Exploration biases forelimb reaching strategies

• DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113958
• Publication Date: 2024-03-22T11:31:52Z
• Authors: Alice C. Mosberger; Leslie J. Sibener; Tiffany X. Chen; Helio F.M. Rodrigues; Richard Hormigo; James N. Ingram; Vivek R. Athalye; Tanya Tabachnik; Daniel M. Wolpert; James M. Murray; Rui M. Costa
• Keywords: Work space; Joystick; Forelimb

The brain can generate actions, such as reaching to a target, using different movement strategies. We investigate how strategies are learned in task where perched head-fixed mice learn reach an invisible target area from set start position joystick. This be achieved by learning move specific direction or endpoint location. As the they refine their variable joystick trajectories into controlled reaches, which depend on sensorimotor cortex. show that individual biased either direction- endpoint-based movements. endpoint/direction bias correlates with spatial directional variability workspace was explored during training. Model-free reinforcement agents both similar correlation between training and bias. These results provide evidence of exploratory behavior biases learn.