Abstract
The brain has the remarkable ability to guide the performance of complex tasks. Distinct prefrontal cortical areas make specific contributions to this ability, with the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) critical for processing information related to trial outcomes and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) critical for sustained effort and selecting the right action at the right time. Yet, in both areas, neural activity represents both outcome- and action-related quantities. How similar neural representations support different functions remains unclear. Here, we compared OFC and dmPFC activity in rats performing a spatial alternation task. We show that, in contrast to other task-related variables, task progression is represented in both areas, but with distinct patterns of across-trial reliability that match each area’s previously documented functional specialization. Our results indicate that the engagement of reliable, task-phase-specific activity patterns differs across prefrontal regions in a manner well suited to engage different computations at different times.
Jennifer A. Guidera, Daniel P. Gramling, Alison E. Comrie, Abhilasha Joshi, Shih-Yi Tseng, Eric L. Denovellis, Clay N. Smyth, Kyu Hyun Lee, Jenny Zhou, Paige Thompson, Jose Hernandez, Allison Yorita, Razi Haque, Christoph Kirst, Loren M. Fran. Regional specialization in prefrontal cortex manifests in the reliability of task progression codes. Neuron, 2026-03. [LINK]
Speaker: Shufei Wang
Time: 9:00 am, 2026/03/30
Location: CIBR A622
