Ramping ensemble activity in dorsal anterior cingulate neurons during persistent commitment to a decision

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

2016

Self Cite

Flexible decision-making, a defining feature of human cognition, is typically thought of as a canonical pFC function. Recent work suggests that the striatum may participate as well; however, its role in this process is not well understood. We recorded activity of neurons in both the ventral (VS) and dorsal (DS) striatum while rhesus macaques performed a version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a classic test of flexibility. Our version of the task involved a trial-and-error phase before monkeys could identify the correct rule on each block. We observed changes in firing rate in both regions when monkeys switched rules. Specifically, VS neurons demonstrated switch-related activity early in the trial-and-error period when the rule needed to be updated, and a portion of these neurons signaled information about the switch context (i.e., whether the switch was intradimensional or extradimensional). Neurons in both VS and DS demonstrated switch-related activity at the end of the trial-and-error period, immediately before the rule was fully established and maintained, but these signals did not carry any information about switch context. We also observed associative learning signals (i.e., specific responses to options associated with rewards in the presentation period before choice) that followed the same pattern as switch signals (early in VS, later in DS). Taken together, these results endorse the idea that the striatum participates directly in cognitive set reconfiguration and suggest that single neurons in the striatum may contribute to a functional handoff from the VS to the DS during reconfiguration processes.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Contributions of Ventral and Dorsal Striatum to Early and Late Phases of Cognitive Set Reconfiguration

Sleezer

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

2016

Self Cite

“…It is distinguished by its placement outside of, or beside, the basic processes that transform inputs to outputs and generate actions (Norman & Shallice 1986, Schall et al 2002). Although monitoring signals are often found after decisions and their results (in laboratory tasks, the trial), in some cases monitoring can occur throughout the decision-making process, leading to online changes in performance (Blanchard et al 2015, Carter et al 1998, Holroyd & Coles 2002). …”

Section: Dacc Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Supporting this idea, the dACC is active when tracking progress toward a specific goal (Hayden et al 2011b, Ma et al 2014, Shidara & Richmond 2002). One theory is that the dACC carries a value signal that allows decision makers to overcome a tendency to succumb to temptation (Blanchard et al 2015, Hillman & Bilkey 2010). (For related ideas, see Parent et al 2015, Passetti et al 2002, and Rushworth et al 2003.)…”

Section: Dacc Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex: A Bottom-Up View

Heilbronner

2016

Annu. Rev. Neurosci.

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393

282

The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) has attracted great interest from neuroscientists because it is associated with so many important cognitive functions. Despite, or perhaps because of, its rich functional repertoire, we lack a single comprehensive view of its function. Most research has approached this puzzle from the top down, using aggregate measures such as neuroimaging. We provide a view from the bottom up, with a focus on singleunit responses and anatomy. We summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the three major approaches to characterizing the dACC: as a monitor, as a controller, and as an economic structure. We argue that neurons in the dACC are specialized for representing contexts, or task-state variables relevant for behavior, and strategies, or aspects of future plans. We propose that dACC neurons link contexts with strategies by integrating diverse taskrelevant information to create a rich representation of task space and exert high-level and abstract control over decision and action.

“…The neural structures that support the representation of offers are generally reactivated when rewards are received (Blanchard et al, 2015b; Farovik et al, 2015; Howard et al, 2015; Kahnt et al, 2010; Tsujimoto et al, 2009; Wang and Hayden, 2017). There is no obvious reason why the brain must be organized this way; indeed, in a modular system, there is no reason why monitoring and comparison would not be implemented by different, specialized regions.…”

Section: Implications Of the Choice Microarchitecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Choice as an Untangling of Options into Actions

Yoo

2018

Neuron

115

123

SUMMARY We propose that economic choice can be understood as a gradual transformation from domain of options to one of the actions. We draw an analogy with the idea of untangling information in the form vision system and propose that form vision and economic choice may be two aspects of a larger process that sculpts actions based on sensory inputs. From this viewpoint, choice results from the accumulated effect of repetitions of simple computations. These may consist primarily of relative valuations (evaluations relative to the value of rejection, perhaps in a manner akin to divisive normalization) applied to individual offers. With regard to economic choice, cortical brain regions differ primarily in their position and in what information they prioritize, and do not—with a few exceptions—have categorically distinct roles. Each region’s specific contribution is determined largely by its inputs; thus, understanding connectivity is crucial for understanding choice. This view suggests that there is no single site of choice, that there is no meaningful distinction between pre- and post-decisionality, and that there is no explicit representation of value in the brain.