Jean-Francois Gariépy

Duke University | DU · Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Understanding the principles by which agents interact with both complex environments and each other is a key goal of decision neuroscience. However, most previous studies have used experimental paradigms in which choices are discrete (and few), play is static, and optimal solutions are known. Yet in natural environments, interactions between agents...

Without regularization, goals far exceed game area. A: Difference between actual and predicted control derivatives for the same trial analyzed in the Model comparison section. B: Predicted goal states in all three observed dimensions. C: At 0.5s, both players’ energy functions (blue, shooter; red, goalie) based on this model are far off the game ar...

Generated trials matched with actual trials. For 30 random trajectories generated by our model, we located and plotted the closest 20 trials (in mean-squared state space error) in the training data set. The generated trajectories are in black and the matched ones are in blue (the most similar one in orange). (TIF)

Single trial animation. Animation of a real single trial played by two subjects, the same trial with goals overlaid, and a third presentation of the same trial with energy function overlaid as a heat map. (MP4)

Single trial animation. (MP4)

Model comparison: Trial completion. For 10 random trials in the validation data set, we completed trajectories (n = 100) using the proposed model, the single Gaussian model, and the linear model. The actual trajectories are in black, and the completed ones are in blue. Only trials that last less than 256s are displayed except the single Gaussian mo...

Single trial animation. (MP4)

Single trial animation. (MP4)

Locomotion requires the proper sequencing of neural activity to start, maintain, and stop it. Recently, brainstem neurons were shown to specifically stop locomotion in mammals. However, the cellular properties of these neurons and their activity during locomotion are still unknown. Here, we took advantage of the lamprey model to characterize the ac...

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Decisions made by individuals can be influenced by what others think and do. Social learning includes a wide array of behaviors such as imitation, observational learning of novel foraging techniques, peer or parental influences on individual preferences, as well as outright teaching. These processes are believed to underlie an important part of cul...

Friendship pervades the human social landscape. These bonds are so important that disrupting them leads to health problems, and difficulties forming or maintaining friendships attend neuropsychiatric disorders like autism and depression. Other animals also have friends, suggesting that friendship is not solely a human invention but is instead an ev...

In the target article, Schilbach et al. defend a "second-person neuroscience" perspective that focuses on the neural basis of social cognition during live, ongoing interactions between individuals. We argue that a second-person neuroscience would benefit from formal approaches borrowed from economics and behavioral ecology and that it should be ext...

Social decisions are crucial for the success of individuals and the groups that they comprise. Group members respond vicariously to benefits obtained by others, and impairments in this capacity contribute to neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism and sociopathy. We examined the manner in which neurons in three frontal cortical areas encoded the...

This study examines the connectivity in the neural networks controlling respiration in the lampreys, a basal vertebrate. Previous studies have shown that the lamprey paratrigeminal respiratory group (pTRG) plays a crucial role in the generation of respiration. By using a combination of anatomical and physiological techniques, we characterized the b...

When animals move, respiration increases to adapt for increased energy demands; the underlying mechanisms are still not understood. We investigated the neural substrates underlying the respiratory changes in relation to movement in lampreys. We showed that respiration increases following stimulation of the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) in an...

Respiration is a vital motor activity requiring fine-tuning to adjust to metabolic changes. For instance, respiration increases in association with exercise. In this chapter, we review the mechanisms underlying respiratory changes during exercise. Three specific hypotheses were proposed. First, the chemoreception hypothesis suggests that chemorecep...

The spinal circuitry underlying the generation of basic locomotor synergies has been described in substantial detail in lampreys and the cellular mechanisms have been identified. The initiation of locomotion, on the other hand, relies on supraspinal networks and the cellular mechanisms involved are only beginning to be understood. This review exami...

Brainstem networks generating the respiratory rhythm in lampreys are still not fully characterized. In this study, we described the patterns of respiratory activities and we identified the general location of underlying neural networks. In a semi-intact preparation including the brain and gills, rhythmic discharges were recorded bilaterally with su...

In vertebrates, locomotion is associated with changes in respiratory activity, but the neural mechanisms by which this occurs remain unknown. We began examining this in lampreys using a semi-intact preparation of young adult Petromyzon marinus, in which respiratory and locomotor behaviors can be recorded simultaneously with the activity of the unde...