RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Multicentric tracking of multiple agents by anterior cingulate cortex during pursuit and evasion
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 796375
DO 10.1101/796375
A1 Yoo, Seng Bum Michael
A1 Tu, Jiaxin Cindy
A1 Hayden, Benjamin Yost
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/10/07/796375.abstract
AB Successful pursuit and evasion require rapid and precise coordination of navigation with adaptive motor control. We hypothesized that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), which communicates bidirectionally with both the hippocampal complex and premotor/motor areas, would serve a mapping role in this process. We recorded responses of dACC ensembles in two macaques performing a joystick-controlled continuous pursuit/evasion task. We found that dACC multiplexes two sets of signals, (1) world-centric variables that together form a representation of the position and velocity of all relevant agents (self, prey, and predator) in the virtual world, and (2) avatar-centric variables, i.e. self-prey distance and angle. Both sets of variables are multiplexed within an overlapping set of neurons. Our results suggest that dACC may contribute to pursuit and evasion by computing and continuously updating a multicentric representation of the unfolding task state, and support the hypothesis that it plays a high-level abstract role in the control of behavior.