In PFC and FEF,

previous-trial information persisted into the current trial to affect neuronal activity in various epochs. We recorded from single neurons in the KU-55933 ic50 FEF, PFC, and SEF while monkeys performed a visual oculomotor task in which they monitored their own decisions. Neuronal activity correlated with decisions and bets was found in all three areas, but joint activity that linked decisions to appropriate bets was found exclusively in the SEF. This putative metacognitive activity began swiftly in the SEF during the decision stage and continued into the bet stage. Monkey behavior was independent of previous trial outcome, as was SEF activity (but not PFC or FEF activity). We had predicted that both the SEF and PFC would participate in metacognitive monitoring, but our data supported a role only for the SEF. The putative metacognitive activity in SEF arose early in trials (Figures 5A and 5C), beginning soon after the start of the decision-related signal (Figure 2F) and before the monkey reported its decision with a saccade. The time course suggests that monitoring a decision occurs in near simultaneity with making the decision. This seems analogous to the time course of monitoring motor operations (“corollary

http://www.selleckchem.com/products/erastin.html discharge”); when motor areas finalize a movement command, upstream areas monitor it within milliseconds (Sommer and Wurtz, 2004). It should be noted that most (15/20) of our individual SEF neurons with a metacognitive signal also exhibited a decision-related Oxalosuccinic acid signal. This close relationship between metacognitive and decision-related signals may be no coincidence: in the SEF, decision-related signals may evolve into metacognitive signals. A decision-related signal that outlasts the decisive act (the saccade to the target) provides information that could be monitored for later behavior (the bet). Although decision-related signals occurred in all three areas, our data suggest differences

in how the signals are used. In SEF, the prolonged decision-related signal seems to be maintained for internal use (e.g., determining the bet to make). In PFC and FEF, the briefer signal may guide only immediate acts (e.g., planning the decision saccade). Metacognition-related activity in SEF had not been reported previously. No fMRI studies reported human SEF signals during metacognition tasks, although many fMRI results have implicated regions interconnected with SEF, such as anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal regions (Chua et al., 2006; Kikyo et al., 2002). Our recording strategy was to study every neuron encountered, so our population data may be considered a representative sample of SEF neurons (leaving aside issues of sampling biases related to neuron size, e.g., Sommer and Wurtz, 2000).