Taorong Xie1 · Can Huang1,2 · Yijie Zhang1,2 · Jing Liu1,2 · Haishan Yao1,31 Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 3 Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Shanghai 201210, China
Abstract
Interval timing is involved in a variety of cognitive behaviors such as associative learning and decision-making. While it has been shown that time estimation is adaptive to the temporal context, it remains unclear how interval timing behavior is influenced by recent trial history. Here we found that, in mice trained to perform a licking-based interval timing task, a decrease of inter-reinforcement interval in the previous trial rapidly shifted the time of anticipatory licking earlier. Optogenetic inactivation of the anterior lateral motor cortex (ALM), but not the medial prefrontal cortex, for a short time before reward delivery caused a decrease in the peak time of anticipatory licking in the next trial. Electrophysiological recordings from the ALM showed that the response profiles preceded by short and long inter-reinforcement intervals exhibited task-engagement-dependent temporal scaling. Thus, interval timing is adaptive to recent experience of the temporal interval, and ALM activity during time estimation reflects recent experience of interval.
Keywords
Peak-interval timing procedure; Temporal context; Trial history; Secondary motor cortex; Temporal scaling
