TY - JOUR T1 - Task learning reveals signatures of sample-based internal models in rodent prefrontal cortex JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/027102 SP - 027102 AU - Abhinav Singh AU - Adrien Peyrache AU - Mark D Humphries Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/20/027102.abstract N2 - The inherent uncertainty of the world suggests that brains use probabilistic internal models. We sought to test whether or how neurons represent such models in higher cortical regions, learn them, and use them in behaviour. Using a sampling framework, we predicted that trial-evoked and sleeping population activity represent the inferred and expected probabilities generated from an internal model of a behavioural task, and would become more similar as the task was learnt. To test these predictions, we analysed population activity from rodent prefrontal cortex before, during, and after sessions of learning rules on a maze. Distributions of activity patterns converged between trials and post-learning sleep during successful rule learning. Learning induced changes were greatest for patterns predicting correct choice and expressed at the maze’s choice point, consistent with an updated internal model of the task. Our results suggest sample-based internal models are a general computational principle of cortex. ER -