In a study reported on Aug. 24, 2026, in Science, MIT neuroscientists described a circuit in mice that compares what has just happened in the sensory world with what is happening now and passes that comparison to a decision-making region. The circuit links the lateral posterior thalamus, the mouse counterpart of the pulvinar, with the anterior cingulate cortex, an area of the prefrontal cortex, and is proposed as closely analogous to circuitry in humans.

Senior author Mriganka Sur and lead author Ning Leow trained mice on a task judging the shared direction of drifting dots, with the proportion of dots moving together varying between trials. Behavioral results indicated the mice weighed both the current cue and the previous one. Optogenetic stimulation of the circuit altered the animals' choices, with the deviations proportional to the difference between current and previous cues, and imaging showed the thalamic region and cortex carrying out different roles, according to the researchers.

The authors say the thalamic input supplies a history-based comparison while the cortex transforms it into activity predicting the choice. They suggest possible relevance to autism research, where sensory prediction differences are reported, but the work remains preclinical mouse research and does not establish clinical applications. The National Institutes of Health and other funders supported the study.