Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex

Muhammad Ali Haider Awan, Hajime Mushiake, Yoshiya Matsuzaka

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Higher mammals are able to simultaneously learn and perform a wide array of complex behaviors, which raises questions about how the neural representations of multiple tasks coexist within the same neural network. Do neurons play invariant roles across different tasks? Alternatively, do the same neurons play different roles in different tasks? To address these questions, we examined neuronal activity in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex of primates while they were performing two versions of arm-reaching tasks that required the selection of multiple behavioral tactics (i.e., the internal protocol of action selection), a critical requirement for the activation of this area. During the performance of these tasks, neurons in the pmPFC exhibited selective activity for the tactics, visuospatial information, action, or their combination. Surprisingly, in 82% of the tactics-selective neurons, the selective activity appeared in a particular task but not in both. Such task-specific neuronal representation appeared in 72% of the action-selective neurons. In addition, 95% of the neurons representing visuospatial information showed such activity exclusively in one task but not in both. Our findings indicate that the same neurons can play different roles across different tasks even though the tasks require common information, supporting the latter hypothesis.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1049062
JournalFrontiers in Systems Neuroscience
Volume17
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023 Feb 9

Keywords

  • behavioral tactics
  • monkey
  • neuron
  • posterior medial prefrontal cortex
  • task-dependent encoding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neuroscience (miscellaneous)
  • Developmental Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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