title: Medial prefrontal cortex predicts internally driven strategy shifts.
abstract: Many daily behaviors require us to actively focus on the current task and ignore all other distractions. Yet, ignoring everything else might hinder the ability to discover new ways to achieve the same goal. Here, we studied the neural mechanisms that support the spontaneous change to better strategies while an established strategy is executed. Multivariate neuroimaging analyses showed that before the spontaneous change to an alternative strategy, medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) encoded information that was irrelevant for the current strategy but necessary for the later strategy. Importantly, this neural effect was related to future behavioral changes: information encoding in MPFC was changed only in participants who eventually switched their strategy and started before the actual strategy change. This allowed us to predict spontaneous strategy shifts ahead of time. These findings suggest that MPFC might internally simulate alternative strategies and shed new light on the organization of PFC.
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany; Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: nschuck@princeton.edu.
authors.forename: Nicolas W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Schuck
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, Universität Koblenz-Landau, 76829 Landau in der Pfalz, Germany.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gaschler
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Dorit
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wenke
authors.affiliation: Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), 8032 Zurich, Switzerland; Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jakob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heinzle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Frensch
authors.affiliation: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, 30106 Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: John-Dylan
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Haynes
authors.affiliation: Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy; Milan Center for Neuroscience, 20126 Milano, Italy. Electronic address: carlo.reverberi@unimib.it.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reverberi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D012372:ROC Curve; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D060388:Support Vector Machine; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
references.citation: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009 May 12;364(1521):1291-300
references.pmid: 19528010
references.citation: Science. 2012 Apr 6;336(6077):95-8
references.pmid: 22491854
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2006 Jan 25;26(4):1211-8
references.pmid: 16436608
references.citation: Cereb Cortex. 2015 Dec;25(12):4715-26
references.pmid: 25037922
references.citation: Cereb Cortex. 2010 Dec;20(12):2787-97
references.pmid: 20194687
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2013 Oct 30;33(44):17342-9
references.pmid: 24174667
references.citation: Science. 2014 Jun 27;344(6191):1481-6
references.pmid: 24876345
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2012 Nov 28;32(48):17420-30
references.pmid: 23197733
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Apr 9;110(15):6217-22
references.pmid: 23509300
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2011 Oct 12;31(41):14592-9
references.pmid: 21994375
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2010 Sep 15;30(37):12366-78
references.pmid: 20844132
references.citation: Neuron. 2013 Jul 24;79(2):217-40
references.pmid: 23889930
references.citation: Annu Rev Neurosci. 1995;18:193-222
references.pmid: 7605061
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2014 Sep;17(9):1249-54
references.pmid: 25064851
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2002 May;5(5):479-84
references.pmid: 11953754
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Nov 24;95(24):14529-34
references.pmid: 9826734
references.citation: Trends Cogn Sci. 2012 Feb;16(2):122-8
references.pmid: 22226543
references.citation: Science. 2003 Nov 14;302(5648):1181-5
references.pmid: 14615530
references.citation: J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2012 Sep;38(5):1389-407
references.pmid: 22545612
references.citation: Methods. 2007 May;42(1):77-86
references.pmid: 17434418
references.citation: Neuron. 2014 Jan 22;81(2):267-79
references.pmid: 24462094
references.citation: Trends Cogn Sci. 2014 Dec;18(12):647-57
references.pmid: 25156191
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2001 Jul;14(1 Pt 2):S103-9
references.pmid: 11373140
references.citation: Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2007 May 29;362(1481):933-42
references.pmid: 17395573
references.citation: Annu Rev Neurosci. 2008;31:219-45
references.pmid: 18558854
references.citation: Neuron. 2013 Apr 24;78(2):364-75
references.pmid: 23562541
references.citation: Neuron. 2005 May 19;46(4):681-92
references.pmid: 15944135
references.citation: Annu Rev Neurosci. 2001;24:167-202
references.pmid: 11283309
references.citation: Psychol Rev. 2001 Jul;108(3):624-52
references.pmid: 11488380
references.citation: Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001 Nov;2(11):820-9
references.pmid: 11715058
references.citation: Science. 2001 Jan 12;291(5502):312-6
references.pmid: 11209083
references.citation: Neuropsychologia. 2013 Nov;51(13):2757-69
references.pmid: 24035787
references.citation: Brain. 2005 Dec;128(Pt 12):2882-90
references.pmid: 15975944
references.citation: Nat Neurosci. 2011 Jul;14(7):933-9
references.pmid: 21642973
references.citation: Curr Biol. 2007 Feb 20;17(4):323-8
references.pmid: 17291759
references.citation: Psychol Res. 2008 Jul;72(4):355-61
references.pmid: 18057961
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2007 Nov 7;27(45):12176-89
references.pmid: 17989284
references.citation: Science. 2012 Oct 5;338(6103):135-9
references.pmid: 23042898
references.citation: Psychol Sci. 2013 May;24(5):667-77
references.pmid: 23558552
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2012;10(3):e1001293
references.pmid: 22479152
references.citation: Trends Cogn Sci. 2003 Mar;7(3):134-140
references.pmid: 12639695
references.citation: Brain Res. 2009 Nov 24;1299:74-94
references.pmid: 19595993
references.citation: Nature. 2006 Jun 15;441(7095):876-9
references.pmid: 16778890
references.citation: Neuron. 2010 May 13;66(3):438-48
references.pmid: 20471356
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Mar 7;103(10):3863-8
references.pmid: 16537458
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2009 Jun 3;29(22):7208-19
references.pmid: 19494143
references.citation: J Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Jul;23(7):1587-96
references.pmid: 20666595
references.citation: Annu Rev Psychol. 2014;65:71-93
references.pmid: 24405359