Prefrontal cortex encodes behavior states decoupled from motor execution

Prefrontal cortex is often viewed as an extension of the motor system, but little is understood about how it relates to natural motor behavior. We therefore tracked the kinematics of freely moving rats performing minimally structured tasks and measured how behavior is represented in prefrontal neural populations. Naturalistic behaviors such as rearing or chasing bait were each encoded by unique neural ensembles, but the behavioral representations were not anchored to posture or low-level motor execution. Single-cell coding was similarly abstract: most neurons encoded specific behaviors, not their kinematic components, and behavioral selectivity varied across tasks. Neural ensemble coding of actions often preceded their physical expression by 2-3 s, and accordingly, prefrontal population activity evolved at slower timescales than motor cortex. These findings argue that prefrontal coding of behavior is not locked to motor output and may instead reflect motivations to perform actions rather than actions themselves.