Study On The Neural Coding Mechanism Of Pigeon NCL Region Under Conditional Decision Behavior

The neural information coding mechanism of the brain in the process of the external perceptual stimulation input to the decision behavior output has been a hot topic in the field of neuroscience.Pigeons have excellent response and decision ability,and they are ideal models for the study of animal brain neural information coding mechanisms.Previous studies have shown that the NCL region of the pigeons can integrate upstream sensory information input and downstream decision information output,playing an important role in sensory-motor coupling.But the mechanism of coding and the sequential relationship between neural coding activities are still unclear.Therefore,in this thesis takes pigeons as the research object and designs the experimental paradigm of conditioned decision behavior based on visual cue.To explores the neural information coding mechanism of the NCL region in pigeons during the process of external stimulation input to the decision behavior output through record the multi-channel LFP nerve signals in the NCL region of pigeons in the experimental process and analyses the differences of LFP nerve signal energy in different experimental periods.The results of this study are helpful to further reveal the information processing mechanism of the brain,and have positive enlightenment significance for the establishment of brain-like computing model in the field of artificial intelligence.The main research work completed is as follows:(1)An experimental paradigm of conditioned choice behavior based on visual cue was designed.The experiment was divided into different periods(induction period,acquisition period and regression period)according to the learning of pigeon in the experimental process,and the behavioral data and multi-channel LFP nerve signal data of the pigeon in the experimental process were recorded synchronously.The experimental data were pretreated to improve the reliability of the analysis.(2)Response time window and response frequency band related to tasks were determined.Based on the statistical analysis of behavioral data of five pigeons during the experiment,0.5-1 s after the light stimulation was determined as the task-related response time window.The LFP nerve signal was processed by continuous wavelet transform,and the difference of signal energy between task state and beasline was compared.The frequency band of 30-60 Hz was determined as task-related response band.(3)By analyzing the differences of LFP nerve signal energy curves in different experimental periods,the coding mechanism of nerve information in pigeon NCL region during conditioned choice behavior was discussed.The results showed that pigeons can code the meaning of light stimulation through learning;NCL region can not only code light stimulation and pecking intention,but also have a accurate sequence relationship between them during the learning process;and there is a elaborate time-course contingency between light stimulation coding and pecking intention coding,which can be generated through learning and training,and also disappear after the light stimulation no longer has a meaningful impact on itself.