biostudies-literatureFu ZNIMH NIH HHSNINDS NIH HHSeabm9922https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9282918biostudies-literatureUnknown376(6593)Controlling behavior to flexibly achieve desired goals depends on the ability to monitor one's own performance. It is unknown how performance monitoring can be both flexible, to support different tasks, and specialized, to perform each task well. We recorded single neurons in the human medial frontal cortex while subjects performed two tasks that involve three types of cognitive conflict. Neurons encoding conflict probability, conflict, and error in one or both tasks were intermixed, forming a representational geometry that simultaneously allowed task specialization and generalization. Neurons encoding conflict retrospectively served to update internal estimates of conflict probability. Population representations of conflict were compositional. These findings reveal how representations of evaluative signals can be both abstract and task-specific and suggest a neuronal mechanism for estimating control demand.Science (New York, N.Y.)The geometry of domain-general performance monitoring in the human medial frontal cortex.PMC9282918U01 NS117839P50 MH094258R01 MH110831Chung JMFu ZRutishauser UReed CMMamelak ANAdolphs RBeam DfalseThe geometry of domain-general performance monitoring in the human medial frontal cortex.Controlling behavior to flexibly achieve desired goals depends on the ability to monitor one's own performance. It is unknown how performance monitoring can be both flexible, to support different tasks, and specialized, to perform each task well. We recorded single neurons in the human medial frontal cortex while subjects performed two tasks that involve three types of cognitive conflict. Neurons encoding conflict probability, conflict, and error in one or both tasks were intermixed, forming a representational geometry that simultaneously allowed task specialization and generalization. Neurons encoding conflict retrospectively served to update internal estimates of conflict probability. Population representations of conflict were compositional. These findings reveal how representations of evaluative signals can be both abstract and task-specific and suggest a neuronal mechanism for estimating control demand.2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 May2025-04-04T07:45:20.891Z2025-04-04T07:45:20.891ZS-EPMC92829183551197810.1126/science.abm9922