title: Neural representation of cost-benefit selections in rat anterior cingulate cortex in self-paced decision making.
abstract: The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is crucial for decision making which involves the processing of cost-benefit information. Our previous study has shown that ACC is essential for self-paced decision making. However, it is unclear how ACC neurons represent cost-benefit selections during the decision-making process. In the present study, we trained rats on the same "Do More Get More" (DMGM) task as in our previous work. In each trial, the animals stand upright and perform a sustained nosepoke of their own will to earn a water reward, with the amount of reward positively correlated to the duration of the nosepoke (i.e., longer nosepokes earn larger rewards). We then recorded ACC neuronal activity on well-trained rats while they were performing the DMGM task. Our results show that (1) approximately 3/5 ACC neurons (296/496, 59.7%) exhibited changes in firing frequency that were temporally locked with the main events of the DMGM task; (2) about 1/5 ACC neurons (101/496, 20.4%) or 1/3 of the event-modulated neurons (101/296, 34.1%) showed differential firing rate changes for different cost-benefit selections; and (3) many ACC neurons exhibited linear encoding of the cost-benefit selections in the DMGM task events. These results suggest that ACC neurons are engaged in encoding cost-benefit information, thus represent the selections in self-paced decision making.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurobiology & State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurobiology & State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurobiology & State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China; Center for Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China. Electronic address: bmli@ncu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bao-Ming
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012201:Reward
keywords: Anterior cingulate cortex; Cost–benefit; Decision making; Neural representation; Rat