Oscillatory Activity and Phase–Amplitude Coupling in the Human Medial Frontal Cortex during Decision Making

Electroencephalogram oscillations recorded both within and over the medial frontal cortex have been linked to a range of cognitive functions, including positive and negative feedback processing. Medial frontal oscillatory characteristics during decision making remain largely unknown. Here, we examined oscillatory activity of the human medial frontal cortex recorded while subjects played a competitive decision-making game. Distinct patterns of power and cross-trial phase coherence in multiple frequency bands were observed during different decision-related processes (e.g., feedback anticipation vs. feedback processing). Decision and feedback processing were accompanied by a broadband increase in cross-trial phase coherence at around 220 msec, and dynamic fluctuations in power. Feedback anticipation was accompanied by a shift in the power spectrum from relatively lower (delta and theta) to higher (alpha and beta) power. Power and cross-trial phase coherence were greater following losses compared to wins in theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands, but were greater following wins compared to losses in the delta band. Finally, we found that oscillation power in alpha and beta frequency bands were synchronized with the phase of delta and theta oscillations (“phase–amplitude coupling”). This synchronization differed between losses and wins, suggesting that phase–amplitude coupling might reflect a mechanism of feedback valence coding in the medial frontal cortex. Our findings link medial frontal oscillations to decision making, with relations among activity in different frequency bands suggesting a phase-utilizing coding of feedback valence information.

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Human subthalamic nucleus–medial frontal cortex theta phase coherence is involved in conflict and error related cortical monitoring

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.05.031 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 137 ◽

pp. 178-187 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Baltazar Zavala ◽

Huiling Tan ◽

Keyoumars Ashkan ◽

Thomas Foltynie ◽

Patricia Limousin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Frontal Cortex ◽

Subthalamic Nucleus ◽

Phase Coherence ◽

Medial Frontal Cortex ◽

Theta Phase

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Unilateral medial frontal cortex lesions cause a cognitive decision-making deficit in rats

European Journal of Neuroscience ◽

10.1111/ejn.12751 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 40 (12) ◽

pp. 3757-3765 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Paula L. Croxson ◽

Mark E. Walton ◽

Erie D. Boorman ◽

Matthew F. S. Rushworth ◽

David M. Bannerman

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Frontal Cortex ◽

Medial Frontal Cortex ◽

Cognitive Decision

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Frontal cortex electrophysiology in reward- and punishment-related feedback processing during advice-guided decision making: An interleaved EEG-DC stimulation study

Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience ◽

10.3758/s13415-018-0566-8 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 249-262 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Miles Wischnewski ◽

Harold Bekkering ◽

Dennis J. L. G. Schutter

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Frontal Cortex ◽

Feedback Processing ◽

Reward And Punishment

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Selective prefrontal-amygdala circuit interactions underlie social and nonsocial valuation in rhesus macaques

10.1101/2021.04.13.439737 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Maia S. Pujara ◽

Nicole K. Ciesinski ◽

Joseph F. Reyelts ◽

Sarah E.V. Rhodes ◽

Elisabeth A. Murray

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Frontal Cortex ◽

Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽

Rhesus Macaques ◽

Cognitive Appraisals ◽

Medial Frontal Cortex ◽

Orbital Frontal Cortex ◽

Social Valuation ◽

Food Value ◽

Food Retrieval

AbstractLesion studies in macaques suggest dissociable functions of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and medial frontal cortex (MFC), with OFC being essential for goal-directed decision making and MFC supporting social cognition. Bilateral amygdala damage results in impairments in both of these domains. There are extensive reciprocal connections between these prefrontal areas and the amygdala; however, it is not known whether the dissociable roles of OFC and MFC depend on functional interactions with the amygdala. To test this possibility, we compared the performance of male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) with crossed surgical disconnection of the amygdala and either MFC (MFC x AMY, n=4) or OFC (OFC x AMY, n=4) to a group of unoperated controls (CON, n=5). All monkeys were assessed for their performance on two tasks to measure: (1) food-retrieval latencies while viewing videos of social and nonsocial stimuli in a test of social interest, and (2) object choices based on current food value using reinforcer devaluation in a test of goal-directed decision making. Compared to the CON group, the MFC x AMY group, but not the OFC x AMY group, showed significantly reduced food-retrieval latencies while viewing videos of conspecifics, indicating reduced social valuation and/or interest. By contrast, on the devaluation task, group OFC x AMY, but not group MFC x AMY, displayed deficits on object choices following changes in food value. These data indicate that the MFC and OFC must functionally interact with the amygdala to support normative social and nonsocial valuation, respectively.Significance StatementAscribing value to conspecifics (social) vs. objects (nonsocial) may be supported by distinct but overlapping brain networks. Here we test whether two nonoverlapping regions of the prefrontal cortex, the medial frontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex, must causally interact with the amygdala to sustain social valuation and goal-directed decision making, respectively. We found that these prefrontal-amygdala circuits are functionally dissociable, lending support for the idea that medial frontal and orbital frontal cortex make independent contributions to cognitive appraisals of the environment. These data provide a neural framework for distinct value assignment processes and may enhance our understanding of the cognitive deficits observed following brain injury or in the development of mental health disorders.

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Aberrant striatal oscillations after dopamine loss in parkinsonian non-human primates

10.1101/650770 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Arun Singh ◽

Stella M. Papa

Keyword(s):

Basal Ganglia ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Field Potentials ◽

Striatal Neurons ◽

Dopamine Depletion ◽

Frequency Bands ◽

Oscillatory Pattern ◽

Motor Abnormalities ◽

Beta Frequency

AbstractDopamine depletion in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with abnormal oscillatory activity in the cortico-basal ganglia network. However, the oscillatory pattern of striatal neurons in PD remains poorly defined. Here, we analyzed the local field potentials in one untreated and five MPTP-treated non-human primates (NHP) to model advanced PD. Augmented oscillatory activity in the alpha (8-13 Hz) and low-beta (13-20 Hz) frequency bands was found in the striatum in parallel to the motor cortex and globus pallidus of the NHP-PD model. The coherence analysis showed increased connectivity in the cortico-striatal and striato-pallidal pathways at alpha and low-beta frequency bands, confirming the presence of abnormal 8-20 Hz activity in the cortico-basal ganglia network. The acute L-Dopa injection that induced a clear motor response normalized the amplified 8-20 Hz oscillations. These findings indicate that pathological striatal oscillations at alpha and low-beta bands are concordant with the basal ganglia network changes after dopamine depletion, and thereby support a key role of the striatum in the generation of parkinsonian motor abnormalities.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Neuronal stability in medial frontal cortex sets individual variability in decision-making.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.734416125.793553614 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Omri Barak

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Frontal Cortex ◽

Individual Variability ◽

Medial Frontal Cortex

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Reducing variability of perceptual decision making with offline theta-burst TMS of dorsal medial frontal cortex

Brain Stimulation ◽

10.1016/j.brs.2020.09.011 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 1689-1696

Author(s):

Lina Willacker ◽

Marco Roccato ◽

Beril Nisa Can ◽

Marianne Dieterich ◽

Paul C.J. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Frontal Cortex ◽

Medial Frontal Cortex ◽

Perceptual Decision Making ◽

Perceptual Decision ◽

Theta Burst

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A new foreperiod effect on single-trial phase coherence. Part I: existence and relevance

10.1101/072371 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Joaquin Rapela ◽

Marissa Westerfield ◽

Jeanne Townsend ◽

Scott Makeig

Keyword(s):

Reaction Times ◽

Stimulus Presentation ◽

Warning Signal ◽

Error Rates ◽

Phase Coherence ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Single Trial ◽

Foreperiod Duration ◽

Trial Basis ◽

Trial Phase

AbstractExpecting events in time leads to more efficient behavior. A remarkable early finding in the study of temporal expectancy is the foreperiod effect on reaction times; i.e., the fact that the time period between a warning signal and an impendent stimuli, to which subjects are instructed to respond as quickly as possible, influences reaction times. Recently it has been shown that the phase of oscillatory activity preceding stimulus presentation is related to behavior. Here we connect both of these findings by reporting a novel foreperiod effect on the inter-trial phase coherence triggered by a stimulus to which subjects do not respond. Until now, inter-trial phase coherence has been used to describe a regularity in the phases of groups of trials. We propose a single-trial measure of inter-trial phase coherence and prove its soundness. Equipped with this measure, and using a multivariate decoding method, we demonstrate that the foreperiod duration modulates single-trial phase coherence. In principle, this modulation could be an artifact due to the decoding method used to detect it. We show that this is not the case, since the modulation can also be observed with a very simple averaging method. Although real, the single-trial modulation of inter-trial phase coherence by the foreperiod duration could just reflect a nuisance in our data. We argue against this possibility by showing that the strength of the modulation correlates with subjects’ behavioral measures, both error rates and mean-reaction times. We anticipate that the new foreperiod effect on inter-trial phase coherence, and the decoding method used here to detect it, will be important tools to understand cognition at the single-trial level. In Part II of this manuscript, we support this claim, by showing that attention modulates the strength of the new foreperiod effect in a trial-by-trial basis.

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