Figure 6.

Comparison of the timing of maximal sequence and lever differentiation in ACC and DS ensembles. a) The strength of sequence discrimination (based on rolling F-statistic) fluctuated across bins in the DS population (right bars), where the largest proportion of neurons exhibited maximal sequence specific firing differentiation around 0.6s prior to lever press while the smallest proportion exhibited sequence specific firing differentiation at around the actual lever press response itself. Such was not the case in the ACC (left bars), where an equal percentage of neurons exhibited maximal sequence-specific firing differentiation in each of the 6 bins. b) The strength of lever discrimination (based on rolling F-statistic) fluctuated across bins in the DS (right bars), where the largest proportion of neurons exhibited maximal lever differentiation 0.6s prior to lever press. Such was not the case in the ACC (left bars), where an equal percentage of neurons exhibited maximal lever-specific firing differentiation in each of the 6 bins. c) Average level of activity across time bins leading up to all lever presses in all sequence blocks and sessions, in all ACC neurons (left) and all DS neurons (right) respectively. d) An example of a DS neuron displaying maximal differentiation between sequences at approximately 0.6s prior to presses on the same lever. e) An example of a DS neuron reaching maximal differentiation between levers at approximately 0.6s prior to lever presses within the same sequence block. Shading in c–e indicates s.e.m. *p<0.01, **p<0.001, *** p<0.0001.