Publications by Vahid Esmaeili

Distributed and specific encoding of sensory, motor, and decision information in the mouse neocortex during goal-directed behavior

Wulfram Gerstner, Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Alireza Modirshanechi, Vahid Esmaeili, Christos Sourmpis, Anastasiia Oryshchuk

Goal-directed behaviors involve coordinated activity in many cortical areas, but whether the encoding of task variables is distributed across areas or is more specifically represented in distinct areas remains unclear. Here, we compared representations of ...

Cell Press2023

Learning-related congruent and incongruent changes of excitation and inhibition in distinct cortical areas

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Romain Guiet, Vahid Esmaeili, Georgios Foustoukos, Yanqi Liu, Keita Tamura, Anastasiia Oryshchuk, Reza Asri

Excitatory and inhibitory neurons in diverse cortical regions are likely to contribute differentially to the transformation of sensory information into goal-directed motor plans. Here, we investigate the relative changes across mouse sensorimotor cortex in ...

2022

Rapid suppression and sustained activation of distinct cortical regions for a delayed sensory-triggered motor response

Wulfram Gerstner, Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Alireza Modirshanechi, Vahid Esmaeili, Georgios Foustoukos, Samuel Pavio Muscinelli, Yanqi Liu, Keita Tamura, Anastasiia Oryshchuk

The neuronal mechanisms generating a delayed motor response initiated by a sensory cue remain elusive. Here, we tracked the precise sequence of cortical activity in mice transforming a brief whisker stimulus into delayed licking using wide-field calcium im ...

2021

Cortical circuits for transforming whisker sensation into goal-directed licking

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Vahid Esmaeili, Georgios Foustoukos, Keita Tamura, Anastasiia Oryshchuk

Animals can learn to use sensory stimuli to generate motor actions in order to obtain rewards. However, the precise neuronal circuits driving learning and execution of a specific goal-directed sensory-to-motor transformation remain to be elucidated. Here, ...

2020

Neuronal Correlates of Tactile Working Memory in Prefrontal and Vibrissal Somatosensory Cortex

Vahid Esmaeili

Tactile working memory engages a broad network of cortical regions in primates. To assess whether the conclusions drawn from primates apply to rodents, we examined the vibrissal primary somatosensory cortex (vS1) and the prelimbic cortex (PL) in a delayed ...

2019

Reward-Based Learning Drives Rapid Sensory Signals in Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Dorsal Hippocampus Necessary for Goal-Directed Behavior

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Katia Galan, Vahid Esmaeili, Pierre François Philippe Le Merre, Eloïse Ludivine Charrière

2018

Movement Initiation Signals in Mouse Whisker Motor Cortex

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Katia Galan, Vahid Esmaeili, Varun Sreenivasan, Taro Kiritani

Frontal cortex plays a central role in the control of voluntary movements, which are typically guided by sensory input. Here, we investigate the function of mouse whisker primary motor cortex (wM1), a frontal region defined by dense innervation from whiske ...

Cell Press2016