The ability to act on knowledge about the value of stimuli or actions factors into simple foraging behaviors as well as complex forms of decision-making. In striatal regions, action representations are thought to acquire value through a gradual (reinforcement-learning based) process. It is unclear whether this is also true for anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) where neuronal representations tend to change abruptly. We recorded from ensembles of ACC neurons as rats deduced which of 3 levers was rewarded each day. The rat’s lever preferences changed gradually throughout the sessions as they eventually came to focus on the rewarded lever. Most individual neurons changed their responses to both rewarded and nonrewarded lever presses abruptly (<2 trials). These transitions occurred asynchronously across the population but peaked near the point where the rats began to focus on the rewarded lever. Because the individual transitions were asynchronous, the overall change at the population level appeared gradual. Abrupt transitions in action representations of ACC neurons may be part of a mechanism that alters choice strategies as new information is acquired.

中文翻译：

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在试错学习期间，前扣带皮层神经元在动作表征中的突然、异步变化。

根据有关刺激或行动的价值的知识采取行动的能力会影响简单的觅食行为以及复杂的决策形式。在纹状体区域，动作表征被认为是通过渐进的（基于强化学习的）过程获得价值的。目前尚不清楚这是否也适用于前扣带皮层 (ACC)，其中神经元表征往往会突然改变。我们记录了 ACC 神经元的集合，因为大鼠推断出每天奖励 3 个杠杆中的哪一个。老鼠的杠杆偏好在整个会议期间逐渐改变，因为他们最终开始关注奖励杠杆。大多数个体神经元突然改变了对有奖和无奖杠杆的反应（<2 次试验）。这些转变在整个群体中异步发生，但在大鼠开始关注奖励杠杆的点附近达到峰值。由于个体转变是异步的，人口层面的整体变化似乎是渐进的。ACC 神经元动作表征的突然转变可能是一种机制的一部分，该机制在获取新信息时改变选择策略。