Scientific article
OA Policy
English

A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour

CollaboratorsAcerbi, Luigi
Published inNature, vol. 645, no. 8079, p. 177-191
Publication date2025-09
First online date2025-09-03
Abstract

A key challenge in neuroscience is understanding how neurons in hundreds of interconnected brain regions integrate sensory inputs with previous expectations to initiate movements and make decisions1 . It is difficult to meet this challenge if different laboratories apply different analyses to different recordings in different regions during different behaviours. Here we report a comprehensive set of recordings from 621,733 neurons recorded with 699 Neuropixels probes across 139 mice in 12 laboratories. The data were obtained from mice performing a decision-making task with sensory, motor and cognitive components. The probes covered 279 brain areas in the left forebrain and midbrain and the right hindbrain and cerebellum. We provide an initial appraisal of this brain-wide map and assess how neural activity encodes key task variables. Representations of visual stimuli transiently appeared in classical visual areas after stimulus onset and then spread to ramp-like activity in a collection of midbrain and hindbrain regions that also encoded choices. Neural responses correlated with impending motor action almost everywhere in the brain. Responses to reward delivery and consumption were also widespread. This publicly available dataset represents a resource for understanding how computations distributed across and within brain areas drive behaviour.

Keywords
  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal / physiology
  • Brain Mapping
  • Brain / cytology
  • Brain / physiology
  • Cognition / physiology
  • Decision Making / physiology
  • Female
  • Male
  • Mesencephalon / cytology
  • Mesencephalon / physiology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Neurons / physiology
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Reward
  • Rhombencephalon / cytology
  • Rhombencephalon / physiology
Funding
  • Wellcome Trust [216324]
  • NCRR NIH HHS [G20 RR030893]
Citation (ISO format)
ANGELAKI, Dora et al. A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour. In: Nature, 2025, vol. 645, n° 8079, p. 177–191. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09235-0
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Additional URL for this publicationhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09235-0
Journal ISSN0028-0836
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27downloads

Technical informations

Creation30/09/2025 12:12:20
First validation02/10/2025 08:35:31
Update02/10/2025 08:35:31
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