Neurons in the pigeon nidopallium caudolaterale, but not the corticoidea dorsolateralis, display value and effort discounting activity

Abstract

We recorded from single neurons in two areas of the pigeon brain while birds were required to peck a stimulus indicating either a high effort task or a low effort task would follow. Upon completion of the task the birds received the same reward. We found that activity in the nidopallium caudolaterale, an area equivalent to the mammalian prefrontal cortex, was modulated by the value of the reward that would be received based on how much effort was required to obtain it. Value coding was most prominent during the presentation of the stimulus indicating a high or low effort task, and in the delay period immediately prior to carrying out the effort task. In contrast, activity in the corticoidea dorsolateralis was not modulated by value, however, population firing patterns suggest that it may be involved in associating actions with outcomes. Our findings support the view that activity in the nidopallium caudolaterale reflects value of reward as a function of effort discounting and as such may serve functions similar to the mammalian anterior cingulate cortex.

The Role of Hp-NCL Network in Goal-Directed Routing Information Encoding of Bird: A Review

“…Further study has indicated that the increased gamma band (40–60 Hz) energy of local field potential (LFP) in NCL is significantly correlated to the goal-directed behavior during the decision-making process [ 63 ], and the functional connectivity of the functional network based on the multi-channel spike and LFP activities in NCL can be used for goal-directed behavioral outcomes decoding effectively [ 64 ], confirming the role of NCL in the navigational behavior of pigeon on different scales. In addition, for the reward encoding in goal-directed behavior, studies have shown that the activities of NCL were modulated by the value of the reward that would be received based on the reward amount and the delay to reward [ 65 , 66 ], which confirms that NCL has the function of reward encoding to achieve a specific purpose. On the other hand, the NCL neuronal responses during serial-order behavior in pigeons also confirmed that NCL encoded the planning and working memory content containing ordinal knowledge [ 67 , 68 ], which could imply the important role of NCL in the goal-directed navigation, a typical serial-order behavior.…”