When experts are immersed in a task, do their brains prioritize task-related activity? Most efforts to understand neural activity during well-learned tasks focus on cognitive computations and task-related movements. We wondered whether task-performing animals explore a broader movement landscape and how this impacts neural activity. We characterized movements using video and other sensors and measured neural activity using widefield and two-photon imaging. Cortex-wide activity was dominated by movements, especially uninstructed movements not required for the task. Some uninstructed movements were aligned to trial events. Accounting for them revealed that neurons with similar trial-averaged activity often reflected utterly different combinations of cognitive and movement variables. Other movements occurred idiosyncratically, accounting for trial-by-trial fluctuations that are often considered ‘noise’. This held true throughout task-learning and for extracellular Neuropixels recordings that included subcortical areas. Our observations argue that animals execute expert decisions while performing richly varied, uninstructed movements that profoundly shape neural activity.

当专家沉浸在任务中时，他们的大脑会优先考虑与任务相关的活动吗？在学习良好的任务期间了解神经活动的大多数努力都集中在认知计算和与任务相关的运动上。我们想知道执行任务的动物是否探索了更广阔的运动景观，以及这如何影响神经活动。我们使用视频和其他传感器来表征运动，并使用宽视场和双光子成像来测量神经活动。大脑皮层范围内的活动以动作为主，尤其是不需要执行任务的非指示性动作。一些未经指示的运动与审判事件保持一致。对它们的解释表明，具有类似试验平均活动性的神经元通常反映出完全不同的认知和运动变量组合。其他动作特有发生 考虑通常被认为是“噪声”的逐次试验波动。这在整个任务学习中以及包括皮层下区域的细胞外Neuropixels记录中都是如此。我们的观察结果表明，动物在执行丰富多样，不受指导的运动的同时执行专家的决定，这些运动深刻地影响了神经活动。