Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, ITAB Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies, G. D'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy.
Brain Struct Funct. 2020 Sep;225(7):2271-2286. doi: 10.1007/s00429-020-02124-4. Epub 2020 Aug 9.
Decision-making is in the service of action regardless of whether the decision concerns perceptual information, goods or memories. Compared to recent advances in the neurobiology of perceptual or value-based decisions, however, the neural bases supporting the sampling of evidence in long-term memory, and the transformation of memory-based decisions into appropriate actions, are still poorly understood. In the present fMRI study, we used multivariate pattern analysis to investigate the temporal dynamics of choice- and action-predictive signals during an item recognition task that manipulated the association between memory choices (old/new) and motor responses (eye/hand) across subjects. Choice-predictive activity was mainly observed in striatal, lateral prefrontal and lateral parietal regions, was sensitive to the amount of decision evidence and showed a rapid increase after stimulus onset, followed by a fast decay. Action-predictive signals were found in primary sensory motor, premotor and occipito-parietal regions, were generally observed at the end of the decision phase and were not modulated by decision evidence. These findings suggest that a memory decision variable, potentially represented in a fronto-striato-parietal network, is not directly transformed into an action plan as often observed in perceptual decisions. Regions exhibiting choice predictive activity, and especially the striatum, however, also showed a second peak of decision-related activity that, unlike pure choice- or action-predictive signals, depended on the particular choice-response association. This second peak of activity in the striatum might represent the neural signature of the transformation of a memory decision into an appropriate motor response based on the specific choice-response association.
决策是为行动服务的，无论决策涉及感知信息、商品还是记忆。然而，与最近在感知或基于价值的决策神经生物学方面的进展相比，支持在长期记忆中取样证据，以及将基于记忆的决策转化为适当行动的神经基础仍知之甚少。在本 fMRI 研究中，我们使用多元模式分析来研究在项目识别任务中选择和动作预测信号的时间动态，该任务通过在受试者之间操纵记忆选择（旧/新）和运动反应（眼/手）之间的关联来操纵记忆选择（旧/新）和运动反应（眼/手）之间的关联。选择预测活动主要在纹状体、外侧前额叶和外侧顶叶区域观察到，对决策证据的数量敏感，并且在刺激开始后迅速增加，然后快速衰减。动作预测信号出现在初级感觉运动、前运动和枕顶叶区域，通常在决策阶段结束时观察到，不受决策证据的调节。这些发现表明，记忆决策变量（可能在额-纹-顶叶网络中表示）并没有像在感知决策中经常观察到的那样直接转化为行动计划。然而，表现出选择预测活动的区域，特别是纹状体，也显示出与决策相关的活动的第二个峰值，与纯粹的选择或动作预测信号不同，该峰值取决于特定的选择-反应关联。纹状体中活动的第二个峰值可能代表基于特定选择-反应关联将记忆决策转化为适当运动反应的神经特征。
