Prefrontal Computation as Active Inference
Name
bhz118.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.38 MB
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Unknown
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3ae673a629c9725b4a6607764fc91cf5
Author(s)
Parr, Thomas
Rikhye, Rajeev Vijay
Halassa, Michael
Friston, Karl J
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Cerebral Cortex
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Citation
Parr, Thomas, Rikhye, Rajeev Vijay, Halassa, Michael M and Friston, Karl J. 2020. "Prefrontal Computation as Active Inference." Cerebral Cortex, 30 (2).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© 2019 The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. The prefrontal cortex is vital for a range of cognitive processes, including working memory, attention, and decision-making. Notably, its absence impairs the performance of tasks requiring the maintenance of information through a delay period. In this paper, we formulate a rodent task - which requires maintenance of delay-period activity - as a Markov decision process and treat optimal task performance as an (active) inference problem. We simulate the behavior of a Bayes optimal mouse presented with 1 of 2 cues that instructs the selection of concurrent visual and auditory targets on a trial-by-trial basis. Formulating inference as message passing, we reproduce features of neuronal coupling within and between prefrontal regions engaged by this task. We focus on the micro-circuitry that underwrites delay-period activity and relate it to functional specialization within the prefrontal cortex in primates. Finally, we simulate the electrophysiological correlates of inference and demonstrate the consequences of lesions to each part of our in silico prefrontal cortex. In brief, this formulation suggests that recurrent excitatory connections - which support persistent neuronal activity - encode beliefs about transition probabilities over time. We argue that attentional modulation can be understood as the contextualization of sensory input by these persistent beliefs.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1093/CERCOR/BHZ118
