Neuroscience in the 21st century: circuits, computation, and behaviour

[...]we consider how this transformation will advance our future understanding of brain function in health and disease. The tools and techniques for this approach have become available during the lifetime of The Lancet Neurology. Since the mid-1900s, investigators have used ultra-thin metal wires as electrodes to monitor the activity of individual neurons while animals are exposed to sensory stimuli or exhibit simple behaviours.1–4 Using such electrodes, neuroscientists discovered cell types whose patterns of activity correlate with specific features of a stimulus or behaviour, thus providing clues about their potential functional role. [...]when information is distributed throughout a population, it is often inaccessible with standard techniques such as receptive field mapping and single neuron tuning curves.