Department of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Department of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Cell Rep. 2024 Oct 22;43(10):114772. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114772. Epub 2024 Sep 26.
The computation and comparison of subjective values underlying economic choices rely on the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). In this area, distinct groups of neurons encode the value of individual options, the binary choice outcome, and the chosen value. These variables capture both the choice input and the choice output, suggesting that the cell groups found in the OFC constitute the building blocks of a decision circuit. Here, we show that this neural circuit is longitudinally stable. Using two-photon calcium imaging, we record from the OFC of mice engaged in a juice-choice task. Imaging of individual cells continues for up to 40 weeks. For each cell and each session pair, we compare activity profiles using cosine similarity, and we assess whether the neuron encodes the same variable in both sessions. We find a high degree of stability and a modest representational drift. Quantitative estimates indicate that this drift would not randomize the circuit within the animal's lifetime.
经济选择背后的主观价值计算和比较依赖于眶额皮层（OFC）。在这个区域，不同的神经元群编码单个选项的价值、二元选择结果和选择的价值。这些变量既捕捉了选择输入，也捕捉了选择输出，这表明在 OFC 中发现的细胞群构成了决策回路的构建块。在这里，我们表明这个神经回路是纵向稳定的。使用双光子钙成像，我们记录了参与果汁选择任务的小鼠的 OFC。对单个细胞的成像持续长达 40 周。对于每个细胞和每个会话对，我们使用余弦相似性比较活动谱，并评估神经元在两个会话中是否编码相同的变量。我们发现高度的稳定性和适度的表示漂移。定量估计表明，这种漂移不会在动物的一生中使电路随机化。
