Brain-wide representations of prior information in mouse decision-making

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Findling, Charles; Hubert, Felix; Acerbi, Luigi; Benson, Brandon; Benson, Julius; Birman, Daniel; Bonacchi, Niccolo; Buchanan, E. Kelly; Bruijns, Sebastian; Carandini, Matteo; Catarino, Joana A.; Chapuis, Gaelle A.; Churchland, Anne K.; Dan, Yang; Davatolhagh, Felicia; Dewitt, Eric E. J.; Engel, Tatiana A.; Fabbri, Michele; Faulkner, Mayo A.; Fiete, Ila Rani; Freitas-Silva, Laura; Gercek, Berk; Harris, Kenneth D.; Hausser, Michael; Hofer, Sonja B.; Hu, Fei; Huntenburg, Julia M.; Khanal, Anup; Krasniak, Chris; Langdon, Christopher; Langfield, Christopher A.; Latham, Peter E.; Lau, Petrina Y. P.; Mainen, Zach; Meijer, Guido T.; Miska, Nathaniel J.; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D.; Noel, Jean-Paul; Nylund, Kai; Pan-Vazquez, Alejandro; Paninski, Liam; Pillow, Jonathan; Rossant, Cyrille; Roth, Noam; Schaeffer, Rylan; Schartner, Michael; Shi, Yanliang; Socha, Karolina Z.; Steinmetz, Nicholas A.; Svoboda, Karel; Tessereau, Charline; Urai, Anne E.; Wells, Miles J.; West, Steven Jon; Whiteway, Matthew R.; Winter, Olivier; Witten, Ilana B.; Zador, Anthony; Zhang, Yizi; Dayan, Peter; Pouget, Alexandre
• 署名单位: University of Geneva; University of Helsinki; Stanford University; New York University; University of Washington; University of Washington Seattle; Instituto Universitario de Lisboa; Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen; Max Planck Society; University of London; University College London; Fundacao Champalimaud; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Princeton University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Hong Kong; University of London; University College London; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Columbia University; University of London; University College London; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Leiden University - Excl LUMC; Leiden University
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-1734
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09226-1
• 发表日期: 2025-09-04
• 关键词: bayesian-inference; prior probability; uncertainty; motion; MODEL; BEHAVIOR

摘要

The neural representations of prior information about the state of the world are poorly understood1. Here, to investigate them, we examined brain-wide Neuropixels recordings and widefield calcium imaging collected by the International Brain Laboratory. Mice were trained to indicate the location of a visual grating stimulus, which appeared on the left or right with a prior probability alternating between 0.2 and 0.8 in blocks of variable length. We found that mice estimate this prior probability and thereby improve their decision accuracy. Furthermore, we report that this subjective prior is encoded in at least 20% to 30% of brain regions that, notably, span all levels of processing, from early sensory areas (the lateral geniculate nucleus and primary visual cortex) to motor regions (secondary and primary motor cortex and gigantocellular reticular nucleus) and high-level cortical regions (the dorsal anterior cingulate area and ventrolateral orbitofrontal cortex). This widespread representation of the prior is consistent with a neural model of Bayesian inference involving loops between areas, as opposed to a model in which the prior is incorporated only in decision-making areas. This study offers a brain-wide perspective on prior encoding at cellular resolution, underscoring the importance of using large-scale recordings on a single standardized task.