Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Association Areas of the Cortex01:21

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Learning shapes neural geometry in the primate prefrontal cortex.

Nature neuroscience·2026
Same author

Neural population dynamics and temporal context cells in macaque medial parietal cortex support temporal order memory.

PLoS biology·2026
Same author

The effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists·2025
Same author

External task switches activate default mode regions without enhanced processing of the surrounding scene.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025
Same author

Default mode network activation at task switches reflects mental task-set structure.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025
Same author

Domain general frontoparietal regions show modality-dependent coding of auditory and visual rules.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings
07:08

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Detection of fixed and variable targets in the monkey prefrontal cortex.

Makoto Kusunoki1, Natasha Sigala, David Gaffan

  • 1MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge CB27EF, UK. makoto.kusunoki@psy.ox.ac.uk

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|February 6, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Prefrontal neurons code stimulus significance, which can be fixed or change with context. Monkeys performed visual target detection tasks, revealing similar population-level prefrontal cortex coding for both fixed and context-dependent significance.

More Related Videos

A Pressure Injection System for Investigating the Neuropharmacology of Information Processing in Awake Behaving Macaque Monkey Cortex
09:46

A Pressure Injection System for Investigating the Neuropharmacology of Information Processing in Awake Behaving Macaque Monkey Cortex

Published on: March 14, 2016

Transferring Cognitive Tasks Between Brain Imaging Modalities: Implications for Task Design and Results Interpretation in fMRI Studies
10:09

Transferring Cognitive Tasks Between Brain Imaging Modalities: Implications for Task Design and Results Interpretation in fMRI Studies

Published on: September 22, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings
07:08

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

A Pressure Injection System for Investigating the Neuropharmacology of Information Processing in Awake Behaving Macaque Monkey Cortex
09:46

A Pressure Injection System for Investigating the Neuropharmacology of Information Processing in Awake Behaving Macaque Monkey Cortex

Published on: March 14, 2016

Transferring Cognitive Tasks Between Brain Imaging Modalities: Implications for Task Design and Results Interpretation in fMRI Studies
10:09

Transferring Cognitive Tasks Between Brain Imaging Modalities: Implications for Task Design and Results Interpretation in fMRI Studies

Published on: September 22, 2014

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Primate Behavior

Background:

  • Prefrontal neurons are crucial for coding behavioral significance.
  • Stimulus significance can be fixed by experience or dynamically updated by short-term context.
  • Understanding how the brain distinguishes between fixed and context-dependent significance is key to complex behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare prefrontal neural coding of fixed versus context-dependent behavioral significance.
  • To investigate how prefrontal neurons represent changing stimulus-value in complex tasks.
  • To determine if population-level neural activity differs between consistent and varied stimulus-response mapping.

Main Methods:

  • Trained monkeys on two visual target detection tasks: consistent mapping and varied mapping.
  • Recorded neural activity from prefrontal neurons during task performance.
  • Analyzed neural population activity in relation to stimulus presentation and behavioral responses.

Main Results:

  • Many prefrontal neurons rapidly encoded short-term context (cue/target identity) within the first second of a trial.
  • Following initial cue processing, the neural population exhibited similar coding of behavioral significance across both tasks.
  • This population-level similarity in coding was observed despite significant differences in single-cell activity patterns between the two tasks.

Conclusions:

  • Prefrontal cortex exhibits robust population-level coding for behavioral significance, regardless of whether it is fixed or context-dependent.
  • Neural representations of significance adapt to short-term contextual changes, demonstrating neural flexibility.
  • Findings suggest a unified mechanism at the population level for representing both stable and dynamic stimulus significance in the prefrontal cortex.