Age-related changes in behavioural and neural variability in a decision-making task

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Abstract

Abstract Age-related cognitive decline in learning and decision-making may arise from increased variability of neural responses. Here, we investigated how ageing affects behavioural and neural variability by recording >18,000 neurons across 16 brain regions (including cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, midbrain, and basal ganglia) in younger and older mice performing a visual decision-making task. Older mice showed more variable response times, reproducing a common finding in human ageing studies. Ageing globally increased firing rates and post-stimulus neural variability (quantified using the Fano factor), and decreased variability quenching–the reduction in neural variability upon stimulus presentation. Older animals showed higher overall firing rates across areas of visual and motor cortex, striatum, midbrain, and hippocampus, but lower firing rates in thalamic areas. Age-related attenuation in stimulus-induced variability quenching was most prominent in visual and motor cortex, striatum, and thalamic area. These findings show how large-scale neural recordings can help uncover regional specificity of ageing effects in single neurons, ultimately improving our understanding of the neural basis of age-related cognitive decline.

Authors 4

1. Fenying Zang corresponding Aachen Cognitive Psychology Unit Institute of Psychology, Leiden University

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

2. Anup Khanal

   University of California, Los Angeles · Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

   Affiliation as printed

   Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA

   Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

3. Anne K. Churchland

   University of California, Los Angeles · Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

   Affiliation as printed

   Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA

   Department of Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

4. Anne E Urai Aachen Cognitive Psychology Unit Institute of Psychology, Leiden University

   Leiden University · Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

   Affiliation as printed

   Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

   Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA