New neural activity patterns emerge with long-term learning.

Oby, Emily R; Golub, Matthew D; Hennig, Jay A; Degenhart, Alan D; Tyler-Kabara, Elizabeth C; Yu, Byron M; Chase, Steven M; Batista, Aaron P · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Learning has been associated with changes in the brain at every level of organization. However, it remains difficult to establish a causal link between specific changes in the brain and new behavioral abilities. We establish that new neural activity patterns emerge with learning. We demonstrate that these new neural activity patterns cause the new behavior. Thus, the formation of new patterns of neural population activity can underlie the learning of new skills.

Medical subject headings