"Flexible Brain: Multiple Decision Strategies at Once"
A study by the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, has shown that the brain can compute multiple alternative decision strategies simultaneously, rather than committing to a single strategy. The study used a "virtual mouse world" to study the complex decision strategies used by mice. The researchers recorded activity from large ensembles of individual brain cells in a part of the brain known as the premotor cortex while the mice performed the task. They found that, while each mouse focused on their own strategy, their brains did not, and that the brain can actually perform several different counting strategies at the same time.