Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action
Although the premotor (PM) cortex was once viewed as the substrate of pure motor functions, soon it was realized that it was involved in higher brain functions. By this it is meant that the PM cortex functions would better be explained as motor set, preparation for limb movement, or sensory guidance...
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Frontiers Research Foundation
2011
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180590/ |
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pubmed-31805902011-10-11 Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L. Padron, Isabel Fernandez-Rey, Jose Acuña, Carlos Neuroscience Although the premotor (PM) cortex was once viewed as the substrate of pure motor functions, soon it was realized that it was involved in higher brain functions. By this it is meant that the PM cortex functions would better be explained as motor set, preparation for limb movement, or sensory guidance of movement rather than solely by a fixed link to motor performance. These findings, together with a better knowledge of the PM cortex histology and hodology in human and non-human primates prompted quantitative studies of this area combining behavioral tasks with electrophysiological recordings. In addition, the exploration of the PM cortex neurons with qualitative methods also suggested its participation in higher functions. Behavioral choices frequently depend on temporal cues, which together with knowledge of previous outcomes and expectancies are combined to decide and choose a behavioral action. In decision-making the knowledge about the consequences of decisions, either correct or incorrect, is fundamental because they can be used to adapt future behavior. The neuronal correlates of a decision process have been described in several cortical areas of primates. Among them, there is evidence that the monkey ventral premotor (PMv) cortex, an anatomical and physiological well-differentiated area of the PM cortex, supports both perceptual decisions and performance monitoring. Here we review the evidence that the steps in a decision-making process are encoded in the firing rate of the PMv neurons. This provides compelling evidence suggesting that the PMv is involved in the use of recent and long-term sensory memory to decide, execute, and evaluate the outcomes of the subjects’ choices. Frontiers Research Foundation 2011-09-27 /pmc/articles/PMC3180590/ /pubmed/21991249 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2011.00054 Text en Copyright © 2011 Pardo-Vazquez, Padron, Fernandez-Rey and Acuña. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article subject to a non-exclusive license between the authors and Frontiers Media SA, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and other Frontiers conditions are complied with. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L. Padron, Isabel Fernandez-Rey, Jose Acuña, Carlos |
| spellingShingle |
Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L. Padron, Isabel Fernandez-Rey, Jose Acuña, Carlos Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action |
| author_facet |
Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L. Padron, Isabel Fernandez-Rey, Jose Acuña, Carlos |
| author_sort |
Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L. |
| title |
Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action |
| title_short |
Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action |
| title_full |
Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action |
| title_fullStr |
Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action |
| title_sort |
decision-making in the ventral premotor cortex harbinger of action |
| description |
Although the premotor (PM) cortex was once viewed as the substrate of pure motor functions, soon it was realized that it was involved in higher brain functions. By this it is meant that the PM cortex functions would better be explained as motor set, preparation for limb movement, or sensory guidance of movement rather than solely by a fixed link to motor performance. These findings, together with a better knowledge of the PM cortex histology and hodology in human and non-human primates prompted quantitative studies of this area combining behavioral tasks with electrophysiological recordings. In addition, the exploration of the PM cortex neurons with qualitative methods also suggested its participation in higher functions. Behavioral choices frequently depend on temporal cues, which together with knowledge of previous outcomes and expectancies are combined to decide and choose a behavioral action. In decision-making the knowledge about the consequences of decisions, either correct or incorrect, is fundamental because they can be used to adapt future behavior. The neuronal correlates of a decision process have been described in several cortical areas of primates. Among them, there is evidence that the monkey ventral premotor (PMv) cortex, an anatomical and physiological well-differentiated area of the PM cortex, supports both perceptual decisions and performance monitoring. Here we review the evidence that the steps in a decision-making process are encoded in the firing rate of the PMv neurons. This provides compelling evidence suggesting that the PMv is involved in the use of recent and long-term sensory memory to decide, execute, and evaluate the outcomes of the subjects’ choices. |
| publisher |
Frontiers Research Foundation |
| publishDate |
2011 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180590/ |
| _version_ |
1611477527746838528 |