Publication

Neural correlates of object-associated choice behavior in the perirhinal cortex of rats.
Author
Ahn, J.R. and Lee, I.
Year of publication
2015
Title of paper
Neural correlates of object-associated choice behavior in the perirhinal cortex of rats.
Publication in journal
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol
35
File
ahn--lee-jn-2015.pdf (3.8M) 71회 다운로드 DATE : 2021-11-04 13:52:44
The perirhinal cortex (PRC) is reportedly important for object recognition memory, with supporting physiological evidence obtained largely from primate studies. Whether neurons in the rodent PRC also exhibit similar physiological correlates of object recognition, however, remainsto be determined. We recorded single unitsfromthe PRC in a PRC-dependent, object-cued spatial choicetask in which, when cued by an objectimage,the rat chosethe associated spatialtargetfromtwoidentical discs appearing on atouchscreenmonitor. The firing rates of PRC neurons were significantly modulated by critical events in the task, such as object sampling and choice response. Neuronal firing in the PRC was correlated primarily with the conjunctive relationships between an object and its associated choice response, although some neurons also responded to the choice response alone. However, we rarely observed a PRC neuron that represented a specific object exclusively regardless of spatial response in rats, although the neurons were influenced by the perceptual ambiguity of the object at the population level. Some PRC neurons fired maximally after a choice response, and this post-choice feedback signal significantly enhanced the neuronal specificity for the choice response in the subsequent trial. Our findings suggest that neurons in the rat PRC may not participate exclusively in object recognition memory but that their activity may be more dynamically modulated in conjunction with other variables, such as choice response and its outcomes.