Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Nowadays it is pretty much accepted that in animals with a nervous system, neural activity leads to behaviour. This framework is very useful to ultimately find a satisfying explanation of how and why animals behave, as it implies that there is a causal relationship between neuronal spiking and muscle and gland activity. In order to get closer to this causation, a common approach in neuroscience is to find correlations between behavioural variables and neuronal activity. Dr. Meijer's manuscript "Neurons in the mouse brain correlate with cryptocurrency price: a cautionary tale" [1] serves as a proof of concept that neuroscientists need to be careful about the statistical tests they use when looking for these correlations.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Hernando Martínez Vergara (2021) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 7 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: