Special Session 77: Theoretical, technical, and experimental challenges in closed-loop approaches in biology
Contents
Recently there has been a significant movement in the cognitive sciences that emphasises the centrality of sensorimotor feedback for accounts of cognition. Despite this success the migration of this focus to mainstream systems neuroscience has been slow. Recent experimental innovations mean that this state of affairs is beginning to radically change. Closed-loop experimental paradigms that utilise virtual reality in mice and fish and well circumscribed sensory-motor systems are becoming more widespread. Consequently, in vivo electrophysiology and optogenetics of behaving animals is quickly becoming an achievable gold standard. This work places the sensorimotor loop at the heart of neural processing and promises to give sensorimotor accounts renewed relevance for mainstream neuroscience. Here we utilise these technologies to examine the role of sensorimotor feedback for accounts of neural dynamics and brain function.