Specificity in Inhibitory Systems Associated with Prefrontal Pathways to Temporal Cortex in Primates

Medalla, Maria; Lera, P.; Feinberg, Marcia; Barbas, Helen

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm068

Cited by 70 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…Our results suggest that BSI can serve as a top-down control mechanism to rapidly and parametrically modulate a perceptual decision. This finding suggests a specific functional role of long-distance top-down projection onto GABAergic inhibitory neurons, which has recently been documented for pathways from the prefrontal cortex to other parts of the brain (Barbas et al 2005;Bunce and Barbas 2011;Medalla et al 2007). …”

supporting

confidence: 63%

“…Indeed, various studies have suggested that the prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in top-down executive control (Asplund et al 2010;Isoda and Hikosaka 2007;Miller and Cohen 2001;Ridderinkhof 2004;Tomita et al 1999). Long-range excitatory projections from the prefrontal cortex to posterior cortical areas target both pyramidal cells and inhibitory interneurons (Barbas et al 2005;Bunce and Barbas 2011;Medalla et al 2007). The recipient inhibitory neurons could in turn target pyramidal cells and thus instantiate the inhibitory part of a top-down BSI (Vogels and Abbott 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Speed-accuracy tradeoff by a control signal with balanced excitation and inhibition

Wang

2015

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Lo CC, Wang CT, Wang XJ. Speed-accuracy tradeoff by a control signal with balanced excitation and inhibition. J Neurophysiol 114: 650-661, 2015. First published May 20, 2015 doi:10.1152/jn.00845.2013.-A hallmark of flexible behavior is the brain's ability to dynamically adjust speed and accuracy in decision-making. Recent studies suggested that such adjustments modulate not only the decision threshold, but also the rate of evidence accumulation. However, the underlying neuronallevel mechanism of the rate change remains unclear. In this work, using a spiking neural network model of perceptual decision, we demonstrate that speed and accuracy of a decision process can be effectively adjusted by manipulating a top-down control signal with balanced excitation and inhibition [balanced synaptic input (BSI)]. Our model predicts that emphasizing accuracy over speed leads to reduced rate of ramping activity and reduced baseline activity of decision neurons, which have been observed recently at the level of single neurons recorded from behaving monkeys in speed-accuracy tradeoff tasks. Moreover, we found that an increased inhibitory component of BSI skews the decision time distribution and produces a pronounced exponential tail, which is commonly observed in human studies. Our findings suggest that BSI can serve as a top-down control mechanism to rapidly and parametrically trade between speed and accuracy, and such a cognitive control signal presents both when the subjects emphasize accuracy or speed in perceptual decisions. decision making; speed-accuracy tradeoff; top-down control; balanced input THE ABILITY TO DYNAMICALLY adjust speed vs. accuracy is a salient feature of decision-making (Bogacz et al. 2010; Gold and Shadlen 2002;Heitz 2014;Wang 2008;Wickelgren 1977): if "to get it right" is the priority, we slow down to gather more information and gain a better performance. On the other hand, if time is at a premium (e.g., when detecting a predator), we make a quick judgment at the potential cost of accuracy. Speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) can result from a trial-by-trial learning process, which is believed to depend on synaptic plasticity and reward information in the cortex and basal ganglia (Balci et al. 2010; Gold and Shadlen 2002;Lo and Wang 2006;Wang et al. 2013). However, adjustment can often be made quickly, "on the fly," based on either task instruction, a changing environment, or a subject's own will (Edwards 1965;Forstmann et al. 2008;Luce 1986;Palmer et al. 2005;Wickelgren 1977).SAT is commonly considered in terms of adjusting a decision threshold of an integrator (Bogacz et al. 2006;Edwards 1965), such as that described by the drift diffusion model (DDM) (Luce 1986;Ratcliff 1978). In this framework, under speed emphasis the decision threshold is decreased, so it can be reached faster to trigger a response, whereas accuracy emphasis is instantiated by an increase of the decision threshold to integrate more information before a decision is made. The idea of changing decision threshold is intuitively appealin...

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supporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speed-accuracy tradeoff by a control signal with balanced excitation and inhibition

Wang

2015

Journal of Neurophysiology

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“…Together, our results indicate that category selectivity is higher in putative pyramidal cells, but discriminability is more reliable in putative interneurons. We speculate that reliability is more important for extraction and sharpening numerosity representations within the local PFC microcircuitry, whereas selectivity may play a more prominent role in downstream decisionrelated processing (Medalla et al, 2007).…”

Section: Coding Selectivity Versus Coding Reliabilitymentioning

confidence: 95%

Complementary Contributions of Prefrontal Neuron Classes in Abstract Numerical Categorization

Diester¹,

Nieder²

2008

J. Neurosci.

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The primate prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a cardinal role in forming abstract categories and concepts. However, it remains elusive how this is accomplished and to what extent the interaction of functionally distinct neuron classes underlies this representation. Here, we inferred the major cortical cell types, putative pyramidal cells, and interneurons by characterizing the waveforms of action potentials recorded in monkeys performing a cognitively demanding numerosity categorization task. Putative interneurons responded much faster than cells classified as pyramidal neurons and exhibited a higher reliability of category discrimination, whereas putative pyramidal cells showed a higher degree of category selectivity. An analysis of the numerosity tuning profiles and the temporal interactions of adjacent neurons indicated that inhibitory input by putative interneurons shapes the tuning to numerical categories of putative PFC pyramidal cells. These findings favor feedforward mechanisms subserving cognitive categorization and help to clarify cellular interactions in PFC microcircuits.

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“…This function is related with so-called "inhibitory control" of behavior (Miller & Wang, 2006). Clinical evidence (e.g., Luria, 1969;Stuss & Knight, 2002) and experimental research (e.g., Leung & Cai, 2007;Medalla, Lera, Feinberg, & Barbas, 2007) suggest that the neural substrate for this inhibitory function resides mainly in the medial and orbital portions of the prefrontal cortex.…”

Section: Emotional/motivational Executive Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Metacognitive and Emotional Executive Functions in Children

Ardila

2013

Applied Neuropsychology: Child

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It has been proposed that two major components of executive functions can be distinguished: (1) one related to complex cognition (metacognition, such as planning, problem solving, etc.); (2) the other related to coordinating and controlling emotional behavior. Contemporary neuroimaging techniques have demonstrated that there are two distinct functional-anatomical networks within the prefrontal cortex: one associated with cognitive control and the other associated with value based decision making-each related to specific frontal-lobe areas. Metacognitive (but not emotional) executive functions have been demonstrated to be correlated with general intellectual level (intelligence). Research has shown that emotional executive functions (such as attention control) develop earlier in life (during the 1st year), before the development of metacognitive executive functions (such as planning and verbal fluency), which develop around the age of 3 and are correlated with the development of a grammatical language.

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Specificity in Inhibitory Systems Associated with Prefrontal Pathways to Temporal Cortex in Primates

Cited by 70 publications

References 102 publications

Speed-accuracy tradeoff by a control signal with balanced excitation and inhibition

Speed-accuracy tradeoff by a control signal with balanced excitation and inhibition

Complementary Contributions of Prefrontal Neuron Classes in Abstract Numerical Categorization

Development of Metacognitive and Emotional Executive Functions in Children

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