Choice-dependent cross-modal interaction in the medial prefrontal cortex of rats

Abstract Cross-modal interaction (CMI) could significantly influence the perceptional or decision-making process in many circumstances. However, it remains poorly understood what integrative strategies are employed by brain to deal with different task contexts. To explore it, we examined neural activities of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) rats performing cue-guided two-alternative forced-choice tasks. In a requiring discriminate stimuli based on auditory cue, simultaneous presentation an uninformative visual cue substantially strengthened mPFC neurons' capability discrimination mainly through enhancing response preferred cue. Doing this also increased number neurons revealing preference. If was changed slightly and like auditory, denoted specific behavioral direction, frequently showed CMI pattern effect cross-modal enhancement best evoked information-congruent multisensory trials. choice free task, however, majority failed show These results indicate that at neuronal level is context-dependent way differs from has been shown previous studies.