What can neuronal populations tell us about cognition?

TL;DR

This paper discusses how simultaneous recordings of neuronal populations provide new insights into cognition, decision-making, and confidence, revealing limitations of single-cell analysis and highlighting challenges in population data interpretation.

Contribution

It emphasizes the importance of neuronal population data for understanding cognition and decision processes, and reviews recent advances and challenges in this area.

Findings

Population recordings reveal decision-making processes.

Neuronal populations inform about confidence and deliberation.

Single-cell analysis is insufficient for complex cognitive functions.

Abstract

Nowadays, it is possible to record the activity of hundreds of cells at the same time in behaving animals. However, these data are often treated and analyzed as if they consisted of many independently recorded neurons. How can neuronal populations be uniquely used to learn about cognition? We describe recent work that shows that populations of simultaneously recorded neurons are fundamental to understand the basis of decision-making, including processes such as ongoing deliberations and decision confidence, which generally fall outside the reach of single-cell analysis. Thus, neuronal population data allow addressing novel questions, but they also come with so far unsolved challenges.