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Mittelstadt JK, Kanold PO. Orbitofrontal cortex conveys stimulus and task information to the auditory cortex. Curr Biol 2023; 33:4160-4173.e4. [PMID: 37716349 PMCID: PMC10602585 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/18/2023]
Abstract
Auditory cortical neurons modify their response profiles in response to numerous external factors. During task performance, changes in primary auditory cortex (A1) responses are thought to be driven by top-down inputs from the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which may lead to response modification on a trial-by-trial basis. While OFC neurons respond to auditory stimuli and project to A1, the function of OFC projections to A1 during auditory tasks is unknown. Here, we observed the activity of putative OFC terminals in A1 in mice by using in vivo two-photon calcium imaging of OFC terminals under passive conditions and during a tone detection task. We found that behavioral activity modulates but is not necessary to evoke OFC terminal responses in A1. OFC terminals in A1 form distinct populations that exclusively respond to either the tone, reward, or error. Using tones against a background of white noise, we found that OFC terminal activity was modulated by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in both the passive and active conditions and that OFC terminal activity varied with SNR, and thus task difficulty in the active condition. Therefore, OFC projections in A1 are heterogeneous in their modulation of auditory encoding and likely contribute to auditory processing under various auditory conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonah K Mittelstadt
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Patrick O Kanold
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
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Zhang W, Xie Y, Yang T. Reward salience but not spatial attention dominates the value representation in the orbitofrontal cortex. Nat Commun 2022; 13:6306. [PMID: 36273229 PMCID: PMC9588087 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34084-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) encodes value and plays a key role in value-based decision-making. However, the attentional modulation of the OFC's value encoding is poorly understood. We trained two monkeys to detect a luminance change at a cued location between a pair of visual stimuli, which were over-trained pictures associated with different amounts of juice reward and, thus, different reward salience. Both the monkeys' behavior and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex neuronal activities indicated that the monkeys actively directed their spatial attention toward the cued stimulus during the task. However, the OFC's neuronal responses were dominated by the stimulus with higher reward salience and encoded its value. The value of the less salient stimulus was only weakly represented regardless of spatial attention. The results demonstrate that reward and spatial attention are distinctly represented in the prefrontal cortex and the OFC maintains a stable representation of reward salience minimally affected by attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenyi Zhang
- grid.9227.e0000000119573309Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031 China ,grid.410726.60000 0004 1797 8419University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China
| | - Yang Xie
- grid.9227.e0000000119573309Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031 China ,grid.410726.60000 0004 1797 8419University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China
| | - Tianming Yang
- grid.9227.e0000000119573309Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031 China
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Pai J, Ogasawara T, Bromberg-Martin ES, Ogasawara K, Gereau RW, Monosov IE. Laser stimulation of the skin for quantitative study of decision-making and motivation. CELL REPORTS METHODS 2022; 2:100296. [PMID: 36160041 PMCID: PMC9499993 DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2022.100296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Revised: 06/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Neuroeconomics studies how decision-making is guided by the value of rewards and punishments. But to date, little is known about how noxious experiences impact decisions. A challenge is the lack of an aversive stimulus that is dynamically adjustable in intensity and location, readily usable over many trials in a single experimental session, and compatible with multiple ways to measure neuronal activity. We show that skin laser stimulation used in human studies of aversion can be used for this purpose in several key animal models. We then use laser stimulation to study how neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), an area whose many roles include guiding decisions among different rewards, encode the value of rewards and punishments. We show that some OFC neurons integrated the positive value of rewards with the negative value of aversive laser stimulation, suggesting that the OFC can play a role in more complex choices than previously appreciated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Pai
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Takaya Ogasawara
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | | | - Kei Ogasawara
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Robert W. Gereau
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Washington University Pain Center, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Ilya E. Monosov
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Washington University Pain Center, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
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