Population-level encoding of task information is stronger in the adolescent compared to adult frontal cortex.

ABSTRACT: Adolescence is commonly claimed to be a 'sensitive period,' but it is not clear how experience at this age may have stronger impact than in adulthood. We hypothesized that enhanced sensitivity to experience during adolescence may manifest as stronger encoding of task-related information in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). To study neural activity in layer 2/3 of the developing mouse dmPFC, we used a microscope to image mice while they learned an auditory go/no-go task. We found adolescent mice (30-45 days old) learned the task to criterion faster than adult mice (60-75 days old). When we compared activity in expert mice with comparable performance between the two age groups, we found that a similar fraction of single cells encoded task variables. However, task information could b

SUBMITTER: Klinger ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12907720 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature