Data from: Population analyses reveal heterogenous encoding in the medial prefrontal cortex during naturalistic foraging

Foraging in the wild requires coordinated switching of critical functions,
including goal-oriented navigation and context-appropriate action
selection. Nevertheless, few studies have examined how different functions
are represented in the brain during naturalistic foraging. To address this
question, we recorded multiple single-unit activities from the medial
prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of rats seeking a sucrose reward in the presence
of an unpredictable attack posed by a robotic predator (Lobsterbot).
Simultaneously recorded ensemble activities from neurons were analyzed in
reference to various behavioral indices as the animal moved freely across
the foraging area (F) between the nest (N) and the goal (E) area. An
artificial neural network, trained with simultaneously recorded neural
activity, estimated the rat’s current distance from the Lobsterbot. The
accuracy of distance estimation was the highest in the middle F-zone in
which the dominant behavior was active navigation. The spatial encoding
persisted in the N-zone when non-navigational behaviors such as grooming,
rearing, and sniffing were excluded. In contrast, the accuracy decreased
as the animal approached the E-zone, when the activity of the same
neuronal ensembles was more correlated with events related to dynamic
decision-making between food procurement and Lobsterbot evasion. A
population-wide analysis confirmed highly heterogeneous encoding by the
region. To further assess the decision-related activity in the E-zone, a
naïve Bayesian classifier was trained to predict the success and failure
of avoidance behavior. The classifier predicted the avoidance outcome as
much as 6 s before the head withdrawal. In addition, two sub-populations
of recorded units with distinct temporal dynamics contributed differently
to the prediction. These findings suggest that an overlapping population
of mPFC neurons may switch between two heterogenous modes, encoding
relevant locations for goal-directed navigation or an imminent situational
challenge.