroscientists might (and should) be interested in studying rodents as such rather than in modeling human behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8,9 However, too much focus on the simplest behavioral models generates a serious risk of reducing ecological validity. 10 In this review, we define the latter as generalizability of findings to the field context 11 (for discussion of the original meaning proposed by Brunswik, see Reference 12). In extreme cases, this might lead to studying phenomena which would never happen outside of the laboratory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecological validity of social interaction tests in rats and mice

Kondrakiewicz

Kostecki

Szadzinska

et al. 2018

Genes Brain and Behavior

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Different rat and mouse models are used in studies of social interactions. Simple behavioral measures, which are commonly used in the laboratory, allow to perform relatively short experiments and to use multiple brain manipulation techniques. However, too much focus on the simplest behavioral models generates a serious risk of reducing ecological validity or even studying phenomena which would never happen outside of the laboratory. In this review, we discuss the suitability of mice and rats as model organisms for studying social behaviors, with focus on social transmission of fear paradigms. First, we briefly introduce the concept of domestication and what impact it had on laboratory rodents. Then, we present two aspects of social behaviors, sociability and dominance, which are crucial for social organization in these species. Finally, we present experimental models used for studying how animals transmit information about danger between each other, and how these models may reflect what happens in the natural environment. We discuss the difficulties that arise from our limited knowledge of rat and mouse ecology, especially their social life. We also explore the subject of balancing ecological validity and controllability in rodent models of social behaviors, the latter being particularly important for studying brain activity. Although it is very challenging, an efficient program for social neuroscience research should, in our opinion, aim at bridging the gap between laboratory and field studies.

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“…Thus, although a number of behaviors studied in laboratory settings may be sexually divergent (An et al, ; Beery, ; Wald & Wu, ; Zucker & Beery, ), much of what is known comes from experiments that either exclusively used male mice (Tronson, ) or may not have treated sex as an independent variable when both female and male animals were studied (Shansky & Woolley, ). For example, a common experiment involves head‐fixing an awake behaving rodent and placing it onto a running wheel to study the circuits involved in sensory processing (Niell, Stryker, & Keck, ; Smear, Shusterman, O’Connor, Bozza, & Rinberg, ), spatial navigation (Dombeck, Harvey, Tian, Looger, & Tank, ; Harvey, Collman, Dombeck, & Tank, ) and decision‐making (Abraham et al, ; Juavinett, Erlich, & Churchland, ; Smear, Resulaj, Zhang, Bozza, & Rinberg, ). Despite the ubiquity of this paradigm in systems neuroscience, and the importance of measuring running either as a feature or a confound of experiments, it remains unclear if there are differences between females and males.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in head‐fixed voluntary running behavior in C57BL/6J mice

Warner

Padmanabhan

2019

Eur J of Neuroscience

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Sex differences in running behaviors between female and male mice occur naturally in the wild. Recent experiments using head‐fixed mice on a voluntary running wheel have exploited analogous locomotor activity to gain insight into the neural underpinnings of a number of behaviors ranging from spatial navigation to decision‐making. It is however largely unknown if sex differences exist between females and males in a head‐fixed experimental paradigm. To address this, we characterized locomotor activity in head‐fixed female and male C57BL/6J mice on a voluntary running wheel. First, we found that over the initial 7‐day period, on average, animals increased both the velocity and the time spent running. Furthermore, we found that female mice habituated to running forward over the initial 2 days of encountering the wheel, while male mice took up to 4 days to habituate to running forward. Taken together, we characterized features of a sexually divergent behavior in head‐fixed running that should be considered in experiments employing female and male mice.

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Decision-making behaviors: weighing ethology, complexity, and sensorimotor compatibility

Cited by 68 publications

References 86 publications

Three brain states in the hippocampus and cortex

Three brain states in the hippocampus and cortex

Ecological validity of social interaction tests in rats and mice

Sex differences in head‐fixed voluntary running behavior in C57BL/6J mice

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