Neural Correlates of Strategy Switching in the Macaque Orbital Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract

We can adapt flexibly to environment changes and search for the most appropriate rule to a context. The orbital prefrontal cortex (PFo) has been associated with decision making, rule generation and maintenance, and more generally has been considered important for behavioral flexibility. To better understand the neural mechanisms underlying the flexible behavior, we studied the ability to generate a switching signal in monkey PFo when a strategy is changed. In the strategy task, we used a visual cue to instruct two male rhesus monkeys either to repeat their most recent choice (i.e., stay strategy) or to change it (i.e., shift strategy). To identify the strategy switching-related signal, we compared nonswitch and switch trials, which cued the same or a different strategy from the previous trial, respectively. We found that the switching-related signal emerged during the cue presentation and it was combined with the strategy signal in a subpopulation of cells. Moreover, the error analysis showed that the activity of the switch-related cells reflected whether the monkeys erroneously switched or not the strategy, rather than what was required for that trial. The function of the switching signal could be to prompt the use of different strategies when older strategies are no longer appropriate, conferring the ability to adapt flexibly to environmental changes. In our task, the switching signal might contribute to the implementation of the strategy cued, overcoming potential interference effects from the strategy previously cued. Our results support the idea that ascribes to PFo an important role for behavioral flexibility.

Neural representational geometries correlate with behavioral differences in monkeys and recurrent neural networks

“…Eye position was recorded with an infrared oculometer (Arrington Research). The recording sites were localized by histological analysis and MRI (see Tsujimoto et al [24] for more The behavioral task A sequence of the task events of the visually cued rulebased task is shown in Figure 1A [24,40,41,42]. For clarity, previous works' authors referred to this task as the visually cued strategy task.…”

“…A sequence of the task events of the visually cued rule-based task is shown in Figure 1A [24, 49, 50, 51]. For clarity, previous works’ authors referred to this task as the visually cued strategy task.…”

Flexible adjustment of anticipations in human outcome processing

“…Recent years have seen a surge in studies on the role of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in behavioral control. Its abilities to represent the content of expected outcomes (e.g., type of expected reward), to calculate and adapt their current value 1 – 7 , to signal their occurrence or absence 8 , 9 , and to enable behavioral switches 10 make it one of the main cortical centers for behavioral adaptation and decision making 11 – 13 .…”