Reward monitoring in the frontopolar cortex of macaques

Abstract

Abstract Reward processing involves several prefrontal cortex areas, enabling individuals to learn from behavioral outcomes and shape decisions. However, the role of the frontopolar cortex (FPC) in these processes remains unclear due to limited single-neuron research. In this study, we recorded neural activity from the FPC of two macaques performing a fast-learning task, the object-in-place reward task, which examined how reward size affects learning. Results showed that FPC feedback monitoring activity extends to the value of specific choices. Moreover, once the association between scenes and reward had been learned, FPC neural activity before choice reflected the future animal’s behavior to stay or to switch on their previous behavioral strategy, i.e., to choose the same target or the other one. These results suggest that FPC neurons integrated information for action monitoring and later reprocessed it to decide the best behavioral strategy to adopt, determining whether to maintain or change the action plan.