Brain activity fully mapped for the first time: Decision-making is much more complex than we thought
The study shows that decision-making is spread across a much broader brain network than previously thought.
The study, conducted by 12 laboratories, simultaneously recorded the activity of more than half a million neurons in 279 regions of the mouse brains. This measurement covers approximately 95 percent of the brain.
Prof. Alexandre Pouget, Co-Founder of the International Brain Laboratory (IBL), summarized the results as follows:
“During decision-making, especially during reward processes, the entire brain lit up like a Christmas tree.”
UCLA Neurobiology Professor Dr. Anne Churchland made the following statement:
"Measurements at the individual cell level offered a unique perspective on how so many cells collectively support decision-making. One of the things we were most surprised about was how even such a simple decision activates so many brain regions."
In the experiments, mice were taught to turn a wheel in the direction of a light appearing on a screen. Correct moves were rewarded, and the animals were forced to make predictive choices when the light's brightness was reduced. Their brain activity was recorded in high resolution using Neuropixels electrodes.
The map revealed that not only cognitive areas but also sensory processing regions (such as the thalamus, which plays a key role in visual processing) are involved in the decision process. The researchers believe this finding could contribute to a better understanding of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism.
For ethical reasons, experiments of this scale cannot be performed on the human brain, but researchers point out that information obtained from animal brains is a strong starting point for the human brain.
The results of the study were presented in two articles published in the journal Nature.
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