Learning a New Selection Rule in Visual and Frontal Cortex.
How do you make a decision if you do not know the rules of the game? Models of sensory decision-making suggest that choices are slow if evidence is weak, but they may only apply if the subject knows the task rules. Here, we asked how the learning of a new rule influences neuronal activity in the visual (area V1) and frontal cortex (area FEF) of monkeys. We devised a new icon-selection task. On each day, the monkeys saw 2 new icons (small pictures) and learned which one was relevant. We rewarded eye movements to a saccade target connected to the relevant icon with a curve. Neurons in visual and frontal cortex coded the monkey's choice, because the representation of the selected curve was enhanced. Learning delayed the neuronal selection signals and we uncovered the cause of this delay in V1, where learning to select the relevant icon caused an early suppression of surrounding image elements. These results demonstrate that the learning of a new rule causes a transition from fast and random decisions to a more considerate strategy that takes additional time and they reveal the contribution of visual and frontal cortex to the learning process.
Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, An Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Chris
C
van der Togt
Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, An Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Liviu
L
Stănişor
Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, An Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Arezoo
A
Pooresmaeili
Madison School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, 6001 Research Park Boulevard, Madison, WI 53719, USA.
Larissa
L
Albantakis
Dept. de Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, C\ Tanger, 122-140, 08018 Barcelona, Spain.
Gustavo
G
Deco
Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, An Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA Amsterdam, The Netherlands Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Centre for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Psychiatry Department, Academic Medical Center, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Pieter R
PR
Roelfsema
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D000882:Haplorhini; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008839:Microelectrodes; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
frontal eye fields; learning; primary visual cortex; visual attention; visual routines