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Neuronal correlates of post-error slowing in the rat dorsomedial prefrontal cortex
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Neuronal correlates of post-error slowing in the rat dorsomedial prefrontal cortex

Nandakumar S Narayanan and Mark Laubach
Journal of neurophysiology, Vol.100(1), pp.520-525
07/2008
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00035.2008
PMCID: PMC2493486
PMID: 18480374
url
https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00035.2008View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Rats with impaired function in dorsomedial regions of the prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) are unable to maintain a behavioral response over a delay period. Here we report that neurons in this cortical region are prominently modulated after errors in a tone-cued, simple reaction time task and that inactivation of dmPFC attenuates a slowing of reaction times that is observed following errors. Using methods for chronic single-unit recording, we found that approximately one-third of dmPFC neurons were modulated after errors, and 28% of these neurons had increased posterror firing that persisted into the delay period of the following trial. In contrast to dmPFC, no such neurons were found in motor cortex. Our results implicate the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in a form of retrospective working memory that improves task performance following errors.
Cues Motor Cortex - physiology Rats, Long-Evans Conditioning, Operant - physiology Rats Male Reaction Time - physiology Prefrontal Cortex - cytology Psychomotor Performance - physiology Acoustic Stimulation - methods Action Potentials - physiology Behavior, Animal Animals Analysis of Variance Time Factors Neurons - physiology Memory, Short-Term Prefrontal Cortex - physiology Motor Cortex - cytology

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