title: Dorso-Lateral Frontal Cortex of the Ferret Encodes Perceptual Difficulty during Visual Discrimination.
abstract: Visual discrimination requires sensory processing followed by a perceptual decision. Despite a growing understanding of visual areas in this behavior, it is unclear what role top-down signals from prefrontal cortex play, in particular as a function of perceptual difficulty. To address this gap, we investigated how neurons in dorso-lateral frontal cortex (dl-FC) of freely-moving ferrets encode task variables in a two-alternative forced choice visual discrimination task with high- and low-contrast visual input. About two-thirds of all recorded neurons in dl-FC were modulated by at least one of the two task variables, task difficulty and target location. More neurons in dl-FC preferred the hard trials; no such preference bias was found for target location. In individual neurons, this preference for specific task types was limited to brief epochs. Finally, optogenetic stimulation confirmed the functional role of the activity in dl-FC before target touch; suppression of activity in pyramidal neurons with the ArchT silencing opsin resulted in a decrease in reaction time to touch the target but not to retrieve reward. In conclusion, dl-FC activity is differentially recruited for high perceptual difficulty in the freely-moving ferret and the resulting signal may provide top-down behavioral inhibition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.|Neurobiology Curriculum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.
authors.forename: Zhe Charles
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.
authors.forename: Chunxiu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.|Neurobiology Curriculum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.
authors.forename: Kristin K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Sellers
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.|Neurobiology Curriculum, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.|Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.|Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.|Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599, Chapel Hill NC, USA.
authors.forename: Flavio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fröhlich
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005289:Ferrets; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D016014:Linear Models; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D055355:Opsins / Q000235:genetics; D062308:Optogenetics / Q000379:methods; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D060388:Support Vector Machine; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D055355:Opsins