IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nathum/v2y2018i1d10.1038_s41562-017-0267-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Persistent neuronal activity in human prefrontal cortex links perception and action

Author

Listed:
  • Matar Haller

    (University of California)

  • John Case

    (University of California)

  • Nathan E. Crone

    (The Johns Hopkins University Medical School)

  • Edward F. Chang

    (University of California)

  • David King-Stephens

    (California Pacific Medical Center)

  • Kenneth D. Laxer

    (California Pacific Medical Center)

  • Peter B. Weber

    (California Pacific Medical Center)

  • Josef Parvizi

    (Stanford University)

  • Robert T. Knight

    (University of California
    University of California)

  • Avgusta Y. Shestyuk

    (University of California)

Abstract

How do humans flexibly respond to changing environmental demands on a subsecond temporal scale? Extensive research has highlighted the key role of the prefrontal cortex in flexible decision-making and adaptive behaviour, yet the core mechanisms that translate sensory information into behaviour remain undefined. Using direct human cortical recordings, we investigated the temporal and spatial evolution of neuronal activity (indexed by the broadband gamma signal) in 16 participants while they performed a broad range of self-paced cognitive tasks. Here we describe a robust domain- and modality-independent pattern of persistent stimulus-to-response neural activation that encodes stimulus features and predicts motor output on a trial-by-trial basis with near-perfect accuracy. Observed across a distributed network of brain areas, this persistent neural activation is centred in the prefrontal cortex and is required for successful response implementation, providing a functional substrate for domain-general transformation of perception into action, critical for flexible behaviour.

Suggested Citation

  • Matar Haller & John Case & Nathan E. Crone & Edward F. Chang & David King-Stephens & Kenneth D. Laxer & Peter B. Weber & Josef Parvizi & Robert T. Knight & Avgusta Y. Shestyuk, 2018. "Persistent neuronal activity in human prefrontal cortex links perception and action," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(1), pages 80-91, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:2:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41562-017-0267-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0267-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0267-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41562-017-0267-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jan Weber & Anne-Kristin Solbakk & Alejandro O. Blenkmann & Anais Llorens & Ingrid Funderud & Sabine Leske & Pål Gunnar Larsson & Jugoslav Ivanovic & Robert T. Knight & Tor Endestad & Randolph F. Helf, 2024. "Ramping dynamics and theta oscillations reflect dissociable signatures during rule-guided human behavior," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:2:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41562-017-0267-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.