Reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus
© Wang et al. Learning reduces variability but variability can facilitate learning. This paradoxical relationship has made it challenging to tease apart sources of variability that degrade performance from those that improve it. We tackled this question in a context-dependent timing task requiring h...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134000 |
| _version_ | 1826195122543394816 |
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| author | Wang, Jing Hosseini, Eghbal Meirhaeghe, Nicolas Akkad, Adam Jazayeri, Mehrdad |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Wang, Jing Hosseini, Eghbal Meirhaeghe, Nicolas Akkad, Adam Jazayeri, Mehrdad |
| author_sort | Wang, Jing |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © Wang et al. Learning reduces variability but variability can facilitate learning. This paradoxical relationship has made it challenging to tease apart sources of variability that degrade performance from those that improve it. We tackled this question in a context-dependent timing task requiring humans and monkeys to flexibly produce different time intervals with different effectors. We identified two opposing factors contributing to timing variability: Slow memory fluctuation that degrades performance and reward-dependent exploratory behavior that improves performance. Signatures of these opposing factors were evident across populations of neurons in the dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC), DMFC-projecting neurons in the ventrolateral thalamus, and putative target of DMFC in the caudate. However, only in the thalamus were the performanceoptimizing regulation of variability aligned to the slow performance-degrading memory fluctuations. These findings reveal how variability caused by exploratory behavior might help to mitigate other undesirable sources of variability and highlight a potential role for thalamocortical projections in this process. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:07:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/134000 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:07:32Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1340002023-12-22T19:19:33Z Reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus Wang, Jing Hosseini, Eghbal Meirhaeghe, Nicolas Akkad, Adam Jazayeri, Mehrdad Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology © Wang et al. Learning reduces variability but variability can facilitate learning. This paradoxical relationship has made it challenging to tease apart sources of variability that degrade performance from those that improve it. We tackled this question in a context-dependent timing task requiring humans and monkeys to flexibly produce different time intervals with different effectors. We identified two opposing factors contributing to timing variability: Slow memory fluctuation that degrades performance and reward-dependent exploratory behavior that improves performance. Signatures of these opposing factors were evident across populations of neurons in the dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC), DMFC-projecting neurons in the ventrolateral thalamus, and putative target of DMFC in the caudate. However, only in the thalamus were the performanceoptimizing regulation of variability aligned to the slow performance-degrading memory fluctuations. These findings reveal how variability caused by exploratory behavior might help to mitigate other undesirable sources of variability and highlight a potential role for thalamocortical projections in this process. 2021-10-27T19:57:34Z 2021-10-27T19:57:34Z 2020 2021-03-18T14:36:41Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134000 en 10.7554/ELIFE.55872 eLife Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd eLife |
| spellingShingle | Wang, Jing Hosseini, Eghbal Meirhaeghe, Nicolas Akkad, Adam Jazayeri, Mehrdad Reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus |
| title | Reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus |
| title_full | Reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus |
| title_fullStr | Reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus |
| title_short | Reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus |
| title_sort | reinforcement regulates timing variability in thalamus |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/134000 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wangjing reinforcementregulatestimingvariabilityinthalamus AT hosseinieghbal reinforcementregulatestimingvariabilityinthalamus AT meirhaeghenicolas reinforcementregulatestimingvariabilityinthalamus AT akkadadam reinforcementregulatestimingvariabilityinthalamus AT jazayerimehrdad reinforcementregulatestimingvariabilityinthalamus |