Frontal cortex neuron types categorically encode single decision variables.

ABSTRACT: Individual neurons in many cortical regions have been found to encode specific, identifiable features of the environment or body that pertain to the function of the region^1-3. However, in frontal cortex, which is involved in cognition, neural responses display baffling complexity, carrying seemingly disordered mixtures of sensory, motor and other task-related variables^4-13. This complexity has led to the suggestion that representations in individual frontal neurons are randomly mixed and can only be understood at the neural population level^14,15. Here we show that neural activity in rat orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is instead highly structured: single neuron activity co-varies with individual variables in computational models that explain choice behaviour. To

SUBMITTER: Hirokawa J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10197198 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature