HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 100/1/520    most recent 00035.2008v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Narayanan, N. S. Articles by Laubach, M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Narayanan, N. S. Articles by Laubach, M.

REPORT

Neuronal Correlates of Post-Error Slowing in the Rat Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

¹The John B. Pierce Laboratory, ²Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, and ³Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Submitted 10 January 2008; accepted in final form 9 May 2008

Rats with impaired function in dorsomedial regions of the prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) are unable to maintain a behavioral response over a delay period. Here we report that neurons in this cortical region are prominently modulated after errors in a tone-cued, simple reaction time task and that inactivation of dmPFC attenuates a slowing of reaction times that is observed following errors. Using methods for chronic single-unit recording, we found that approximately one-third of dmPFC neurons were modulated after errors, and 28% of these neurons had increased posterror firing that persisted into the delay period of the following trial. In contrast to dmPFC, no such neurons were found in motor cortex. Our results implicate the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in a form of retrospective working memory that improves task performance following errors.