Sequential neuronal processing of number values, abstract decision, and action in the primate prefrontal cortex.
Decision-making requires processing of sensory information, comparing the gathered evidence to make a judgment, and performing the action to communicate it. How neuronal representations transform during this cascade of representations remains a matter of debate. Here, we studied the succession of ne...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2024-02-01
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| Series: | PLoS Biology |
| Online Access: | https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002520&type=printable |
| _version_ | 1797301419713232896 |
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| author | Pooja Viswanathan Anna M Stein Andreas Nieder |
| author_facet | Pooja Viswanathan Anna M Stein Andreas Nieder |
| author_sort | Pooja Viswanathan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Decision-making requires processing of sensory information, comparing the gathered evidence to make a judgment, and performing the action to communicate it. How neuronal representations transform during this cascade of representations remains a matter of debate. Here, we studied the succession of neuronal representations in the primate prefrontal cortex (PFC). We trained monkeys to judge whether a pair of sequentially presented displays had the same number of items. We used a combination of single neuron and population-level analyses and discovered a sequential transformation of represented information with trial progression. While numerical values were initially represented with high precision and in conjunction with detailed information such as order, the decision was encoded in a low-dimensional subspace of neural activity. This decision encoding was invariant to both retrospective numerical values and prospective motor plans, representing only the binary judgment of "same number" versus "different number," thus facilitating the generalization of decisions to novel number pairs. We conclude that this transformation of neuronal codes within the prefrontal cortex supports cognitive flexibility and generalizability of decisions to new conditions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:22:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-de73e4a8cbf247a0904868b2d7a1bf51 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1544-9173 1545-7885 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:22:19Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-de73e4a8cbf247a0904868b2d7a1bf512024-02-21T05:31:15ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Biology1544-91731545-78852024-02-01222e300252010.1371/journal.pbio.3002520Sequential neuronal processing of number values, abstract decision, and action in the primate prefrontal cortex.Pooja ViswanathanAnna M SteinAndreas NiederDecision-making requires processing of sensory information, comparing the gathered evidence to make a judgment, and performing the action to communicate it. How neuronal representations transform during this cascade of representations remains a matter of debate. Here, we studied the succession of neuronal representations in the primate prefrontal cortex (PFC). We trained monkeys to judge whether a pair of sequentially presented displays had the same number of items. We used a combination of single neuron and population-level analyses and discovered a sequential transformation of represented information with trial progression. While numerical values were initially represented with high precision and in conjunction with detailed information such as order, the decision was encoded in a low-dimensional subspace of neural activity. This decision encoding was invariant to both retrospective numerical values and prospective motor plans, representing only the binary judgment of "same number" versus "different number," thus facilitating the generalization of decisions to novel number pairs. We conclude that this transformation of neuronal codes within the prefrontal cortex supports cognitive flexibility and generalizability of decisions to new conditions.https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002520&type=printable |
| spellingShingle | Pooja Viswanathan Anna M Stein Andreas Nieder Sequential neuronal processing of number values, abstract decision, and action in the primate prefrontal cortex. PLoS Biology |
| title | Sequential neuronal processing of number values, abstract decision, and action in the primate prefrontal cortex. |
| title_full | Sequential neuronal processing of number values, abstract decision, and action in the primate prefrontal cortex. |
| title_fullStr | Sequential neuronal processing of number values, abstract decision, and action in the primate prefrontal cortex. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sequential neuronal processing of number values, abstract decision, and action in the primate prefrontal cortex. |
| title_short | Sequential neuronal processing of number values, abstract decision, and action in the primate prefrontal cortex. |
| title_sort | sequential neuronal processing of number values abstract decision and action in the primate prefrontal cortex |
| url | https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002520&type=printable |
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