The interplay between task-relevant and task-irrelevant information may induce conflicts that impair behavioral performance, a.k.a. behavioral congruency effects. The neuronal mechanisms underlying behavioral congruency effects, however, are poorly understood. We recorded single unit activity in monkey prefrontal cortex using a task-switching paradigm and discovered a neuronal congruency effect (NCE) that is carried by target and distractor neurons which process target and distractor-related information, respectively. The former neurons provide more signal, the latter less noise in congruent compared to incongruent conditions, resulting in a better target representation. Such NCE is dominated by the level of congruency, and is not determined by the task rules the subjects used, their reaction times (RT), the length of the delay period, nor the response levels of the neurons. We propose that this NCE can explain behavioral congruency effects in general, as well as previous fMRI and EEG results in various conflict paradigms.

与任务相关和与任务无关的信息之间的相互作用可能会引发损害行为表现的冲突，即行为一致性效应。然而，对行为一致性影响的神经元机制知之甚少。我们使用任务切换范式记录了猴子前额叶皮层的单个单元活动，并发现了一种神经元一致性效应 (NCE)，该效应由分别处理目标和干扰相关信息的目标和干扰神经元携带。与不一致的条件相比，前者的神经元提供更多的信号，后者的一致噪声更少，从而产生更好的目标表示。这种 NCE 由一致性水平决定，而不是由受试者使用的任务规则、他们的反应时间 (RT)、延迟时间的长度、也不是神经元的反应水平。我们建议这个 NCE 可以解释一般的行为一致性效应，以及以前的 fMRI 和 EEG 导致各种冲突范式的结果。