In time-constraint activities, such as sports, it is advantageous to be prepared to act even before knowing precisely what action will be needed. Here, we studied the relation between neural oscillations during motor preparation and amount of uncertainty about the direction of the upcoming target. Ten right-handed volunteers participated in a cued center-out task. A brief visual cue identified the region of space in which the target would appear. Three cue sizes were used to vary the amount of information about the direction of the upcoming target. The target appeared at a random location within the region indicated by the cue, and the participants moved a joystick-controlled cursor toward it. Time-frequency analyses showed phasic increases of power in low (delta/theta: <7 Hz) and high (gamma: >30 Hz) frequency-bands in relation to the onset of visual stimuli and of the motor response. More importantly in regard to motor preparation, there was a tonic reduction of power in the alpha (8–12 Hz) and beta (14–30 Hz) bands during the period between cue presentation and target onset. During motor preparation, the main source of change of power of the alpha band was localized over the contralateral sensorimotor region and both parietal cortices, whereas for the beta-band the main source was the contralateral sensorimotor region. During cue presentation, the reduction of power of the alpha-band in the occipital lobe showed a brief differentiation of condition: the wider the visual cue, the more the power of the alpha-band decreased. However, during motor preparation, only the power of the beta-band was dependent on directional uncertainty: the less the directional uncertainty, the more the power of the beta-band decreased. In conclusion, the results indicate that the power in the alpha-band is associated briefly with cue size, but is otherwise an undifferentiated indication of neural activation, whereas the power of the beta-band reflects the level of motor preparation.

Neural computations occurring simultaneously in multiple cerebral cortical regions are critical for mediating behaviors. Progress has been made in understanding how neural activity in specific cortical regions contributes to behavior. However, there is a lack of tools that allow simultaneous monitoring and perturbing neural activity from multiple cortical regions. We engineered ‘See-Shells’—digitally designed, morphologically realistic, transparent polymer skulls that allow long-term (>300 days) optical access to 45 mm 2 of the dorsal cerebral cortex in the mouse. We demonstrate the ability to perform mesoscopic imaging, as well as cellular and subcellular resolution two-photon imaging of neural structures up to 600 µm deep. See-Shells allow calcium imaging from multiple, non-contiguous regions across the cortex. Perforated See-Shells enable introducing penetrating neural probes to perturb or record neural activity simultaneously with whole cortex imaging. See-Shells are constructed using common desktop fabrication tools, providing a powerful tool for investigating brain structure and function.

Motor behavior results in complex exchanges of motor and sensory information across cortical regions. Therefore, fully understanding the cerebral cortex’s role in motor behavior requires a mesoscopic-level description of the cortical regions engaged, their functional interactions, and how these functional interactions change with behavioral state. Mesoscopic Ca2+ imaging through transparent polymer skulls in mice reveals elevated activation of the dorsal cerebral cortex during locomotion. Using the correlations between the time series of Ca2+ fluorescence from 28 regions (nodes) obtained using spatial independent component analysis (sICA), we examined the changes in functional connectivity of the cortex from rest to locomotion with a goal of understanding the changes to the cortical functional state that facilitate locomotion. Both the transitions from rest to locomotion and from locomotion to rest show marked increases in correlation among most nodes. However, once a steady state of continued locomotion is reached, many nodes, including primary motor and somatosensory nodes, show decreases in correlations, while retrosplenial and the most anterior nodes of the secondary motor cortex show increases. These results highlight the changes in functional connectivity in the cerebral cortex, representing a series of changes in the cortical state from rest to locomotion and on return to rest.

Neural computations occurring simultaneously in multiple cerebral cortical regions are critical for mediating cognition, perception and sensorimotor behaviors. Enormous progress has been made in understanding how neural activity in specific cortical regions contributes to behavior. However, there is a lack of tools that allow simultaneous monitoring and perturbing neural activity from multiple cortical regions. To fill this need, we have engineered "See-Shells" -digitally designed, morphologically realistic, transparent polymer skulls that allow long-term (>200 days) optical access to 45 mm 2 of the dorsal cerebral cortex in the mouse. We demonstrate the ability to perform mesoscopic imaging, as well as cellular and subcellular resolution two-photon imaging of neural structures up to 600 µm through the See-Shells. See-Shells implanted on transgenic mice expressing genetically encoded calcium (Ca 2+ ) indicators allow tracking of neural activities from multiple, non-contiguous regions spread across millimeters of the cortex. Further, neural probes can access the brain through perforated See-Shells, either for perturbing or recording neural activity from localized brain regions simultaneously with whole cortex imaging. As See-Shells can be constructed using readily available desktop fabrication tools and modified to fit a range of skull geometries, they provide a powerful tool for investigating brain structure and function.