Neural dynamics in the rodent prefrontal cortex underlying behavioral flexibility
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Substantial evidence indicates that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a crucial role during flexible behavior, such as shifts in cognitive strategy. Studies of the brain have also increasingly drawn on ideas from reinforcement learning to provide a framework with which to study the neural basis of decision making. In the work described in this thesis, we merge these two lines of thought, applying a reinforcement learning framework to a rule switching task to understand how neural dynamics of PFC might underlie the brain's representation of, and switches between, different action-reward contingencies. We used a miniature, head-mounted fluorescence microscope to image the calcium dynamics of hundreds of individual neurons in the PFC of mice that switch between two different reward contingencies to earn a water reward. We established the necessity of mouse PFC for switching between rules in this task, and identified robust, stable representations of reinforcement learning variables. We then used optogenetic manipulation to investigate the role of those representations in the mouse's ability to switch between rules. Finally, we combined this technique with simultaneous calcium imaging to determine how those signals influence subsequent coding in prefrontal cortex. Overall, this work demonstrates a powerful approach to study cognitive flexibility in the PFC and supports the idea that the PFC applies reinforcement learning dynamics to solve a rule switching task
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Wang, Forea Lee |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Schnitzer, Mark Jacob, 1970- |
| Thesis advisor | Schnitzer, Mark Jacob, 1970- |
| Thesis advisor | Druckmann, Shaul |
| Thesis advisor | Ganguli, Surya, 1977- |
| Thesis advisor | Newsome, William T |
| Thesis advisor | Wagner, Anthony David |
| Degree committee member | Druckmann, Shaul |
| Degree committee member | Ganguli, Surya, 1977- |
| Degree committee member | Newsome, William T |
| Degree committee member | Wagner, Anthony David |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Neurosciences Program. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Forea Wang |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Neurosciences Program |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Forea Lee Wang
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...