International Brain Laboratory

Understanding the neural circuit basis of behaviour is one of the great challenges in biology. Yet no single laboratory can study the many brain regions, connections, and cell types working together o coordinate decision-making. There is thus a disparity between the capacity of individual laboratories and the complexity of problems being addressed. The International Brain Laboratory orchestrates the efforts of 21 experimental and theoretical laboratories to understand a single behavior. By standardizing experimental procedures and data pipelines, we enable the data acquired by different laboratories to be assembled into a large combined dataset. Our mouse decision-making task requires valuation of different choices based on sensory evidence, choice selection based on this valuation, and integration of prior experience to update a model of the world. We seek a comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying these functions, at scales ranging from single neurons to local microcircuits to inter-area communication. To do so we will harness powerful electrophysiological, optical, and genetic tools, and exploit the rich set of theories and analytical approaches developed in recent years. This large-scale effort will provide the first end-to-end "standard model"of a complex mammalian behavior, and inspire new ways to collaborate on difficult problems in neuroscience.