THE ROLE OF GABAERGIC INTERNEURONS IN THE ORBITOFRONTAL CORTEX DURING VALUE-GUIDED DECISION-MAKING

The prefrontal cortex has been shown to play a pivotal role in higher cognitive functions, including decision-making. Specifically, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has been associated with value-guided and reinforcement learning-based decisions, while the prelimbic (PL) has been associated with behavioural adaptation to changing rules and contextual contingencies. We aim to elucidate the mechanism by which neuronal circuits in these brain areas support value-guided decisions, particularly the role of GABAergic interneurons. Thus, we trained head-fixed mice to choose between a small reward delivered with a fixed 90% probability (“safe choice”) and a larger reward, which was given with changing probability (“gamble choice”). Mice exhibited stable choice patterns (strategies) that shifted over time according to the gamble reward probability. We recorded the activity of hundreds of neurons in the OFC and PL and identified GABAergic interneurons with optotagging. We observed that interneurons showed significant coordinated changes in firing activity just before a strategy shift. Additionally, the activity of large sets of putative pyramidal cells exhibited changes during and following these interneuron activity shifts. Thus, concerted activity of GABAergic interneurons precedes transitions in the neuronal population dynamics during strategy changes, providing insight into how the interplay of interneurons and pyramidal cells influences decision-making processes.
Funding: Grant I 5458 of the Austrian Science Fund and FOR5159 of the German Research Foundation.