Coding of latent variables in sensory, parietal, and frontal cortices during closed-loop virtual navigation.

ABSTRACT: We do not understand how neural nodes operate and coordinate within the recurrent action-perception loops that characterize naturalistic self-environment interactions. Here, we record single-unit spiking activity and local field potentials (LFPs) simultaneously from the dorsomedial superior temporal area (MSTd), parietal area 7a, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as monkeys navigate in virtual reality to 'catch fireflies'. This task requires animals to actively sample from a closed-loop virtual environment while concurrently computing continuous latent variables: (i) the distance and angle travelled (i.e., path integration) and (ii) the distance and angle to a memorized firefly location (i.e., a hidden spatial goal). We observed a patterned mixed selectivity, with the prefrontal c

SUBMITTER: Noel JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9668339 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature