Jonathan Pillow, Ph.D.

• Professor
• Princeton Neuroscience Institute
• Princeton University

Disentangling the Roles of Distinct Cell Classes with Cell-Type Dynamical Systems

A large body of recent work has focused on the problem of inferring neural population dynamics from recordings of neural activity. However, these models typically ignore the fact that the brain contains multiple cell types, which limits their ability to capture the functional roles of distinct cell classes, or to predict the effects of cell-specific perturbations. To overcome these limitations, we introduce the “cell-type dynamical systems” (CTDS) model, which extends latent linear dynamical systems to contain distinct latent variables for each cell class, with appropriate sign constraints on the interactions between them. In this talk, I will describe the CTDS model and show that it can account for the effects of optogenetic perturbations on behavior — even when fit to unperturbed recordings of neural activity.  Specifically, I will discuss a multi-region CTDS model fit simultaneous recordings from rat frontal orienting fields (FOF) and anterior dorsal striatum (ADS) during an auditory decision-making task.  Although fit only to unperturbed neural activity, the model predicts the time-dependent effects of different optogenetic perturbations on behavior, specifically in FOF, ADS, and FOF-to-ADS axon terminals. I will close by discussing the future directions and other applications for biologically-constrained dynamical models of neural activity and behavior.

Faculty Host: Dr. Daeyeol Lee