Quantifying network behavior in the rat prefrontal cortex: a reproducibility crisis.

The question of how consciousness and behavior arise from neural activity is fundamental to understanding the brain, and to improving the diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. There is significant literature in murine and primate species on how behavior is related to the electrophysiological activity of the medial prefrontal cortex and its role in working memory processes such as planning and decision-making. We have now applied dynamic time warping and statistical tests to data from neuron spike trains and local field potentials, to quantify neural network synchronicity and correlate neuroelectrophysiology with rat behavior. These analyses have shown the important limitations of existing experimental designs and provide an outline for improved experimental approaches that will yield more robust and reproducible findings.