Neuroscience
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Decision making can be defined as the flexible integration and transformation of information from the external world into action. Recently, the development of novel genetic tools and new behavioral paradigms has made it attractive to study behavior of all kinds in rodents. By some perspectives, rodents are not an acceptable model for the study of decision making due to their simpler behavior often attributed to their less extensive cortical development when compared to non-human primates. ⋯ We review insights from comparative anatomy that suggest the expansion of cortical-striatal connectivity is a key development in evolutionary increases in behavioral flexibility. We briefly review studies that establish a role for corticostriatal circuits in integrative decision making. Finally, we provide an overview of a few recent, highly complementary rodent decision making studies using genetic tools, revealing with new cellular and temporal resolution how, when and where information can be integrated and compared in striatal circuits to influence choice.
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Many motor behaviors, from walking to speaking, are acquired through experience, in particular, through trial-and-error learning. The acquisition and maintenance of such motor behaviors in a wide range of species, including humans, appear to depend on cortical-basal ganglia circuits. In this review, we discuss recent studies in songbirds that have been pivotal in informing our current understanding of motor learning and cortical-basal ganglia function. ⋯ Computational and experimental studies highlight the importance of vocal motor variability as the substrate upon which reinforcement mechanisms could operate to shape developing song and to maintain adult song. Recent studies in songbirds indicate that this vocal motor variability is actively generated and modulated by a highly specialized cortical-basal ganglia circuit evolved for a single behavior, song. We argue that these and other recent findings illustrate how the tight association between a specialized neural circuit and a natural behavior make songbirds a unique and powerful model in which to investigate the neural substrates of motor learning and plasticity.
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Animal models are a necessary component of systems neuroscience research. Determining which animal model to use for a given study involves a complicated calculus. ⋯ In this review, I discuss work done in my laboratory to investigate the neural mechanisms of color vision in the rhesus macaque. The emphasis is on the strengths of the macaque model, but shortcomings are also discussed.
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Can the human brain itself serve as a model for a systems neuroscience approach to understanding the human brain? After all, how the brain is able to create the richness and complexity of human behavior is still largely mysterious. What better choice to study that complexity than to study it in humans? However, measurements of brain activity typically need to be made non-invasively which puts severe constraints on what can be learned about the internal workings of the brain. ⋯ Resting both on quantitative measurements and considerations of what is known through animal models, we concluded that weighting of sensory signals by the magnitude of their response is a neural mechanism for efficient selection of sensory signals and consequent improvements in behavioral performance with attention. While animal models have many technical advantages over studying the brain in humans, we believe that human systems neuroscience should endeavor to validate, replicate and extend basic knowledge learned from animal model systems and thus form a bridge to understanding how the brain creates the complex and rich cognitive capacities of humans.