Performance error-related activity in monkey striatum during social interactions.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Primate Behavior

Background:

• The striatum's role in motor control and action selection is established, but its function in performance monitoring, especially in a social context, remains unclear.
• Neurons in the striatum have been observed to respond to both self-initiated and other-initiated actions.
• Understanding how individuals monitor their own and others' performance is key to explaining social coordination and learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether neurons in the striatum signal performance errors related to an individual's own actions and those of a conspecific.
• To determine if these striatal signals are independent of reward prediction errors.

Main Methods:

• Two macaque monkeys performed a motor task for juice rewards while seated together.
• Single-unit recordings of striatal neurons were conducted in one monkey during the task.
• Behavioral responses to own errors and conspecific errors were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Monkey behavior was affected by past performance, with more errors following individual mistakes but fewer errors after observing a conspecific's error.
• A distinct population of striatal neurons showed responses to performance errors, irrespective of whether the error was self-generated or from a conspecific.
• These neuronal responses were independent of negative reward prediction error signals.

Conclusions:

• The findings indicate that monkeys' behavior is modulated by social errors, highlighting the influence of conspecific performance on individual actions.
• Striatal neurons play a role in signaling performance errors, providing neural signals that may underpin social coordination and observational learning.
• These error-monitoring signals in the striatum are potentially vital for adapting to dynamic social environments and facilitating social learning.