Neural encoding articles from across Nature Portfolio

How neural codes are passed from one brain area to the next remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show how neuronal feedback inhibition converts incoming temporal information into sparse rate information in a biophysical network model of the dentate gyrus.

Neuropil regions across the fly brain are activated by locomotion. Here, authors show that this movement-related activity involves most neurons in the dorsal fly brain, including genetically defined neurons with known, seemingly unrelated functions.

Perception is often modelled using a Bayesian framework, but its neural instantiation remains unclear. Using a novel modelling approach, the authors reveal an empirical encoding scheme for visual orientation sufficient for optimal inference.

Unsupervised spiking convolutional neural networks (SCNNs) exhibit improved performance to object-optimized CNNs in predicting fMRI responses induced by visual stimuli and achieve promising results on image identification and reconstruction tasks.

The computational model illustrates the process by which variability in input, observed on a trial-by-trial basis, is transformed by the neural network into corresponding output variability. This showcases how distinct interneuron types contribute to variability depending on their network connectivity and context.

Neuronal activity in the secondary motor cortex of mice engaged in a foraging task simultaneously represents multiple alternative decision-making strategies.

Recent work uses a language model to gain insight into how the human brain understands the combined meaning of words in a sentence, and uncovers parts of the brain that contribute to this understanding.

Two papers explore cortical contributions to the evaluation of social rank in mice.

Understanding how the brain makes decisions is a major area of focus in both animal and human cognitive neuroscience. Much of this work, especially in primates, has explicated the role of various cortical areas in forming decisions. In new research, perturbations of the superior colliculus by Jun et al. reveal a large and causal role in accumulating evidence for this midbrain structure classically thought of as being involved in simpler functions related to eye movement control.

The activity of a subset of projections neurons in the song premotor nucleus HVC of canaries depends on preceding steps in the bird’s song and can predict future song phrases.