Study reveals neural mechanisms of flexible action choice

recently, the Yao Haishan Research Group of the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology (Neuroscience Research Institute), Shanghai Brain Science and Brain Control Center, and The National Key Laboratory of Neuroscience published an online research paper entitled "Control of secondary motor cortex participation in adaptive action selection in flexible visual classification behavior" on eLifeThe study found that the action choice information and sensory historical information of the secondary motor cortex are regulated dynamically by the task demand and play an important role in flexible behaviorworld includes a wide variety of stimuli, objects, and eventsIt is a basic and important cognitive ability necessary for human and animal survival to be classified according to the degree of similarity of stimulation and behavioral significance in order to guide behavior in general termsThe world is changing rapidly, the change of the environment requires the individual to update the criteria for dividing the function categories of things, according to different environment and their own experience of the corresponding environment, flexible adjustment of their own behavior, to achieve the purpose of profit and avoid harmInability to adapt flexibly to changes in the environment or rules is typical of some neurological disorders, such as schizophrenia and autismTherefore, it is important to study the neural mechanisms of flexible behavior to understand how the brain adapts to environmental changesprevious studies have found that the activity of neurons in the prefrontal auxiliary motor region and the frontal lobe can reflect the change of the classification boundary of flexible stimulation classification behaviorThe homologous region situated in rodents in these brain regions is the secondary motor cortex (secondary motor cortex, M2)Studies have found that M2 neurons encode information about action selection and behavior history, but it is not entirely clear whether M2 participates in action choices in flexible classification behavior, and how information about M2 coding is regulated by behavioral adjustment needsthe researchers trained mice to be categorized according to the frequency of the spatial frequency of visual stimulation (i.e., the thickness or tightness of the stripes) and to produce left or right behavioral choicesDuring the experiment, the classification criteria were repeatedly switched between a low frequency stimulus and a high frequency stimulus, and the stimulation between the low-frequency and high-frequency classification boundaries of the space frequency was called switching stimulationAfter switching the classification criteria, the mice needed to adjust their inner discrimination criteria and flexibly change their behavioral choices for switching stimuli in order to be rewarded effectivelyThe activity of two-sided M2 was inhibited by druggeneticmethod, and the ability of mice to adjust their behavior adaptively after the switching of the classification boundary was reduced, which showed the slowing down of behavioral adjustmentModeling analysis showed that the above manipulationmain mainly affected the use of sensory historical information in mice, rather than rewarding historical information Electrophysiological records show that when classification criteria changed and mice needed to recalibrate their behavioral choices for switching stimuli, the action choices and sensory history of M2 neurons were enhanced studies show that in flexible visual classification behavior, M2 participates in flexible control of action selection, and the characterization of M2 neurons for choice and sensory historical information is dynamically regulated by task requirements The researchers, who performed drug genetic manipulations of the prefrontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex near the prefrontal cortex, did not find that the flexible behavior of mice was significantly affected, suggesting that M2 had a unique contribution to flexible action choices that were guided by sensory historical information (
Biovalley Bioon.com)