Dataset Information

Flexible recruitment of memory-based choice representations by the human medial frontal cortex.

ABSTRACT: Decision-making in complex environments relies on flexibly using prior experience. This process depends on the medial frontal cortex (MFC) and the medial temporal lobe, but it remains unknown how these structures implement selective memory retrieval. We recorded single neurons in the MFC, amygdala, and hippocampus while human subjects switched between making recognition memory-based and categorization-based decisions. The MFC rapidly implemented changing task demands by using different subspaces of neural activity and by representing the currently relevant task goal. Choices requiring memory retrieval selectively engaged phase-locking of MFC neurons to amygdala and hippocampus field potentials, thereby enabling the routing of memories. These findings reveal a mechanism for flexibly and selectively engaging memory retrieval and show that memory-based choices are preferentially represented in the frontal cortex when required.

SUBMITTER: Minxha J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7531893 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Flexible recruitment of memory-based choice representations by the human medial frontal cortex.

Minxha Juri J Adolphs Ralph R Fusi Stefano S Mamelak Adam N AN Rutishauser Ueli U

Science (New York, N.Y.) 20200601 6498

Decision-making in complex environments relies on flexibly using prior experience. This process depends on the medial frontal cortex (MFC) and the medial temporal lobe, but it remains unknown how these structures implement selective memory retrieval. We recorded single neurons in the MFC, amygdala, and hippocampus while human subjects switched between making recognition memory-based and categorization-based decisions. The MFC rapidly implemented changing task demands by using different subspaces ...[more]

PMID: 32586990

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Project description:The medial frontal cortex remains functionally ill-understood; this is reflected by the heterogeneity of behavioural outcomes following damage to the region. We aim to use the rich information provided by extraoperative direct electrical cortical stimulation to enhance our understanding of its functional anatomy. Examining a cohort of 38 epilepsy patients undergoing direct electrical cortical stimulation in the context of presurgical evaluation, we reviewed stimulation findings and classified them in a behavioural framework (positive motor, negative motor, somatosensory, speech disturbances, and "other"). The spatially discrete cortical stimulation-derived data points were then transformed into continuous probabilistic maps, thereby enabling the voxel-wise spatial inference widely used in the analysis of functional and structural imaging data. A functional map of stimulation findings of the medial wall emerged. Positive motor responses occurred in 141 stimulations (31.2%), anatomically located on the paracentral lobule (threshold at p<.05), extending no further than the vertical anterior commissure (VCA) line. Thirty negative motor responses were observed (6.6%), localised to the VCA line (at p < .001 uncorrected). In 43 stimulations (9.5%) a somatosensory response localised to the caudal cingulate zone (at p < .001 uncorrected), with a second region posterior to central sulcus. Speech disturbances were elicited in 38 stimulations (8.4%), more commonly but not exclusively from the language fMRI dominant side, just anterior to VCA (p < .001 uncorrected). In only 2 stimulations, the patient experienced a subjective "urge" to move in the absence of overt movement. Classifying motor behaviour along the dimensions of effector, and movement vs arrest, we derive a wholly data-driven stimulation map of the medial wall, powered by the largest number of stimulations of the region reported (n = 452) in patients imaged with MRI. This model and the underlying data provide a robust framework for understanding the architecture of the region through the joint analysis of disruptive and correlative anatomical maps.

Dataset Information

Flexible recruitment of memory-based choice representations by the human medial frontal cortex.

Publications

Flexible recruitment of memory-based choice representations by the human medial frontal cortex.

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