Abstract

Contextual cues and prior evidence guide human goal-directed behavior. The neurophysiological mechanisms that implement contextual priors to guide subsequent actions in the human brain remain unclear. Using intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), we demonstrate that increasing uncertainty introduces a shift from a purely oscillatory to a mixed processing regime with an additional ramping component. Oscillatory and ramping dynamics reflect dissociable signatures, which likely differentially contribute to the encoding and transfer of different cognitive variables in a cue-guided motor task. The results support the idea that prefrontal activity encodes rules and ensuing actions in distinct coding subspaces, while theta oscillations synchronize the prefrontal-motor network, possibly to guide action execution. Collectively, our results reveal how two key features of large-scale neural population activity, namely continuous ramping dynamics and oscillatory synchrony, jointly support rule-guided human behavior.

The authors show that neuronal populations in the human prefrontal-motor network interact via two discernible communication modes – ramping dynamics and neural oscillations. These modes operate in concert to facilitate rule-guided behavior.

Details

Title
Ramping dynamics and theta oscillations reflect dissociable signatures during rule-guided human behavior
Author
Weber, Jan 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Solbakk, Anne-Kristin 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Blenkmann, Alejandro O. 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Llorens, Anais 4 ; Funderud, Ingrid 5 ; Leske, Sabine 6 ; Larsson, Pål Gunnar 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ivanovic, Jugoslav 7 ; Knight, Robert T. 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Endestad, Tor 3 ; Helfrich, Randolph F. 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 University Medical Center Tübingen, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Center for Neurology, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.411544.1) (ISNI:0000 0001 0196 8249); University of Tübingen, International Max Planck Research School for the Mechanisms of Mental Function and Dysfunction, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.10392.39) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 1447) 
 University of Oslo, Department of Psychology, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); University of Oslo, RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); Oslo University Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.55325.34) (ISNI:0000 0004 0389 8485); Helgeland Hospital, Department of Neuropsychology, Mosjøen, Norway (GRID:grid.55325.34) 
 University of Oslo, Department of Psychology, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); University of Oslo, RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921) 
 University of Oslo, Department of Psychology, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); University of Oslo, RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); UC Berkeley, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Berkeley, USA (GRID:grid.47840.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2181 7878) 
 University of Oslo, Department of Psychology, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); University of Oslo, RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); Helgeland Hospital, Department of Neuropsychology, Mosjøen, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) 
 University of Oslo, Department of Psychology, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); University of Oslo, RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921); University of Oslo, Department of Musicology, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.5510.1) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 8921) 
 Oslo University Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.55325.34) (ISNI:0000 0004 0389 8485) 
 UC Berkeley, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Berkeley, USA (GRID:grid.47840.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2181 7878); UC Berkeley, Department of Psychology, Berkeley, USA (GRID:grid.47840.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2181 7878) 
 University Medical Center Tübingen, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Center for Neurology, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.411544.1) (ISNI:0000 0001 0196 8249) 
Pages
637
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2916750479
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.