Context-specific configuration of orthogonal integrator dynamics for flexible foraging decisions
Abstract
The capacity to adapt behavior across different contexts is a fundamental feature of intelligence and is crucial for animal life, yet the mechanisms by which neural circuits are contextually reconfigured to alter their function are poorly understood. As a universal, ecological behavior, foraging provides a natural window into the neural basis of decision making and cognitive flexibility. We developed complementary free-moving and virtual tasks in which mice make foraging decisions and switch between context-specific decision strategies by toggling distinct configurations of integrator dynamics for evidence accumulation. Neural recordings reveal brain-wide activity states recruited by foraging environments which organize divergent dynamics subspaces and orthogonal coding of context-specific decision variables in separate neural subpopulations. In the dorsal frontal cortex, this coding structure is preserved across experimental settings, supports rapid dynamics reconfiguration for volitional mode switching, and is functionally necessary for decision flexibility.
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