Influence of Recent Trial History on Interval Timing

Xie, Taorong; Huang, Can; Zhang, Yijie; Liu, Jing; Yao, Haishan

doi:10.1007/s12264-022-00954-2

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 94 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While neural correlates of an integrator have been observed in the frontal cortex and striatum 15,18,22,[35][36][37][38] -two forebrain regions forming a long-range loop -the precise roles of these areas in implementing the integrator dynamics remain unclear. Manipulations of the frontal cortex and striatum affect timing behavior, supporting their causal roles 11,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] . However, the presence of neural correlates and necessity cannot determine their computational roles 8,55,56 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrator dynamics in the cortico-basal ganglia loop underlie flexible motor timing

Yang,

Inagaki,

Gerfen

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Flexible control of motor timing is crucial for behavior. Before movement begins, the frontal cortex and striatum exhibit ramping spiking activity, with variable ramp slopes anticipating movement onsets. This activity may function as an adjustable ‘timer,’ triggering actions at the desired timing. However, because the frontal cortex and striatum share similar ramping dynamics and are both necessary for timing behaviors, distinguishing their individual roles in this timer function remains challenging. To address this, we conducted perturbation experiments combined with multi-regional electrophysiology in mice performing a lick-timing task. Following transient silencing of the frontal cortex, cortical and striatal activity swiftly returned to pre-silencing levels and resumed ramping, leading to a shift in lick timing close to the silencing duration. Conversely, briefly inhibiting the striatum caused a gradual decrease in ramping activity in both regions, with ramping resuming from post-inhibition levels, shifting lick timing beyond the inhibition duration. Thus, inhibiting the frontal cortex and striatum effectively paused and rewound the timer, respectively. Additionally, the frontal cortex, but not the striatum, encodes trial-history information guiding lick timing. These findings suggest specialized functional allocations within the forebrain: the striatum temporally integrates input from the frontal cortex to generate ramping activity that regulates motor timing.

show abstract