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Role of rodent secondary motor cortex in value-based action selection

Nature Neuroscience volume 14, pages 1202–1208 (2011)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 22 November 2013

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Abstract

Despite widespread neural activity related to reward values, signals related to upcoming choice have not been clearly identified in the rodent brain. Here we examined neuronal activity in the lateral (AGl) and medial (AGm) agranular cortex, corresponding to the primary and secondary motor cortex, respectively, in rats performing a dynamic foraging task. Choice signals, before behavioral manifestation of the rat's choice, arose in the AGm earlier than in any other areas of the rat brain previously studied under free-choice conditions. The AGm also conveyed neural signals for decision value and chosen value. By contrast, upcoming choice signals arose later, and value signals were weaker, in the AGl. We also found that AGm lesions made the rats' choices less dependent on dynamically updated values. These results suggest that rodent secondary motor cortex might be uniquely involved in both representing and reading out value signals for flexible action selection.

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Figure 1: Behavioral task and choice behavior.
Figure 2: Recording sites.
Figure 3: Neural signals for the rat's choice and reward.
Figure 4: Neural signals for values.
Figure 5: Convergence of neural signals for chosen action, reward and chosen value in the AGm.
Figure 6: Effects of AGm lesions.
Figure 7: Regional variations in neural signals related to valuation and choice in rodent frontal cortex and striatum.

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Change history

  • 12 April 2012

    In the version of this article initially published, the percentages of neurons encoding action value Qx(t) shown in Figure 7b were incorrect owing to a mistake in the computer code used to analyze the data. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

  • 22 November 2013

    Nat. Neurosci. 14, 1202–1208 (2011); published online 14 August 2011; corrected after print 12 April 2012 In the version of this article initially published, the percentages of neurons encoding action value Qx(t) shown in Figure 7b were incorrect owing to a mistake in the computer code used to analyze the data:

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Lee for discussion, P. Nachev for commenting on the manuscript, J.W. Ghim for helping with analysis and E. Seuter for proofreading the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from the Brain Research Center of the 21st Century Frontier Research Program, a Korea National Research Foundation grant (2011-0015618), the Cognitive Neuroscience Program, and the Original Technology Research Program for Brain Science (2011-0019209) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Korea (to M.W.J.), and the US National Institutes of Health (to D.L.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Laboratory, Institute for Medical Sciences, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea

    Jung Hoon Sul, Suhyun Jo & Min Whan Jung

  2. Neuroscience Graduate Program, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea

    Suhyun Jo & Min Whan Jung

  3. Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Daeyeol Lee

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Contributions

J.H.S. was involved in all aspects of the study. S.J. performed the lesion experiments. M.W.J. and D.L. contributed to the design of the experiments, data analysis and manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to Min Whan Jung.

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Sul, J., Jo, S., Lee, D. et al. Role of rodent secondary motor cortex in value-based action selection. Nat Neurosci 14, 1202–1208 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2881

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