PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kristopher T. Jensen
AU  - Naama Kadmon Harpaz
AU  - Ashesh K. Dhawale
AU  - Steffen B. E. Wolff
AU  - Bence P. Ölveczky
TI  - Long-term stability of neural activity in the motor system
AID  - 10.1101/2021.10.27.465945
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.10.27.465945
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/03/28/2021.10.27.465945.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/03/28/2021.10.27.465945.full
AB  - How an established behavior is retained and stably produced by a nervous system in constant flux remains a mystery. One possible solution is to fix the activity patterns of single neurons in the relevant circuits. Alternatively, activity in single cells could drift over time provided that the population dynamics are constrained to produce stable behavior. To arbitrate between these possibilities, we recorded single unit activity in motor cortex and striatum continuously for several weeks as rats performed stereotyped motor behaviors – both learned and innate. We found long-term stability in behaviorally-locked single neuron activity patterns across both brain regions. A small amount of neural drift observed over weeks of recording could be explained by concomitant changes in task-irrelevant behavioral output. These results suggest that stereotyped behaviors are generated by stable neural activity patterns.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.