Activity of Prefrontal Neurons Predict Future Choices during Gambling

Abstract

Summary Neuronal signals in the prefrontal cortex have been reported to predict upcoming decisions. Such activity patterns are often coupled to perceptual cues indicating correct choices or values of different options. How does the prefrontal cortex signal future decisions, when no cues are present, but when decisions are made based on internal valuations of past experiences with stochastic outcomes? We trained rats to perform a two-arm bandit-task, successfully adjusting choices between certain-small, or possible-big rewards with changing long-term advantages. We discovered specialized prefrontal neurons, whose firing during the encounter of no-reward predicted the subsequent choice of animals, even for unlikely or uncertain decisions and several seconds before choice-execution. Optogenetic silencing of the prelimbic cortex exclusively timed to encounters of no-reward, provoked animals to excessive gambling for large rewards. Firing of prefrontal neurons during outcome evaluation signal subsequent choices during gambling and is essential for dynamically adjusting decisions based on internal valuations.

A Visual Two-Choice Rule-Switch Task for Head-Fixed Mice

“…To determine the behavioral effect of silencing the mPFC during positive-feedback epochs, we implemented an optogenetic system (Passecker et al, 2019), which achieves locally restricted inhibition of principal neurons through activation of GABAergic interneurons. For these experiments the same animals ( n = 4), which underwent the earlier described behavioral tests, were bilaterally injected with an AAV2/1-mDlx-ChR2 virus (Dimidschstein et al, 2016), to selectively express the light-sensitive ChR2 channel in GABAergic cells (Figure 3A).…”

Advances in understanding meso‐cortico‐limbic‐striatal systems mediating risky reward seeking

“…Bearing in mind the significant differences in cortical anatomy across species, many studies have demonstrated that the rodent mPFC mediates adaptive behavior following the introduction of probabilistically-delivered positive punishment (Halladay et al, 2020;Jacobs & Moghaddam, 2020;Orsini et al, 2018) or reward omission (Passecker et al, 2019;Rivalan et al, 2011;St. Onge and Floresco, 2010) on reward-seeking tasks (Figure 2).…”

Oscillotherapeutics – Time-targeted interventions in epilepsy and beyond

“…Abstinence-based relapse models include forced abstinence and drug craving incubation (Fuchs et al, 2006), adverse consequences-imposed abstinence (Cooper et al, 2007), and voluntary abstinence induced by introducing non-drug rewards (Caprioli et al, 2015). In addition, risky and gambling choice tasks and those with reward/aversion conflicts can be used to study the pathological oscillations underlying inappropriate, impulsive and executive decision making in addicted states (Passecker et al, 2019;Verharen et al, 2018).…”