Distributed functions of prefrontal and parietal cortices during sequential categorical decisions

Comparing sequential stimuli is crucial for guiding complex behaviors. To understand mechanisms underlying sequential decisions, we compared neuronal responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the lateral intraparietal (LIP), and medial intraparietal (MIP) areas in monkeys trained to decide whether s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published ineLife Vol. 10
Main Authors Zhou, Yang, Rosen, Matthew C, Swaminathan, Sruthi K, Masse, Nicolas Y, Zhu, Ou, Freedman, David J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 07.09.2021
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Subjects
Animals
Behavior, Animal
categorization
Cortex (parietal)
Decision making
delayed match to sample
Integration
Macaca mulatta
Male
mixed selectivity
Neural networks
Neurons
Neurons - physiology
Neurophysiology
Neuroscience
parietal
Parietal Lobe - physiology
prefrontal
Prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
recurrent neural network
Taiwan
rhesus macaque
recurrent neural network
categorization
prefrontal
neuroscience
mixed selectivity
delayed match to sample
parietal
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Comparing sequential stimuli is crucial for guiding complex behaviors. To understand mechanisms underlying sequential decisions, we compared neuronal responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the lateral intraparietal (LIP), and medial intraparietal (MIP) areas in monkeys trained to decide whether sequentially presented stimuli were from matching (M) or nonmatching (NM) categories. We found that PFC leads M/NM decisions, whereas LIP and MIP appear more involved in stimulus evaluation and motor planning, respectively. Compared to LIP, PFC showed greater nonlinear integration of currently visible and remembered stimuli, which correlated with the monkeys' M/NM decisions. Furthermore, multi-module recurrent networks trained on the same task exhibited key features of PFC and LIP encoding, including nonlinear integration in the PFC-like module, which was causally involved in the networks' decisions. Network analysis found that nonlinear units have stronger and more widespread connections with input, output, and within-area units, indicating putative circuit-level mechanisms for sequential decisions.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
These authors contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.58782