Single neurons in posterior parietal cortex of monkeys encode cognitive set

Gijsbert Stoet, Lawrence H. Snyder

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

142 Scopus citations

Abstract

The primate posterior parietal cortex (PPC), part of the dorsal visual pathway, is best known for its role in encoding salient spatial information. Yet there are indications that neural activity in the PPC can also be modulated by nonspatial task-related information. In this study, we tested whether neurons in the PPC encode signals related to cognitive set, that is, the preparation to perform a particular task. Cognitive set has previously been associated with the frontal cortex but not the PPC. In this study, monkeys performed a cognitive set shifting paradigm in which they were cued in advance to apply one of two different task rules to the subsequent stimulus on every trial. Here we show that a subset of neurons in the PPC, concentrated in the lateral bank of the intraparietal sulcus and on the angular gyrus, responds selectively to cues for different task rules.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1003-1012
Number of pages10
JournalNeuron
Volume42
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 24 2004

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