Age-Related Changes in Neural Noise in a Decision-Making Task
Fenying Zang, Leiden University, Netherlands; Anup Khanal, University of California Los Angeles, United States; International Brain Laboratory, www.internationalbrainlab.com, United States; Anne K Churchland, University of California Los Angeles, United States; Anne E Urai, Leiden University, Netherlands
Session:
Contributed Talks 1 Lecture
Location:
South Schools / East Schools
Presentation Time:
Fri, 25 Aug, 16:00 - 16:15 United Kingdom Time
Abstract:
Classical theories suggest that age-related cognitive decline may be caused by increased neural noise. To explicitly test this hypothesis in behaving animals, we quantified single-neuron noise (using Fano Factors) in the cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus of young and old mice. Preliminary results suggest that thalamic neurons show higher trial-to-trial variability in old animals. This work will help us to understand alterations of neural function that may contribute to age-related cognitive decline.
