The Neural Basis of Predictive Pursuit

It remains unclear how and to what extent non-human animals make demanding on-the-fly predictions during pursuit. We studied this problem in a novel laboratory pursuit task that incentivizes prediction of future prey positions. We trained three macaques to perform joystick-controlled pursuit of prey that followed intelligent escape algorithms. Subjects reliably aimed towards the preys likely future positions, indicating that they generate internal predictions and use those predictions to guide behavior. We then developed a generative model that explains real-time pursuit trajectories and showed that our subjects use prey position, velocity, and acceleration to make predictions. We identified neurons in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) whose responses track these three variables. These neurons multiplexed prediction-related variables with a distinct and explicit representation of the preys future position. Our results provide a clear demonstration that the brain can explicitly represent future predictions and highlight the critical role of anterior cingulate cortex for future-oriented cognition.\n\nOne-sentence summaryIn a dynamic pursuit environment, monkeys actively predict future prey positions and dACC neurons encode these future positions.