Stimuli

This section provides an overview of the different types of behavioral paradigms used in the datasets.

Passive Visual Stimuli

Passive visual stimuli are used in the Visual Coding 2P, Visual Coding Neuropixels, V1 Deep Dive, and Neuropixels Ultra & Psychedelics datasets. These stimuli are presented to an awake, head-fixed mouse on a running disc. There are a range of different stimuli including gratings, natural scenes and movies, locally sparse noise noise, dot motion, gabor patches that can be used in a variety of ways.

Change detection Behavior

The visual change detection task is used in the Visual Behavior Ophys and Visual Behavior Neuropixels datasets. In this go/no-go task, mice are shown a continuous series of briefly presented visual images and they earn water rewards by correctly reporting when the identity of the image changes.

Dynamic Foraging Behavior

The Dynamic Foraging behavior is used in the Dynamic Foraging Behavior dataset. For this task, thirsty, head-restrained mice perform hundreds of trials each day. A trial begins with an auditory “go” cue, after which mice have a short window in which to lick toward a leftward or rightward tube. Choices are followed by either a water reward or no outcome. Reward probabilities are assigned to each tube and vary over the course of a session.

Brain Computer Interface

In the Brain Computer Interface task, mice control the position of a motorized lickport using the activity of a single neuron (the conditioned neuron). At the start of each trial, the lickport began in the “far” position, 7 mm from the mouse. Increases in conditioned neuron’s fluorescence moves the lickport toward the mouse at a speed proportional to neuron’s activity. Mice had 10 seconds to bring the lickport into the “close” position to obtain a water reward. Failure to reach the close position within the time limit resulted in the lickport retracting to the far position.