On the Existence of Functional Clusters in the Dorsomedial Striatum

Abstract: In recent years, the understanding of the brain has progressed immensely by advanced data gathering methods that can track the activity of individual neurons. This has enabled researchers to investigate the function and dynamics of different parts of the brain in detail. Using data gathered from mice engaged in an two-alternative choice task, this thesis sought to answer whether neurons of the dorsomedial striatum are clustered with regards to their activity profiles by using four fundamentally different mathematical approaches. This analysis could not find any reliable evidence of functional clusters in the dorsomedial striatum, but their existence cannot be excluded.