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The Journal of Neuroscience, July 30, 2008, 28(31):7737-7747; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1347-08.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Complementary Contributions of Prefrontal Neuron Classes in Abstract Numerical Categorization

Ilka Diester and Andreas Nieder

Department of Animal Physiology, Institute for Zoology, University of Tuebingen, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Andreas Nieder, Department of Animal Physiology, Institute for Zoology, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, University of Tuebingen, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany. Email: andreas.nieder{at}uni-tuebingen.de

The primate prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a cardinal role in forming abstract categories and concepts. However, it remains elusive how this is accomplished and to what extent the interaction of functionally distinct neuron classes underlies this representation. Here, we inferred the major cortical cell types, putative pyramidal cells, and interneurons by characterizing the waveforms of action potentials recorded in monkeys performing a cognitively demanding numerosity categorization task. Putative interneurons responded much faster than cells classified as pyramidal neurons and exhibited a higher reliability of category discrimination, whereas putative pyramidal cells showed a higher degree of category selectivity. An analysis of the numerosity tuning profiles and the temporal interactions of adjacent neurons indicated that inhibitory input by putative interneurons shapes the tuning to numerical categories of putative PFC pyramidal cells. These findings favor feedforward mechanisms subserving cognitive categorization and help to clarify cellular interactions in PFC microcircuits.

Key words: prefrontal cortex; monkey; interneurons; pyramidal cells; single units; numerical categorization

Received March 28, 2008; revised May 23, 2008; accepted June 12, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Andreas Nieder, Department of Animal Physiology, Institute for Zoology, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, University of Tuebingen, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany. Email: andreas.nieder{at}uni-tuebingen.de




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K. Johnston, J. F. X. DeSouza, and S. Everling
Monkey Prefrontal Cortical Pyramidal and Putative Interneurons Exhibit Differential Patterns of Activity Between Prosaccade and Antisaccade Tasks
J. Neurosci., April 29, 2009; 29(17): 5516 - 5524.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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