Goal-directed tasks involve acquiring an internal model, known as a predictive map, of relevant stimuli and associate outcomes to guide behavior. Here, we identified neural signatures of a predictive map of task behavior in perirhinal cortex (Prh). Mice learned to perform a tactile working memory task by classifying sequential whisker stimuli over multiple training stages. Chemogenetic inactivation demonstrated that Prh is involved in task learning. Chronic two-photon calcium imaging and population analysis revealed that Prh encodes stimulus features as sensory prediction errors. Prh forms stable stimulus-outcome associations that retrogradely expand in a predictive manner and generalize as animals learn new contingencies. Stimulus-outcome associations are linked to ongoing network activity encoding possible expected outcomes. This link is mediated by cholinergic signaling to guide task performance, demonstrated by acetylcholine imaging and perturbation. This demonstrates that Prh combines error-driven and map-like properties to acquire a predictive map of learned task behavior.
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