Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA; Department of Economics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Neuron. 2014 Mar 5;81(5):1140-1151. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.01.008. Epub 2014 Feb 13.
Previous work indicates that economic decisions can be made independently of the visuomotor contingencies of the choice task (space of goods). However, the neuronal mechanisms through which the choice outcome (the chosen good) is transformed into a suitable action plan remain poorly understood. Here we show that neurons in lateral prefrontal cortex reflect the early stages of this good-to-action transformation. Monkeys chose between different juices. The experimental design dissociated in space and time the presentation of the offers and the saccade targets associated with them. We recorded from the orbital, ventrolateral, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (OFC, LPFCv, and LPFCd, respectively). Prior to target presentation, neurons in both LPFCv and LPFCd encoded the choice outcome in goods space. After target presentation, they gradually came to encode the location of the targets and the upcoming action plan. Consistent with the anatomical connectivity, all spatial and action-related signals emerged in LPFCv before LPFCd.
先前的工作表明，经济决策可以独立于选择任务（商品空间）的视觉运动关联做出。然而，选择结果（所选商品）转化为合适的行动计划的神经机制仍知之甚少。在这里，我们表明外侧前额叶皮层中的神经元反映了这种从商品到行动的转变的早期阶段。猴子在不同的果汁之间做出选择。实验设计在空间和时间上分离了优惠的呈现和与之相关的扫视目标。我们分别从眶额皮层、腹外侧前额叶皮层和背外侧前额叶皮层（OFC、LPFCv 和 LPFCd）进行了记录。在目标呈现之前，LPFCv 和 LPFCd 中的神经元都以商品空间中的选择结果进行编码。在目标呈现之后，它们逐渐开始对目标的位置和即将到来的行动计划进行编码。与解剖学连接一致，所有与空间和行动相关的信号都先在 LPFCv 中出现，然后在 LPFCd 中出现。
