Towards an integrative approach to the study of brain-environment interactions in human and non-human primate

TL;DR

This paper advocates for an integrative, ecological approach to studying brain-environment interactions in primates, emphasizing hierarchical brain organization, naturalistic behavior, and advanced data analysis methods.

Contribution

It proposes a comprehensive framework combining hierarchical brain models, ecological behavioral paradigms, and dynamic data analysis for studying primate brain-environment interactions.

Findings

Hierarchical and distributed brain organization emphasized

Naturalistic behavioral paradigms improve ecological validity

Dynamic analysis of behavioral and neuronal data enhances understanding

Abstract

By retracing my scientific journey that began 20 years ago, I highlight in this thesis the need to consider the organization of the brain, which is certainly globally hierarchical, but also highly distributed and mixed in the neuronal response of its different areas (by focusing on the sensorimotor cortex-basal ganglia network). I also emphasize the importance of adopting behavioral paradigms that reflect as much as possible the characteristics of the scenarios encountered in the real life of animals. And finally, I mention the importance of "disintegrating" the way data analysis is traditionally carried out, and of taking into account the dynamic nature of behavior, for example by favoring the study of behavioral variables and so-called "latent" neuronal activities. I conclude this thesis by presenting the vision of my ideal laboratory in a perspective of 5 to 10 years from today. This laboratory would have two experimental devices, a first, classic, for carrying out tests in a constrained and therefore unnatural environment, the data of which would be compared to those from a second device called "naturalistic" in which the animals could potentially express their entire behavioral repertoire. The tasks tested would be characterized by strong ecological principles, such as in those simulating the properties of foraging, and the data would make it possible to test hypotheses based on the progressive addition of ecological components in these tasks, all this in order to maintain control over the interpretability of these data which are complex by nature.