# Readout and control of spatiotemporal neuronal codes for behavior

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2022 · $107,624

## Abstract

SUMMARY OF THE FUNDED PROJECT
To survive, organisms must both accurately represent stimuli in the outside world and use that
representation to generate beneficial behavioral actions. Historically, these two processes – the
mapping from stimuli to neural responses, and the mapping from neural activity to behavior – have
largely been treated separately. Of the two, the former has received the most attention. Often referred
to as the “neural coding problem,” its goal is to determine which features of neural activity carry
information about external stimuli. This approach has led to many empirical and theoretical proposals
about the spatial and temporal features of neural population activity, or “neural codes,” that represent
sensory information. However, there is still no consensus about the neural code for most sensory stimuli
in most areas of the nervous system. The lack of consensus arises in part because, while it is
established that certain features of neural population responses carry information about specific stimuli,
it is unclear whether the brain uses (“reads”) the information in these features to form sensory
perceptions. We have developed a theoretical framework, based on the intersection of coding and
readout, to approach this problem. Experimentally informing this framework requires manipulating
patterns of neuronal activity based on, and at the same spatiotemporal scale as, their natural firing
patterns during sensory perception. This work must be done in behaving animals because it is essential
to know which neural codes guide behavioral decisions. In the first phase of this project (funded by the
BRAIN Initiative), we developed the technology necessary for realizing this goal.
In the present proposal, we will further explore our patterned neuronal stimulation technology
developed under the parent U19 to answer outstanding questions about neural coding and
readout in the olfactory system that remain unaddressed to date under the parent award. We will
pioneer the capacity to determine what neural dynamics within a population of cells are encoding
behaviorally relevant information, and to determine the functional connectivity between these cells
constituting this population. We will also develop tools and analysis methods to make targeted
perturbations with holographic photostimulation to probe these dynamics to determine how they guide
behavior. Finally, we will study neural coding principles across changes in behavioral state and during
learning to determine how internal context and experience shape coding and readout. The contributions
of the proposed work will be three-fold. First, we will both use and develop tools from the parent U19 to
test theories of how neural populations encode and decode information throughout the brain. Second,
we will reveal fundamental principles of spatiotemporal neural coding and readout in the olfactory
systems of behaving animals using our data under the parent award to as a jumping off point. And t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10618093
- **Project number:** 3U19NS107464-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Behtash Babadi
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $107,624
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-09-15 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10618093

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10618093, Readout and control of spatiotemporal neuronal codes for behavior (3U19NS107464-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10618093. Licensed CC0.

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