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Stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex

Optimal decision-making requires that stimulus-value associations are kept up to date by constantly comparing the expected value of a stimulus with its experienced outcome. To do this, value information must be held in mind when a stimulus and outcome are separated in time. However, little is known...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Enel, Pierre, Wallis, Joni D, Rich, Erin L
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7390599/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32628108
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54313
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author Enel, Pierre
Wallis, Joni D
Rich, Erin L
author_facet Enel, Pierre
Wallis, Joni D
Rich, Erin L
author_sort Enel, Pierre
collection PubMed
description Optimal decision-making requires that stimulus-value associations are kept up to date by constantly comparing the expected value of a stimulus with its experienced outcome. To do this, value information must be held in mind when a stimulus and outcome are separated in time. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms of working memory (WM) for value. Contradicting theories have suggested WM requires either persistent or transient neuronal activity, with stable or dynamic representations, respectively. To test these hypotheses, we recorded neuronal activity in the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex of two monkeys performing a valuation task. We found that features of all hypotheses were simultaneously present in prefrontal activity, and no single hypothesis was exclusively supported. Instead, mixed dynamics supported robust, time invariant value representations while also encoding the information in a temporally specific manner. We suggest that this hybrid coding is a critical mechanism supporting flexible cognitive abilities.
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spelling pubmed-73905992020-07-31 Stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex Enel, Pierre Wallis, Joni D Rich, Erin L eLife Neuroscience Optimal decision-making requires that stimulus-value associations are kept up to date by constantly comparing the expected value of a stimulus with its experienced outcome. To do this, value information must be held in mind when a stimulus and outcome are separated in time. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms of working memory (WM) for value. Contradicting theories have suggested WM requires either persistent or transient neuronal activity, with stable or dynamic representations, respectively. To test these hypotheses, we recorded neuronal activity in the orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex of two monkeys performing a valuation task. We found that features of all hypotheses were simultaneously present in prefrontal activity, and no single hypothesis was exclusively supported. Instead, mixed dynamics supported robust, time invariant value representations while also encoding the information in a temporally specific manner. We suggest that this hybrid coding is a critical mechanism supporting flexible cognitive abilities. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7390599/ /pubmed/32628108 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54313 Text en © 2020, Enel et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Enel, Pierre
Wallis, Joni D
Rich, Erin L
Stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex
title Stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex
title_full Stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex
title_fullStr Stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex
title_full_unstemmed Stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex
title_short Stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex
title_sort stable and dynamic representations of value in the prefrontal cortex
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7390599/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32628108
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54313
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