<P STYLE="MARGIN-TOP:0PT;MARGIN-BOTTOM:8PT;FONT-FAMILY:&QUOT;맑은 고딕&QUOT;;FONT-SIZE:11.0PT;" LANG="EN-US" >GENERALIZEDRULE ENCODING IN THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX DURING SEQUENTIAL LEARNING</P>

Cognitive flexibility relies on the ability to adapt learned behaviors to new situations. To understand the neural basis of this process, we investigated how single-cell and population activity in the mouse medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) relate to behavioral variability during sequential learning. Using 1-photon calcium imaging of mPFC pyramidal neurons, we monitored neural activity while mice performed an olfaction-guided cue-outcome task. Following initial rule acquisition, mice were challenged to apply the rule to novel odor cues, testing their capacity for generalization. We quantified the relationship between behavioral performance and neural dynamics during odor presentation, focusing on tuning fidelity, stability, and decoding accuracy. Behaviorally, mice exhibited rapid generalization, maintaining high accuracy even with novel cues. At the neural level, task-related tuning and population decoding accuracy remained invariant to changes in cue identity, suggesting that mPFC pyramidal cells encode abstract task rules independent of specific sensory features. We conclude that this representational stability supports the rapid generalization of learned behaviors, thereby facilitating robust cognitive flexibility.