| First Author | Muysers H | Year | 2024 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 2115 |
| PubMed ID | 38459033 | Mgi Jnum | J:365544 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:7613349 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-024-46350-4 |
| Citation | Muysers H, et al. (2024) A persistent prefrontal reference frame across time and task rules. Nat Commun 15(1):2115 |
| abstractText | Behavior can be remarkably consistent, even over extended time periods, yet whether this is reflected in stable or 'drifting' neuronal responses to task features remains controversial. Here, we find a persistently active ensemble of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of mice that reliably maintains trajectory-specific tuning over several weeks while performing an olfaction-guided spatial memory task. This task-specific reference frame is stabilized during learning, upon which repeatedly active neurons show little representational drift and maintain their trajectory-specific tuning across long pauses in task exposure and across repeated changes in cue-target location pairings. These data thus suggest a 'core ensemble' of prefrontal neurons forming a reference frame of task-relevant space for the performance of consistent behavior over extended periods of time. |
