Behavioral decomposition reveals rich encoding structure employed across neocortex in rats

This study investigated how neural activity across four cortical regions (visual, auditory, somatosensory, motor) in freely foraging rats relates to natural behavior. Momentary actions were represented ubiquitously, but more elementary features like pose and movement showed region-specific organization. Visual and auditory cortices preferentially encoded head-orienting features in world-referenced coordinates, while somatosensory and motor cortices encoded trunk and head in egocentric coordinates. Synaptic coupling patterns suggested area-specific uses of these signals. The findings indicate that ongoing behavior is encoded at multiple levels throughout the dorsal cortex, with low-level features differentially utilized by different regions for local computations.

Bartul Mimica, Tuçe Tombaz, Claudia Battistin, Jingyi Guo Fuglstad, Benjamin A. Dunn, Jonathan R. Whitlock