Abstract
By following explicit instructions, humans instantaneously get the hang of tasks they have never performed before. We used a specially calibrated multivariate analysis technique to uncover the elusive representational states during the first few implementations of arbitrary rules such as 'for coffee, press red button' following their first-time instruction. Distributed activity patterns within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) indicated the presence of neural representations specific of individual stimulus-response (S-R) rule identities, preferentially for conditions requiring the memorization of instructed S-R rules for correct performance. Identity-specific representations were detectable starting from the first implementation trial and continued to be present across early implementation trials. The increasingly fluent application of novel rule representations was channelled through increasing cooperation between VLPFC and anterior striatum. These findings inform representational theories on how the prefrontal cortex supports behavioral flexibility specifically by enabling the ad-hoc coding of newly instructed individual rule identities during their first-time implementation.
Highlights
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been considered crucial for flexibly mastering the abundance of nonroutine problems we are often facing [1,2,3,4,5]
The stability of rule representations within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) stands in stark contrast to the rapidly decreasing mean activity revealed by the univariate analysis
We demonstrated that the VLPFC achieves flexibility by recycling established sub-routines in the service of novel task requirements and by enabling the ad-hoc coding of novel task rules instantaneously after their first-time instruction and without recourse to established sub-routines
Summary
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been considered crucial for flexibly mastering the abundance of nonroutine problems we are often facing [1,2,3,4,5]. Earlier research has generated first insights into the neural basis of instruction-based learning or ‘rapid instructed task learning’ 12-14 It has remained elusive whether and, if so, how the concrete rules of newly instructed tasks are initially represented in the human PFC right after their first-time instruction. We sought to identify distributed neural activity patterns associated with subtle representational differences regarding newly instructed individual rule identities such as ‘if the word BUTTER is displayed on the screen, flex the middle finger’ or ‘if the word MONKEY is displayed on the screen, flex the index finger’ To this end, we employed a newly developed multivariate pattern analysis technique (MVPA) calibrated to uncover the rapidly evolving representational dynamics following novel rule instructions 15
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