Behavioral model and data from rapid dynamics of dorsal raphe serotonin neurons regulate the strength of visual attention

Lehnert, Jonas 1 ; Cha, Kuwook1; Forestell, Julia1; Yang, Kerry 1 ; Ma, Xinyue1; Shariff, Sinan1; Britt, Jonathan P1; Khadra, Anmar1; Cook, Erik P.1; Krishnaswamy, Arjun 1

Published Apr 08, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5qfttdzms

Data files

Apr 08, 2026 version files 304.95 MB

README.md

1.98 KB
trials.mat

304.94 MB

Abstract

This dataset accompanies the GitHub repository containing MATLAB code for the behavioral model presented in Lehnert et al., “Rapid dynamics of dorsal raphe serotonin neurons regulate the strength of visual attention.” It includes a subset of behavioral data from a mouse performing the visual attention task described in the manuscript.

The file trials.mat provides trial‑level information, including checkerboard stimuli and associated feature energies, lick response times, grating onset times and coherences, and behavioral outcomes. Data are organized by trial, enabling direct use with the accompanying GitHub MATLAB scripts to compute attention strength and compute sensitivity maps.

Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5qfttdzms

Description of the data and file structure

Behavioral data acquired during a cued visual detection task described in Lehnert et al., 2023 Curr. Biol and Lehnert et al., 2024 Biorxiv

Files and variables

trials.mat

Description: contains a structure called trials with several fields (see below)

Field descriptions

session

Scalar
The session index this trial belongs to.

gratingContrast

Scalar
Stimulus contrast level used in this trial.

behavioralOutcome

Char or string
Behavioral outcome label for the trial (e.g. 'hit', 'miss', 'falseAlarm').
Only hits are rewarded

cueSide

Char
Side of the cue ('L' or 'R'), determines on which screen grating will appear.

stimulusRightTime

Numeric vector (s)
Raw timestamps (relative to session) when right-side stimulus frames/events occurred.

stimulusLeftTime

Numeric vector (s)
Raw timestamps when left-side stimulus frames/events occurred.

checkerboardStimRight

logical vector
Stimulus pattern or identifier presented on the right side.

checkerboardStimLeft

logical vector
Same as above, for the left side.

stimulusRightType

Char
Stimulus type; 's' = static; 'b' = blank (grayscreen); 'n' = noise (checkerboard); 'grating';

stimulusLeftType

Char
Same as above for left screen.

lickRightTime

Numeric vector (binary)
Binary event vector indicating right-side licks (1 = lick event, 0 = no lick).

sessionNumber

Numeric Vector
Describes the recording session number that this trial originated from

Code/software

Code to analyze is available at github

Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

Data was derived from the following sources: