Journal article
Prelimbic cortex maintains attention to category-relevant information and flexibly updates category representations
Neurobiology of learning and memory, Vol.185, pp.107524-107524
09/21/2021
DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107524
PMCID: PMC8633767
PMID: 34560284
Abstract
•Rats categorize distribution of stimuli containing two continuous dimensions.•Prefrontal lesions impair category tasks containing irrelevant stimulus information.•Prefrontal lesions do not affect tasks containing only relevant stimulus information.•Prefrontal lesions impair trial-by-trial updating of category representations.
Category learning groups stimuli according to similarity or function. This involves finding and attending to stimulus features that reliably inform category membership. Although many of the neural mechanisms underlying categorization remain elusive, models of human category learning posit that prefrontal cortex plays a substantial role. Here, we investigated the role of the prelimbic cortex (PL) in rat visual category learning by administering excitotoxic lesions before category training and then evaluating the effects of the lesions with computational modeling. Using a touchscreen apparatus, rats (female and male) learned to categorize distributions of category stimuli that varied along two continuous dimensions. For some rats, categorizing the stimuli encouraged selective attention towards a single stimulus dimension (i.e., 1D tasks). For other rats, categorizing the stimuli required divided attention towards both stimulus dimensions (i.e., 2D tasks). Testing sessions then examined generalization to novel exemplars. PL lesions impaired learning and generalization for the 1D tasks, but not the 2D tasks. Then, a neural network was fit to the behavioral data to examine how the lesions affected categorization. The results suggest that the PL facilitates category learning by maintaining attention to category-relevant information and updating category representations.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Prelimbic cortex maintains attention to category-relevant information and flexibly updates category representations
- Creators
- Matthew B Broschard - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, 52242Jangjin Kim - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, 52242Bradley C Love - Department of Experimental Psychology and The Alan Turing Institute, University College London, London, UKEdward A Wasserman - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, 52242John H Freeman - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, 52242
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Neurobiology of learning and memory, Vol.185, pp.107524-107524
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107524
- PMID
- 34560284
- PMCID
- PMC8633767
- NLM abbreviation
- Neurobiol Learn Mem
- ISSN
- 1074-7427
- eISSN
- 1095-9564
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000002, name: National Institutes of Health, award: P01-HD080679; DOI: 10.13039/100000009, name: Foundation for the National Institutes of Health; DOI: 10.13039/100010269, name: Wellcome Trust, award: WT106931MA
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/21/2021
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984172262202771
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