ELSC Seminar Series

Regulation of information flow in neuronal circuits is fundamental to flexible, goal-directed behavior. Using naturalistic behaviors in mice combined with large-scale two-photon calcium imaging, we uncovered functional connectivity motifs and structured population dynamics across cortical micro- and meso-scale circuits. In the motor cortex, neural ensembles encoded movement timing, target location, and reward outcomes. Functional interactions within these ensembles were masked by a shared subspace of correlated activity; removing this subspace through dimensionality reduction revealed a latent network structure characterized by stronger coupling between functionally related neurons and inhibitory interactions between oppositely tuned neurons. Targeted two-photon photostimulation further identified neuronal subpopulations with distinct connectivity patterns, suggesting a role for local network recurrency in shaping task-related activity.
I will then present our approach to extending this analysis to the mesoscale by imaging ~1,000,000 neurons across cortical regions, from frontal to higher-order visual areas. We found that during both spontaneous behavior and task engagement, within-area activity remained high-dimensional, whereas global cortical quenched during task through synchronized inter-areal communication channels. These findings demonstrate how cortical networks flexibly reconfigure across spatial scales and brain states to support cognitive functions.