Ultrasound modulation of macaque prefrontal cortex selectively alters credit assignment-related activity and behavior

Description: Cluster-corrected and unthresholded activation functional Magnetic Resonance (fMRI) maps related to the manuscript: "Ultrasound modulation of macaque prefrontal cortex selectively alters credit assignment-related activity and behavior". Abstract: Credit assignment is the association of specific instances of reward to the specific events, such as a particular choice, that caused them. Without credit assignment, choice values reflect an approximate estimate of how good the environment was when the choice was made – the global reward state – rather than exactly which outcome the choice caused. Combined transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging in macaques demonstrate credit-assignment-related activity in prefrontal area 47/12o and when this signal was disrupted with TUS, choice value representations across the brain were impaired. As a consequence, behavior was no longer guided by choice value and decision making was poorer. By contrast, global reward state-related activity in the adjacent anterior insula remained intact and determined decision making after prefrontal disruption.