Author Response: A stable, distributed code for cue value in mouse cortex during reward learning
Year: 2023
Type: peer-review
Abstract: The ability to associate reward-predicting stimuli with adaptive behavior is frequently attributed to the prefrontal cortex, but the stimulus-specificity, spatial distribution, and stability of prefrontal cue-reward associations are unresolved.We trained head-fixed mice on an olfactory Pavlovian conditioning task and measured the coding properties of individual neurons across space (prefrontal, olfactory, and motor cortices) and time (multiple days).Neurons encoding cues or licks were most common in the olfactory and motor cortex, respectively.By quantifying the responses of cue-encoding neurons to six cues with varying probabilities of reward, we unexpectedly found value coding in all regions we sampled, with some enrichment in the prefrontal cortex.We further found that prefrontal cue and lick codes were preserved across days.Our results demonstrate that individual prefrontal neurons stably encode components of cue-reward learning within a larger spatial gradient of coding properties. eLife assessmentThis study makes valuable observations about the representation of "value" in the mouse brain, by using a nice task design and recording from an impressive number of brain regions.The combination of state-of-the-art imaging and electrophysiology data offer solid support for the authors' conclusions.The paper will be of interest to a broad audience of neuroscientists interested in reward processing in the brain.
Institutions: University of Washington, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4383535200