Age-related changes in behavioural and neural variability in a decision-making task

Ageing increases neural firing rates and variability while reducing stimulus-induced variability quenching across multiple brain regions in mice.

• Why it matters: Understanding how neural variability changes with age is crucial because it may underlie cognitive decline in learning and decision-making, yet detailed regional effects remain unclear.
• What they did: Researchers recorded over 18,000 neurons from 16 brain regions in younger and older mice performing a visual decision task, analyzing neural and behavioral variability.
• The result: Findings reveal that ageing elevates neural firing rates and variability, especially in cortex, hippocampus, and basal ganglia, while diminishing variability quenching, offering insights into neural mechanisms of age-related cognitive decline.