Tracking Dynamic Conditional Neural Correlation during Task Learning

Single neuron modulates the external stimuli, and neural population coordinates to encode information. An alternate method for examining the coordinated populational activity in neural encoding is conditional neural correlation (CNC). However, such correlations are not static during a new task learning process as neurons adapt their tunings over time for better performance. To investigate how neurons adjust their firing patterns during learning, it’s essential to track the time-variant correlation. In this paper, we propose to mathematically model the dynamical CNC by implementing the integrated point process filter which incorporates neural correlation and single neural tuning into decoding. Specifically, we generate synthetic M1 neurons’ firing data to simulate the dynamic change of the conditional neural correlation over days, while a rat learns a two-lever discrimination task. By comparing the tracked CNC with the designed CNC, our results show that the CNC can be better tracked over time by CIPPF than that of decoder assuming conditional independence among neurons, which indicates the possibility to better understand the brain dynamics during task learning.