Spontaneously emerging internal models of visual sequences combine abstract and event-specific information in the prefrontal cortex

Autor: Marie E. Bellet, Marion Gay, Joachim Bellet, Bechir Jarraya, Stanislas Dehaene, Timo van Kerkoerle, Theofanis I. Panagiotaropoulos
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Cell Reports, Vol 43, Iss 3, Pp 113952- (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2211-1247
DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113952
Popis: Summary: When exposed to sensory sequences, do macaque monkeys spontaneously form abstract internal models that generalize to novel experiences? Here, we show that neuronal populations in macaque ventrolateral prefrontal cortex jointly encode visual sequences by separate codes for the specific pictures presented and for their abstract sequential structure. We recorded prefrontal neurons while macaque monkeys passively viewed visual sequences and sequence mismatches in the local-global paradigm. Even without any overt task or response requirements, prefrontal populations spontaneously form representations of sequence structure, serial order, and image identity within distinct but superimposed neuronal subspaces. Representations of sequence structure rapidly update following single exposure to a mismatch sequence, while distinct populations represent mismatches for sequences of different complexity. Finally, those representations generalize across sequences following the same repetition structure but comprising different images. These results suggest that prefrontal populations spontaneously encode rich internal models of visual sequences reflecting both content-specific and abstract information.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals