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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 101/6/2859    most recent 90615.2008v1 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 Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Google Scholar Articles by Narayanan, N. S. Articles by Laubach, M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Narayanan, N. S. Articles by Laubach, M.

Delay Activity in Rodent Frontal Cortex During a Simple Reaction Time Task

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

Submitted 28 May 2008; accepted in final form 23 March 2009

To understand how different parts of the frontal cortex control the timing of action, we characterized the firing patterns of single neurons in two areas of rodent frontal cortex—dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and motor cortex—during a simple reaction time task. Principal component analysis was used to identify major patterns of delay-related activity in frontal cortex: ramping activity and sustained delay activity. These patterns were similar in dmPFC and motor cortex and did not change as animals learned to respond at novel delays. Many neurons in both areas were modulated early in the delay period. Other neurons were modulated in a persistent manner over the duration of the delay period. Delay-related modulations started earlier in motor cortex than in dmPFC and terminated around different task events (at the time of release in dmPFC, just before release of the lever in motor cortex). A subpopulation of neurons was found in dmPFC, but not motor cortex, that fired in response to the trigger stimulus. These results suggest that populations of neurons in rodent frontal cortex are coordinated during delay periods to enable proactive inhibitory control of action.

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