Navigating Curiously and Vigorously: Distributed Encoding of Complex Behavior in the Primate Brain

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Persistent link to this item

Statistics
View Statistics

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

Navigating Curiously and Vigorously: Distributed Encoding of Complex Behavior in the Primate Brain

Published Date

2023

Publisher

Type

Thesis or Dissertation

Abstract

The ability to predict the future based on past experience is one of the most important adaptations of our brain. It allows us to process incoming information and use it to generate complex patterns of movement that give us control over our environment. It is therefore not surprising that movements can provide us with insight into internal decision-making processes. For example, there are a growing number of studies describing how associative areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, process a wide spectrum of environmental variables and information modalities. To add to this literature, we employed a novel open-field paradigm whereby freely-moving rhesus macaques performed a foraging task while we simultaneously performed markerless pose estimation and single-unit recordings from six prefrontal brain regions. First, we found that activity in PMd and OFC prospectively correlated with vigor during patch switching, and activity in PMd and dlPFC retrospectively correlated with vigor. Then, we showed that navigational and task variables are encoded across the prefrontal cortex in a distributed manner, where dorsal areas encoded these variables more strongly than ventral areas. Finally, we reviewed the literature on the systems neuroscience of curiosity and highlighted important remaining questions in the field.

Keywords

Description

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. 2023. Major: Neuroscience. Advisor: Benjamin Hayden. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 101 pages.

Related to

Replaces

License

Collections

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Other identifiers

Suggested citation

Lopez Cervera, Roberto. (2023). Navigating Curiously and Vigorously: Distributed Encoding of Complex Behavior in the Primate Brain. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/257105.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.