Extended Data Figure 2. Behavioral errors are primarily driven by inappropriate rule encoding.

(a) Mice show comparable performance on trials with one target modality presented compared to performance in conflict trials (n = 4 mice, P = 0.81). (b) Example PSTHs of a neuron whose appropriate tuning to the ‘attend to vision’ rule is observed in error trials of the ‘attend to audition’ rule. (c) Rule information derived from PCA of sessions in which sufficient numbers of errors allowed for their analysis (93 neurons, 18 sessions from 4 mice) show that they contain information about the other rule; directionality of rule-related axis in error trials are along the same axis used in correct trials (see methods). Shaded areas indicate bootstrapped 95% CIs. (d) Schematic of the 4-alternative forced choice (4AFC) task developed to distinguish between errors related to rule encoding (executive) and those related to target cue perception (sensory, see methods). Visual and auditory targets are reported at different response port pairs (inner versus outer), making it possible to distinguish between outcomes in which the animal makes a selection based on prior cueing, the spatial location of sensory targets, both, only one or neither (e) 4AFC task outcomes illustrated in a confusion matrix showing outcomes conditional upon sensory target modality and location. Note that sensory conflict is not specified for these trials, as it can be either spatially congruent or in conflict with the appropriate target (f) Executive errors represent the majority of those observed, accounting for about 50% of all errors across mice (n = 4 mice). Dashed line represents chance performance (25%). All behavioral data was compared using Wilcoxon rank-sum test.