A team of researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, has found a microcircuit in the mouse anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that appears to play a role in transforming visual input into goal-oriented actions. In their paper published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the group describes their experiments with lab mice.

As the researchers note, prior research into the neural basis of decision-making has revolved around the process by which sensory information is processed and then motor output results due to the data received. A mouse seeing a cat approach and then diving under the couch to elude capture is just one example. As they further note, most such research has taken a top-down approach in which parts of the brain involved in perceiving input are studied to see what sorts of signals arise that might lead to brain activity resulting from the information that was received. In this new effort, the researchers chose instead to study the process from the bottom-up. This meant looking first at activity in the brain related to motor activity and then finding out what set it off.

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