Control of adaptive action selection by secondary motor cortex during flexible visual categorization

Adaptive action selection during stimulus categorization is an important feature of flexible behavior. To examine neural mechanism underlying this process, we trained mice to categorize the spatial frequencies of visual stimuli according to a boundary that changed between blocks of trials in a sessi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tian-Yi Wang, Jing Liu, Haishan Yao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 2020-06-01
Series:eLife
Subjects:
Online Access:https://elifesciences.org/articles/54474
Description
Summary:Adaptive action selection during stimulus categorization is an important feature of flexible behavior. To examine neural mechanism underlying this process, we trained mice to categorize the spatial frequencies of visual stimuli according to a boundary that changed between blocks of trials in a session. Using a model with a dynamic decision criterion, we found that sensory history was important for adaptive action selection after the switch of boundary. Bilateral inactivation of the secondary motor cortex (M2) impaired adaptive action selection by reducing the behavioral influence of sensory history. Electrophysiological recordings showed that M2 neurons carried more information about upcoming choice and previous sensory stimuli when sensorimotor association was being remapped than when it was stable. Thus, M2 causally contributes to flexible action selection during stimulus categorization, with the representations of upcoming choice and sensory history regulated by the demand to remap stimulus-action association.
ISSN:2050-084X