scholarly journals Active maintenance of eligibility trace in rodent prefrontal cortex

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong-Hyun Lim ◽  
Young Ju Yoon ◽  
Eunsil Her ◽  
Suehee Huh ◽  
Min Whan Jung
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neuronal Activity ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Credit Assignment ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Active Maintenance ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Eligibility Trace ◽  
Action Value ◽  
Foraging Task

Abstract Even though persistent neural activity has been proposed as a mechanism for maintaining eligibility trace, direct empirical evidence for active maintenance of eligibility trace has been lacking. We recorded neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in rats performing a dynamic foraging task in which a choice must be remembered until its outcome on the timescale of seconds for correct credit assignment. We found that mPFC neurons maintain significant choice signals during the time period between action selection and choice outcome. We also found that neural signals for choice, outcome, and action value converge in the mPFC when choice outcome was revealed. Our results indicate that the mPFC maintains choice signals necessary for temporal credit assignment in the form of persistent neural activity in our task. They also suggest that the mPFC might update action value by combining actively maintained eligibility trace with action value and outcome signals.

scholarly journals Working memory performance and neural activity in prefrontal cortex of peripubertal monkeys

2013 ◽  
Vol 110 (11) ◽  
pp. 2648-2660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Zhou ◽  
Dantong Zhu ◽  
Xue-Lian Qi ◽  
Cynthia J. Lees ◽  
Allyson J. Bennett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neuronal Activity ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Distractor Stimulus

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex matures late into adolescence or early adulthood. This pattern of maturation mirrors working memory abilities, which continue to improve into adulthood. However, the nature of the changes that prefrontal neuronal activity undergoes during this process is poorly understood. We investigated behavioral performance and neural activity in working memory tasks around the time of puberty, a developmental event associated with the release of sex hormones and significant neurological change. The developmental stages of male rhesus monkeys were evaluated with a series of morphometric, hormonal, and radiographic measures. Peripubertal monkeys were trained to perform an oculomotor delayed response task and a variation of this task involving a distractor stimulus. We found that the peripubertal monkeys tended to abort a relatively large fraction of trials, and these were associated with low levels of task-related neuronal activity. However, for completed trials, accuracy in the delayed saccade task was high and the appearance of a distractor stimulus did not impact performance significantly. In correct trials delay period activity was robust and was not eliminated by the presentation of a distracting stimulus, whereas in trials that resulted in errors the sustained cue-related activity was significantly weaker. Our results show that in peripubertal monkeys the prefrontal cortex is capable of generating robust persistent activity in the delay periods of working memory tasks, although in general it may be more prone to stochastic failure than in adults.

105 Incorporating Newly Learned with Established Information within the Prefrontal Cortical Network

Neurosurgery ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (CN_suppl_1) ◽  
pp. 221-221
Author(s):  
Matthew Luchette ◽  
Ziv Williams
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Rhesus Macaques ◽  
The Other ◽  
Transitive Relation ◽  
Prefrontal Cortical ◽  
New Information ◽  
New Association ◽  
Foraging Task

Abstract INTRODUCTION Learning does not occur in isolation, but often requires us to incorporate newly acquired information with previously established knowledge. To investigate the neural process by which this may occur, we trained macaques to learn the transitive relation between items and then subsequently incorporate new transitive relations across various branched paths, while recording from their ventral (vlPFC) and lateral (dlPFC) prefrontal cortices. METHODS We designed a foraging task, in which Rhesus macaques learned the transitive relationship between different presented items (e.g., A>B>C>D>E). The monkeys began by learning initial B-C associations, called the ‘Stem’. After learning the “Stem, ” the monkeys learned one of two “Branch” associations. In “Branch: Related trials, in which the learned associations built upon the ”Stem" (eg C>D or A>B). In the other, termed “Branch: Unrelated, ” the new association was novel and did not build upon the stem (eg D>E). RESULTS >We find that both the vlPFC and dlPFC displayed changes in neural activity that correlated with learning. However, only changes in dlPFC activity distinctly responded to the incorporation of new information. At the network level, interaction between the two areas gradually increased when incorporating new information but decreased when acquiring new but unrelated information. CONCLUSION These findings reveal a ventral-dorsal functional circuit in the prefrontal cortex that may allow for the integration of new and old information. These findings are an important step in characterizing the pathology of learning disabilities, such as Autism and Executive Function Disorder.

Neural activity in macaque prefrontal cortex in flexible switching of search strategies

2011 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. e276-e277
Author(s):  
Atsushi Fujimoto ◽  
Satoshi Nishida ◽  
Tadashi Ogawa
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Search Strategies

Rule-dependent neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex

1999 ◽  
Vol 126 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilsun M. White ◽  
S. P. Wise
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neuronal Activity

scholarly journals Dissociable roles of cortical excitation-inhibition balance during patch-leaving versus value-guided decisions

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca F. Kaiser ◽  
Theo O. J. Gruendler ◽  
Oliver Speck ◽  
Lennart Luettgau ◽  
Gerhard Jocham
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neuronal Activity ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Mutual Inhibition ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cortical Excitation ◽  
The Cost

AbstractIn a dynamic world, it is essential to decide when to leave an exploited resource. Such patch-leaving decisions involve balancing the cost of moving against the gain expected from the alternative patch. This contrasts with value-guided decisions that typically involve maximizing reward by selecting the current best option. Patterns of neuronal activity pertaining to patch-leaving decisions have been reported in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), whereas competition via mutual inhibition in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is thought to underlie value-guided choice. Here, we show that the balance between cortical excitation and inhibition (E/I balance), measured by the ratio of GABA and glutamate concentrations, plays a dissociable role for the two kinds of decisions. Patch-leaving decision behaviour relates to E/I balance in dACC. In contrast, value-guided decision-making relates to E/I balance in vmPFC. These results support mechanistic accounts of value-guided choice and provide evidence for a role of dACC E/I balance in patch-leaving decisions.

Cerebral Processing of Acute Skin and Muscle Pain in Humans

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 450-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Svensson ◽  
Satoshi Minoshima ◽  
Ahmad Beydoun ◽  
Thomas J. Morrow ◽  
Kenneth L. Casey
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neuronal Activity ◽  
Muscle Pain ◽  
Pain Threshold ◽  
Premotor Cortex ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Noxious Stimulation ◽  
Cutaneous Stimulation ◽  
Cerebral Processing

Svensson, Peter, Satoshi Minoshima, Ahmad Beydoun, Thomas J. Morrow, and Kenneth L. Casey. Cerebral processing of acute skin and muscle pain in humans. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 450–460, 1997. The human cerebral processing of noxious input from skin and muscle was compared with the use of positron emission tomography with intravenous H2 15O to detect changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) as an indicator of neuronal activity. During each of eight scans, 11 normal subjects rated the intensity of stimuli delivered to the nondominant (left) forearm on a scale ranging from 0 to 100 with 70 as pain threshold. Cutaneous pain was produced with a high-energy CO2 laser stimulator. Muscle pain was elicited with high-intensity intramuscular electrical stimulation. The mean ratings of perceived intensity for innocuous and noxious stimulation were32.6 ± 4.5 (SE) and 78.4 ± 1.7 for cutaneous stimulation and 15.4 ± 4.2 and 73.5 ± 1.4 for intramuscular stimulation. The pain intensity ratings and the differences between noxious and innocuous ratings were similar for cutaneous and intramuscular stimuli ( P > 0.05). After stereotactic registration, statistical pixel-by-pixel summation ( Z score) and volumes-of-interest (VOI) analyses of subtraction images were performed. Significant increases in rCBF to both noxious cutaneous and intramuscular stimulation were found in the contralateral secondary somatosensory cortex (SII) and inferior parietal lobule [Brodmann area (BA) 40]. Comparable levels of rCBF increase were found in the contralateral anterior insular cortex, thalamus, and ipsilateral cerebellum. Noxious cutaneous stimulation caused significant activation in the contralateral lateral prefrontal cortex (BA 10/46) and ipsilateral premotor cortex (BA 4/6). Noxious intramuscular stimulation evoked rCBF increases in the contralateral anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24) and subsignificant responses in the contralateral primary sensorimotor cortex (MI/SI) and lenticular nucleus. These activated cerebral structures may represent those recruited early in nociceptive processing because both forms of stimuli were near pain threshold. Correlation analyses showed a negative relationship between changes in rCBF for thalamus and MI/SI for cutaneous stimulation, and positive relationships between thalamus and anterior insula for both stimulus modalities. Direct statistical comparisons between innocuous cutaneous and intramuscular stimulation with the use of Z scores and VOI analyses showed no reliable differences between these two forms of noxious stimulation, indicating a substantial overlap in brain activation pattern. The comparison of noxious cutaneous and intramuscular stimulation indicated more activation in the premotor cortex, SII, and prefrontal cortex with cutaneous stimulation, but these differences did not reach statistical significance. The similar cerebral activation patterns suggest that the perceived differences between acute skin and muscle pain are mediated by differences in the intensity and temporospatial pattern of neuronal activity within similar sets of forebrain structures.

scholarly journals Action-value comparisons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex control choice between goal-directed actions

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Morris ◽  
Amir Dezfouli ◽  
Kristi R. Griffiths ◽  
Bernard W. Balleine
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Action Value

scholarly journals Interpersonal Comparison of Utility by Measuring Neural Activity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaosu Matsumori ◽  
Kazuki Iijima ◽  
Yukihito Yomogida ◽  
Kenji Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Optimal Taxation ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Impossibility Theorem ◽  
Interpersonal Comparison ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Collective Decisions ◽  
Economic Goods ◽  
Household Incomes

Aggregating welfare across individuals to reach collective decisions is one of the most fundamental problems in our society. Interpersonal comparison of utility is pivotal and inevitable for welfare aggregation, because if each person's utility is not interpersonally comparable, there is no rational aggregation procedure that simultaneously satisfies even some very mild conditions for validity (Arrow's impossibility theorem). However, scientific methods for interpersonal comparison of utility have thus far not been available. Here, we have developed a method for interpersonal comparison of utility based on brain signals, by measuring the neural activity of participants performing gambling tasks. We found that activity in the medial frontal region was correlated with changes in expected utility, and that, for the same amount of money, the activity evoked was larger for participants with lower household incomes than for those with higher household incomes. Furthermore, we found that the ratio of neural signals from lower-income participants to those of higher-income participants coincided with estimates of their psychological pleasure by "impartial spectators", i.e. disinterested third-party participants satisfying specific conditions. Finally, we derived a decision rule based on aggregated welfare from our experimental data, and confirmed that it was applicable to a distribution problem. These findings suggest that our proposed method for interpersonal comparison of utility enables scientifically reasonable welfare aggregation by escaping from Arrow's impossibility and has implications for the fair distribution of economic goods. Our method can be further applied for evidence-based policy making in nations that use cost-benefit analyses or optimal taxation theory for policy evaluation.

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