Gaze-Related Activity in Primate Frontal Cortex Predicts and Mitigates Spatial Uncertainty

Abstract

A remarkable feature of primate behavior is the ability to predict future events based on past experience and current sensory cues. To understand how the brain plans movements in the presence of unstable cues, we recorded gaze-related activity in the frontal cortex of two monkeys engaged in a quasi-predictable cue-conflict task. Animals were trained to look toward remembered visual targets in the presence of a landmark that shifted with fixed amplitude but randomized direction. As simulated by a probabilistic model based on known physiology/behavior, gaze end points assumed a circular distribution around the target, mirroring the possible directions of the landmark shift. This predictive strategy was reflected in frontal cortex activity (especially supplementary eye fields), which anticipated future gaze distributions before the actual landmark shift. In general, these results implicate prefrontal cortex in the predictive integration of environmental cues and their learned statistical properties to mitigate spatial uncertainty.