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Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex

Higher mammals are able to simultaneously learn and perform a wide array of complex behaviors, which raises questions about how the neural representations of multiple tasks coexist within the same neural network. Do neurons play invariant roles across different tasks? Alternatively, do the same neur...

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Autores principales: Awan, Muhammad Ali Haider, Mushiake, Hajime, Matsuzaka, Yoshiya
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9947505/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36846499
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2023.1049062
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author Awan, Muhammad Ali Haider
Mushiake, Hajime
Matsuzaka, Yoshiya
author_facet Awan, Muhammad Ali Haider
Mushiake, Hajime
Matsuzaka, Yoshiya
author_sort Awan, Muhammad Ali Haider
collection PubMed
description Higher mammals are able to simultaneously learn and perform a wide array of complex behaviors, which raises questions about how the neural representations of multiple tasks coexist within the same neural network. Do neurons play invariant roles across different tasks? Alternatively, do the same neurons play different roles in different tasks? To address these questions, we examined neuronal activity in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex of primates while they were performing two versions of arm-reaching tasks that required the selection of multiple behavioral tactics (i.e., the internal protocol of action selection), a critical requirement for the activation of this area. During the performance of these tasks, neurons in the pmPFC exhibited selective activity for the tactics, visuospatial information, action, or their combination. Surprisingly, in 82% of the tactics-selective neurons, the selective activity appeared in a particular task but not in both. Such task-specific neuronal representation appeared in 72% of the action-selective neurons. In addition, 95% of the neurons representing visuospatial information showed such activity exclusively in one task but not in both. Our findings indicate that the same neurons can play different roles across different tasks even though the tasks require common information, supporting the latter hypothesis.
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spelling pubmed-99475052023-02-24 Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex Awan, Muhammad Ali Haider Mushiake, Hajime Matsuzaka, Yoshiya Front Syst Neurosci Neuroscience Higher mammals are able to simultaneously learn and perform a wide array of complex behaviors, which raises questions about how the neural representations of multiple tasks coexist within the same neural network. Do neurons play invariant roles across different tasks? Alternatively, do the same neurons play different roles in different tasks? To address these questions, we examined neuronal activity in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex of primates while they were performing two versions of arm-reaching tasks that required the selection of multiple behavioral tactics (i.e., the internal protocol of action selection), a critical requirement for the activation of this area. During the performance of these tasks, neurons in the pmPFC exhibited selective activity for the tactics, visuospatial information, action, or their combination. Surprisingly, in 82% of the tactics-selective neurons, the selective activity appeared in a particular task but not in both. Such task-specific neuronal representation appeared in 72% of the action-selective neurons. In addition, 95% of the neurons representing visuospatial information showed such activity exclusively in one task but not in both. Our findings indicate that the same neurons can play different roles across different tasks even though the tasks require common information, supporting the latter hypothesis. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-02-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9947505/ /pubmed/36846499 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2023.1049062 Text en Copyright © 2023 Awan, Mushiake and Matsuzaka. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Awan, Muhammad Ali Haider
Mushiake, Hajime
Matsuzaka, Yoshiya
Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex
title Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex
title_full Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex
title_fullStr Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex
title_full_unstemmed Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex
title_short Non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex
title_sort non-overlapping sets of neurons encode behavioral response determinants across different tasks in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9947505/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36846499
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2023.1049062
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