Noradrenergic signaling in the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala differentially regulates vicarious trial-and-error in a spatial decision-making task

2016 ◽  
Vol 297 ◽  
pp. 104-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiichiro Amemiya ◽  
Natsuko Kubota ◽  
Nao Umeyama ◽  
Takeshi Nishijima ◽  
Ichiro Kita
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Spatial Decision Making ◽  
Vicarious Trial And Error

scholarly journals Disrupting the medial prefrontal cortex alters hippocampal sequences during deliberative decision making

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (6) ◽  
pp. 1981-2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandy Schmidt ◽  
Anneke A. Duin ◽  
A. David Redish
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Designer Drugs ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Current Location ◽  
Future Outcomes ◽  
Error Behavior ◽  
Hippocampal Theta ◽  
Vicarious Trial And Error

Current theories of deliberative decision making suggest that deliberative decisions arise from imagined simulations that require interactions between the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. In rodent navigation experiments, hippocampal theta sequences advance from the location of the rat ahead to the subsequent goal. To examine the role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) on the hippocampus, we disrupted the mPFC with DREADDs (designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs). Using the Restaurant Row foraging task, we found that mPFC disruption resulted in decreased vicarious trial and error behavior, reduced the number of theta sequences, and impaired theta sequences in hippocampus. mPFC disruption led to larger changes in the initiation of the hippocampal theta sequences that represent the current location of the rat rather than to the later portions that represent the future outcomes. These data suggest that the mPFC likely provides an important component to the initiation of deliberative sequences and provides support for an episodic-future thinking, working memory interpretation of deliberation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus interact during deliberative decision making. Disruption of the mPFC impaired hippocampal processes, including the local and nonlocal representations of space along each theta cycle and the initiation of hippocampal theta sequences, while sparing place cell firing characteristics and phase precession. mPFC disruption reduced the deliberative behavioral process vicarious trial and error and improved economic behaviors on this task.

scholarly journals Novel Inferences in a Multidimensional Social Network Use a Grid-like Code

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seongmin A. Park ◽  
Douglas S. Miller ◽  
Erie D. Boorman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Entorhinal Cortex ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cognitive Map ◽  
General Mechanism ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Flexible Behavior ◽  
Discrete Problems

ABSTRACTGeneralizing experiences to guide decision making in novel situations is a hallmark of flexible behavior. It has been hypothesized such flexibility depends on a cognitive map of an environment or task, but directly linking the two has proven elusive. Here, we find that discretely sampled abstract relationships between entities in an unseen two-dimensional (2-D) social hierarchy are reconstructed into a unitary 2-D cognitive map in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. We further show that humans utilize a grid-like code in several brain regions, including entorhinal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex, for inferred direct trajectories between entities in the reconstructed abstract space during discrete decisions. Moreover, these neural grid-like codes in the entorhinal cortex predict neural decision value computations in the medial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction area during choice. Collectively, these findings show that grid-like codes are used by the human brain to infer novel solutions, even in abstract and discrete problems, and suggest a general mechanism underpinning flexible decision making and generalization.

scholarly journals Representation of actions and outcomes in medial prefrontal cortex during delayed conditional decision-making: Population analyses of single neuron activity

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 239821281877386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda J. Francoeur ◽  
Robert G. Mair
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Single Neuron ◽  
Neuron Activity ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Single Neuron Activity ◽  
Temporal Organisation ◽  
Matching To Position

Background: To respond adaptively in a dynamic environment, it is important for organisms to utilise information about recent events to decide between response options. Methods: To examine the role of medial prefrontal cortex in adaptive decision-making, we recorded single neuron activity in rats performing a dynamic delayed non-matching to position task. Results: We recorded activity from 1335 isolated neurons, 458 (34%) with criterion event-related activity, of which 431 (94%) exhibited 1 of 10 distinct excitatory response types: five at different times relative to delivery (or lack) of reinforcement following sample and choice responses and five correlated with movements or lever press actions that occurred multiple times in each trial. Normalised population averages revealed a precisely timed cascade of population responses representing the temporal organisation behavioural events that constitute delayed non-matching to position trials. Firing field analyses identified a subset of neurons with restricted spatial fields: responding to the conjunction of a behavioural event with a specific location. Anatomical analyses showed considerable overlap in the distribution of different response types in medial prefrontal cortex with a significant trend for dorsal areas to contain more neurons with action-related activity and ventral areas more responses related to action outcomes. Conclusion: These results indicate that medial prefrontal cortex contains discrete populations of neurons that represent the temporal organisation of actions and outcomes during delayed non-matching to position trials. They support the hypothesis that medial prefrontal cortex promotes flexible control of complex behaviours by action–outcome contingencies.

scholarly journals The Abused Inhalant Toluene Impairs Medial Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Risk/Reward Decision-Making during a Probabilistic Discounting Task

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (46) ◽  
pp. 9207-9220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Braunscheidel ◽  
Michael P. Okas ◽  
Michaela Hoffman ◽  
Patrick J. Mulholland ◽  
Stan B. Floresco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex

scholarly journals History of Suicide Attempt Is Associated with Reduced Medial Prefrontal Cortex Activity during Emotional Decision-Making among Men with Schizophrenia: An Exploratory fMRI Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Potvin ◽  
Andràs Tikàsz ◽  
Stéphane Richard-Devantoy ◽  
Ovidiu Lungu ◽  
Alexandre Dumais
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Suicide Attempt ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Suicidal Attempt ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Brain Reward ◽  
Suicidal Ideas

Despite the high prevalence of suicidal ideas/attempts in schizophrenia, only a handful of neuroimaging studies have examined the neurobiological differences associated with suicide risk in this population. The main objective of the current exploratory study is to examine the neurofunctional correlates associated with a history of suicide attempt in schizophrenia, using a risky decision-making task, in order to show alterations in brain reward regions in this population. Thirty-two male outpatients with schizophrenia were recruited: 13 patients with (SCZ + S) and 19 without a history of suicidal attempt (SCZ − S). Twenty-one healthy men with no history of mental disorders or suicidal attempt/idea were also recruited. Participants were scanned using fMRI while performing the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. A rapid event-related fMRI paradigm was used, separating decision and outcome events, and the explosion probabilities were included as parametric modulators. The most important finding of this study is that SCZ + S patients had reduced activations of the medial prefrontal cortex during the success outcome event (with parametric modulation), relative to both SCZ − S patients and controls, as illustrated by a spatial conjunction analysis. These exploratory results suggest that a history of suicidal attempt in schizophrenia is associated with blunted brain reward activity during emotional decision-making.

scholarly journals Agency Modulates the Lateral and Medial Prefrontal Cortex Responses in Belief-Based Decision Making

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. e65274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gui Xue ◽  
Qinghua He ◽  
Zhong-Lin Lu ◽  
Irwin P. Levin ◽  
Qi Dong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex
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