Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Many paths from state to state

Nature Neuroscience volume 19, pages 1541–1542 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Humans and animals can collect and maintain information that guides decisions, but how neural circuits achieve this is unknown. It seems neural populations may do so by passing through diverse states in many possible sequences.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Flight routes for two hypothetical airlines illustrate a key analysis.

Marina Corral Spence/Springer Nature Publishing Group

References

  1. Abeles, M. Corticonics: Neural Circuits of the Cerebral Cortex (Cambridge University Press, 1991).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. Jones, L.M., Fontanini, A., Sadacca, B.F., Miller, P. & Katz, D.B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 18772–18777 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hahnloser, R.H., Kozhevnikov, A.A. & Fee, M.S. Nature 419, 65–70 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Long, M.A. & Fee, M.S. Nature 456, 189–194 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Goldman, M.S. Neuron 61, 621–634 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Murphy, B.K. & Miller, K.D. Neuron 61, 635–648 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Brody, C.D., Romo, R. & Kepecs, A. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 13, 204–211 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Morcos, A.S. & Harvey, C.D. Nat. Neurosci. 19, 1672–1681 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Harvey, C.D., Coen, P. & Tank, D.W. Nature 484, 62–68 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Churchland, A.K. et al. Neuron 69, 818–831 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Goard, M.J., Pho, G.N., Woodson, J. & Sur, M. eLife 5, e13764 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Raposo, D., Kaufman, M.T. & Churchland, A.K. Nat. Neurosci. 17, 1784–1792 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Hanks, T.D. et al. Nature 520, 220–223 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Kopec, C.D., Erlich, J.C., Brunton, B.W., Deisseroth, K. & Brody, C.D. Neuron 88, 367–377 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Licata, A.M. et al. Preprint at bioRxiv http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/066639 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Matthew T. Kaufman & Anne K. Churchland are at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA.,

    Matthew T Kaufman & Anne K Churchland

Authors
  1. Matthew T Kaufman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anne K Churchland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Matthew T Kaufman or Anne K Churchland.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kaufman, M., Churchland, A. Many paths from state to state. Nat Neurosci 19, 1541–1542 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4440

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4440

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing