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Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning
How do we learn about what to learn about? Specifically, how do the neural elements in our brain generalize what has been learned in one situation to recognize the common structure of – and speed learning in – other, similar situations? We know this happens; we and our mammalian kith become better a...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7906913/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33361819 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03061-2 |
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author | Zhou, Jingfeng Jia, Chunying Montesinos-Cartagena, Marlian Gardner, Matthew P.H. Zong, Wenhui Schoenbaum, Geoffrey |
author_facet | Zhou, Jingfeng Jia, Chunying Montesinos-Cartagena, Marlian Gardner, Matthew P.H. Zong, Wenhui Schoenbaum, Geoffrey |
author_sort | Zhou, Jingfeng |
collection | PubMed |
description | How do we learn about what to learn about? Specifically, how do the neural elements in our brain generalize what has been learned in one situation to recognize the common structure of – and speed learning in – other, similar situations? We know this happens; we and our mammalian kith become better at solving new problems – learning and deploying schemas (1–5) – as we go through life. However, we have little insight into this process. Here we show that using prior knowledge to facilitate learning is accompanied by the evolution of a neural schema in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Single units were recorded from rats deploying a schema to learn a succession of odor sequence problems. With learning, OFC ensembles converged on a low-dimensional neural manifold across both problems and subjects; this manifold represented the common structure of the problems and its evolution accelerated across their learning. These results demonstrate the formation and use of a schema in a prefrontal brain region to support a complex cognitive operation. Our results not only reveal an important new role for the OFC in learning but also have significant implications for using ensemble analyses to tap into complex cognitive functions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7906913 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79069132021-06-23 Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning Zhou, Jingfeng Jia, Chunying Montesinos-Cartagena, Marlian Gardner, Matthew P.H. Zong, Wenhui Schoenbaum, Geoffrey Nature Article How do we learn about what to learn about? Specifically, how do the neural elements in our brain generalize what has been learned in one situation to recognize the common structure of – and speed learning in – other, similar situations? We know this happens; we and our mammalian kith become better at solving new problems – learning and deploying schemas (1–5) – as we go through life. However, we have little insight into this process. Here we show that using prior knowledge to facilitate learning is accompanied by the evolution of a neural schema in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Single units were recorded from rats deploying a schema to learn a succession of odor sequence problems. With learning, OFC ensembles converged on a low-dimensional neural manifold across both problems and subjects; this manifold represented the common structure of the problems and its evolution accelerated across their learning. These results demonstrate the formation and use of a schema in a prefrontal brain region to support a complex cognitive operation. Our results not only reveal an important new role for the OFC in learning but also have significant implications for using ensemble analyses to tap into complex cognitive functions. 2020-12-23 2021-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7906913/ /pubmed/33361819 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03061-2 Text en Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html#terms |
spellingShingle | Article Zhou, Jingfeng Jia, Chunying Montesinos-Cartagena, Marlian Gardner, Matthew P.H. Zong, Wenhui Schoenbaum, Geoffrey Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning |
title | Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning |
title_full | Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning |
title_fullStr | Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning |
title_full_unstemmed | Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning |
title_short | Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning |
title_sort | evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7906913/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33361819 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03061-2 |
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