Fluid network dynamics in the prefrontal cortex during multiple strategy switching

Abstract

Coordinated shifts of neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex are associated with strategy adaptations in behavioural tasks, when animals switch from following one rule to another. However, network dynamics related to multiple-rule changes are scarcely known. We show how firing rates of individual neurons in the prelimbic and cingulate cortex correlate with the performance of rats trained to change their navigation multiple times according to allocentric and egocentric strategies. The concerted population activity exhibits a stable firing during the performance of one rule but shifted to another neuronal firing state when a new rule is learnt. Interestingly, when the same rule is presented a second time within the same session, neuronal firing does not revert back to the original neuronal firing state, but a new activity-state is formed. Our data indicate that neuronal firing of prefrontal cortical neurons represents changes in strategy and task-performance rather than specific strategies or rules.

Reversible fronto-occipitotemporal signaling complements task encoding and switching under ambiguous cues

“…Shifting between different types of behavior is one of the core executive control functions (3,4), and switching paradigms have been often used to investigate behavioral flexibility and its underlying neural mechanisms. Previous neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies of human and non-human animals suggest a critical role of the prefrontal cortex in switching tasks and rules (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) (Fig. 1A).…”

Neural Representation of Motor Output, Context and Behavioral Adaptation in Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex During Learned Behavior

“…Activity of mPFC neurons correlates with task outcomes with both positive (Gruber et al, 2010 ; Horst and Laubach, 2013 ; Orsini et al, 2015 ; Pinto and Dan, 2015 ; Amarante et al, 2017 ) and negative valence (Senn et al, 2014 ; Halladay and Blair, 2015 ; Pinto and Dan, 2015 ; Kim et al, 2017 ; Rozeske et al, 2018 ) and distinct populations of mPFC neurons are selectively activated during movement and movement inhibition (Halladay and Blair, 2015 ). Moreover, incorporation of task rules in the mPFC leads to adaptive strategies to optimize task outcome (Durstewitz et al, 2010 ; Euston et al, 2012 ; Horst and Laubach, 2012 ; Narayanan et al, 2013 ; Cho et al, 2015 ; Orsini et al, 2015 ; Guise and Shapiro, 2017 ; Malagon-Vina et al, 2018 ). Additionally, the mPFC is critically involved in bottom-up detection of tactile sensory input (Le Merre et al, 2018 ), as well as top-down filtering of visual and auditory sensory information (Zhang et al, 2014 ; Wimmer et al, 2015 , 2016 ; Kim H. et al, 2016 ; Schmitt et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Not surprisingly, neuronal correlates of sensory information are found in the mPFC during auditory “Go”/“No-go” tasks (Pinto and Dan, 2015 ; Kamigaki and Dan, 2017 ) and during a visual attention task (Kim H. et al, 2016 ). Furthermore, short-term task rules are represented transiently by spiking patterns in mPFC populations (Durstewitz et al, 2010 ; Rodgers and DeWeese, 2014 ; Malagon-Vina et al, 2018 ) and combined audiovisual selective attention tasks require correct spiking in mPFC axons to thalamus (Wimmer et al, 2015 ; Schmitt et al, 2017 ). The mPFC is thus ideally situated in the circuitry to drive learned behavior under conditions when sensory information guides decision making and behavioral output.…”

Secondary Motor Cortex Transforms Spatial Information into Planned Action During Navigation

“…Fr2, medial agranular cortex, premotor cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and frontal 18 orienting field. With respect to navigation, published work indicates that M2 neuron firing predicts 19 upcoming navigational choices from a single environmental location 41 and that neighboring 20 prefrontal cortex sub-regions encode information related to rules for navigation as well as 21 anticipated effort and reward associated with a route [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] . Yet, whether M2 neuron firing 22 dynamics are consistent with a role transitioning a broader and spatially distributed set of 23…”