TY - JOUR
T1 - Activity in the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex Reflects Multiple Steps of Future Events in Action Plans
AU - Mushiake, Hajime
AU - Saito, Naohiro
AU - Sakamoto, Kazuhiro
AU - Itoyama, Yasuto
AU - Tanji, Jun
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from the Japan Science and Technology Agency[ERATO] and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. We thank T. Suenaga, H. Watanabe, and K. Shoji (RIEC) for technical support, and Y. Takahashi, M. Kurama, and N. Kanazawa (Physiology) for technical assistance.
PY - 2006/5/18
Y1 - 2006/5/18
N2 - To achieve a behavioral goal in a complex environment, we must plan multiple steps of motor behavior. On planning a series of actions, we anticipate future events that will occur as a result of each action and mentally organize the temporal sequence of events. To investigate the involvement of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in such multistep planning, we examined neuronal activity in the PFC of monkeys performing a maze task that required the planning of stepwise cursor movements to reach a goal. During the preparatory period, PFC neurons reflected each of all forthcoming cursor movements, rather than arm movements. In contrast, in the primary motor cortex, most neuronal activity reflected arm movements but little of cursor movements during the preparatory period, as well as during movement execution. Our data suggest that the PFC is involved primarily in planning multiple future events that occur as a consequence of behavioral actions.
AB - To achieve a behavioral goal in a complex environment, we must plan multiple steps of motor behavior. On planning a series of actions, we anticipate future events that will occur as a result of each action and mentally organize the temporal sequence of events. To investigate the involvement of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in such multistep planning, we examined neuronal activity in the PFC of monkeys performing a maze task that required the planning of stepwise cursor movements to reach a goal. During the preparatory period, PFC neurons reflected each of all forthcoming cursor movements, rather than arm movements. In contrast, in the primary motor cortex, most neuronal activity reflected arm movements but little of cursor movements during the preparatory period, as well as during movement execution. Our data suggest that the PFC is involved primarily in planning multiple future events that occur as a consequence of behavioral actions.
KW - SYSNEURO
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33646431689&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33646431689&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuron.2006.03.045
DO - 10.1016/j.neuron.2006.03.045
M3 - Article
C2 - 16701212
AN - SCOPUS:33646431689
VL - 50
SP - 631
EP - 641
JO - Neuron
JF - Neuron
SN - 0896-6273
IS - 4
ER -