Topic: prefrontal cortex (PFC)

Successful execution of complex decision-making tasks requires identification and processing of multiple sources of uncertainty, such as sensory uncertainty, mapping uncertainty and outcome uncertainty. The mediodorsal (MD) thalamus is a critical partner for the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in cognitive flexibility and resolving uncertainty in decision making [1,2]. Animal experiments have shown that the MD enhances prefrontal signal-to-noise ratio in decision making under uncertainty [3]. However, the computational mechanisms by which the MD enhances prefrontal activity in decision making under un

Detecting behaviorally relevant stimuli in a complex environment (such as a camouflaged predator) requires comparing sensory representations (what we are looking at) with memory/cognitive representations (what we are looking for). We test a hypothesis proposed by Freedman and Ibos in 2018 that, in such context, lateral intraparietal area (LIP) integrates and compares visual and working memory related information in order to transform them into decision related signals. We posit that sensory information are extracted within the hierarchy of visual cortical areas, and that prefrontal cortex (PFC