title: Cortical neural responses to previous trial outcome during learning of a directional choice task.
abstract: The outcomes that result from previous behavior affect future choices in several ways, but the neural mechanisms underlying these effects remain to be determined. Previous studies have shown that the lateral (AGl) and medial (AGm) agranular areas of the rat frontal cortex are involved in the learning and selection of action. Here we describe the activity of single neurons in AGl and AGm as rats learned to perform a directional choice task. Our analysis shows that single-cell activity in AGl and AGm was modulated by the outcome of the previous trial. A larger proportion of neurons encoded the previous trial's outcome shortly after cue onset than during other time periods of a trial. Most of these neurons had greater activity after correct trials than after error trials, a difference that increased as behavioral performance improved. The number of neurons encoding the previous trial's outcome correlated positively with performance accuracy. In summary, we found that neurons in both AGl and AGm encode the outcome of the immediately preceding trial, information that might play a role in the successful selection of action based on past experience.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona;
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona;
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona; Graduate Faculty of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona; and Affiliate Faculty of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona si@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Jennie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Si
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans
keywords: firing rates; learning; previous trial outcome; primary motor and nonprimary motor areas