TY - JOUR
T1 - Decision-making shapes dynamic inter-areal communication within macaque ventral frontal cortex
AU - Stoll, Frederic M.
AU - Rudebeck, Peter H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2024/10/7
Y1 - 2024/10/7
N2 - Macaque ventral frontal cortex is composed of a set of anatomically heterogeneous and highly interconnected areas. Collectively, these areas have been implicated in many higher-level affective and cognitive processes, most notably the adaptive control of decision-making. Despite this appreciation, little is known about how subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex dynamically interact with each other during decision-making. Here, we assessed functional interactions between areas by analyzing the activity of thousands of single neurons recorded from eight anatomically defined subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex in macaques performing a visually guided two-choice probabilistic task for different fruit juices. We found that the onset of stimuli and reward delivery globally increased communication between all parts of ventral frontal cortex. Inter-areal communication was, however, temporally specific, occurred through unique activity subspaces between areas, and depended on the encoding of decision variables. In particular, areas 12l and 12o showed the highest connectivity with other areas while being more likely to receive information from other parts of ventral frontal cortex than to send it. This pattern of functional connectivity suggests a role for these two areas in integrating diverse sources of information during decision processes. Taken together, our work reveals the specific patterns of inter-areal communication between anatomically connected subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex that are dynamically engaged during decision-making.
AB - Macaque ventral frontal cortex is composed of a set of anatomically heterogeneous and highly interconnected areas. Collectively, these areas have been implicated in many higher-level affective and cognitive processes, most notably the adaptive control of decision-making. Despite this appreciation, little is known about how subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex dynamically interact with each other during decision-making. Here, we assessed functional interactions between areas by analyzing the activity of thousands of single neurons recorded from eight anatomically defined subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex in macaques performing a visually guided two-choice probabilistic task for different fruit juices. We found that the onset of stimuli and reward delivery globally increased communication between all parts of ventral frontal cortex. Inter-areal communication was, however, temporally specific, occurred through unique activity subspaces between areas, and depended on the encoding of decision variables. In particular, areas 12l and 12o showed the highest connectivity with other areas while being more likely to receive information from other parts of ventral frontal cortex than to send it. This pattern of functional connectivity suggests a role for these two areas in integrating diverse sources of information during decision processes. Taken together, our work reveals the specific patterns of inter-areal communication between anatomically connected subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex that are dynamically engaged during decision-making.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85206019705&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.034
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.034
M3 - Article
C2 - 39293441
AN - SCOPUS:85206019705
SN - 0960-9822
VL - 34
SP - 4526-4538.e5
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
IS - 19
ER -