Real-time Brain and Behavior Experiment with Stateflow and Simulink

Dr. Shubo Chakrabarti presents experimental findings and under-the-hood details from his publication in Nature Communications [1].

The rodent whisker system performs active sensing during exploratory behavior. Its nervous system is known to perform sensory gating to enable this “active touch.” This work revealed such gating arises in the brainstem under top-down control by the cerebral cortex.

The experiment involved a controlled active touch task with touch sensors and reward control signals. This was implemented using Stateflow^® state machine logic running under Simulink Real-Time™, in tandem with neural probe recording data.

[1] Chakrabarti, Shubhodeep, and Cornelius Schwarz. “Cortical Modulation of Sensory Flow during Active Touch in the Rat Whisker System.” Nature Communications, vol. 9, no. 1, Dec. 2018, p. 3907. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06200-6.

Figures incorporated in video from the authors are licensed under CC-BY-4.0.