Anterior cingulate neurons combine outcome monitoring of past decisions with ongoing movement signals

In dynamic environments, animals must closely monitor the effects of their actions to inform switches in behavioral strategy. Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) neurons track decision outcomes in these environments. Yet, it remains unclear whether ACC neurons similarly monitor behavioral history in static environments and, if so, whether these signals are distinct from movement representations. We recorded large-scale ACC activity in freely moving mice making visual evidence-accumulation decisions. Many ACC neurons exhibited nonlinear mixed selectivity for previous choices and outcomes (trial history) and were modulated by movements. Trial history could be stably decoded from population activity and accounted for a separable component of neural activity than posture and movements. Trial history encoding was conserved across different subjects and was unaffected by fluctuating behavioral biases. These findings demonstrate that trial history monitoring in ACC is implemented in a conserved population code that is independent of the volatility of subjects' task environment.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-03-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70639-1
Primary Topic
Neural dynamics and brain function
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Anterior cingulate neurons combine outcome monitoring of past decisions with ongoing movement signals

Lukas T. Oesch, Davis Sandberg, João Couto, Makenna C. Thomas et al.
Nature Communications
Neural dynamics and brain function
article

Anterior cingulate neurons combine outcome monitoring of past decisions with ongoing movement signals

Lukas T. Oesch, Davis Sandberg, João Couto, Makenna C. Thomas, Anne K. Churchland
article en

Abstract

In dynamic environments, animals must closely monitor the effects of their actions to inform switches in behavioral strategy. Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) neurons track decision outcomes in these environments. Yet, it remains unclear whether ACC neurons similarly monitor behavioral history in static environments and, if so, whether these signals are distinct from movement representations. We recorded large-scale ACC activity in freely moving mice making visual evidence-accumulation decisions. Many ACC neurons exhibited nonlinear mixed selectivity for previous choices and outcomes (trial history) and were modulated by movements. Trial history could be stably decoded from population activity and accounted for a separable component of neural activity than posture and movements. Trial history encoding was conserved across different subjects and was unaffected by fluctuating behavioral biases. These findings demonstrate that trial history monitoring in ACC is implemented in a conserved population code that is independent of the volatility of subjects' task environment.

Nature Communications
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Neural dynamics and brain function
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