Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions

doi: 10.64898/2025.12.11.693624

Figure Lengend Snippet: a , Left, widefield calcium imaging (WF) set-up. Middle, dorsal cortex field-of-view (FOV) imaged at 470 nm. Right, FOV aligned to the Allen Common Coordinate Framework (CCF) with example areas highlighted. b , Example behavioural videography images and extracted movement signals. c , Ridge regression model design. An example pixel-wise kernel map for the right air-puff regressor is shown for a single animal averaged across trial epochs. The accompanying trace shows the mean kernel response from left barrel cortex. d , Model performance. Top, pixel-wise maps showing cross-validated model explained variance across the whole trial for an example mouse (left) and averaged across mice (right; n = 6 mice). Bottom, single-trial fluorescence (dark), and model-predicted activity (light) across different cortical areas for three example trials. e , Lottery value encoding. Kernel regressor traces for the five lottery trial types averaged across different bilateral cortical areas. Top, model trained on lottery choice trials; bottom, model trained on surebet choice trials. f , Selectivity traces for abstract choice (green), whisker location (pink) and spatial choice (black) averaged across bilateral cortical regions. Selectivity was computed as the absolute difference between the respective paired event kernel regressors. Top, model trained on all trials; bottom, model trained only on middle lottery value trials. g , Pixel-wise signed selectivity maps averaged across trial epochs. Top, abstract choice; middle, whisker location; bottom, spatial choice. h , Pixel-wise selectivity maps for abstract choice for engaged (top) and disengaged (bottom) trials. i , Decoding of abstract choice using fluorescence activity across all CCF-defined cortical areas across engaged and disengaged trials. j , Similar to h , but for spatial choice. k , Similar to i , but for spatial choice. Data in e - k show mean ± s.e.m across 6 mice, 52 sessions, 7804 engaged trials, 2401 disengaged trials. Data in e - g show results from engaged trials.

Article Snippet: Imaging was performed on a tandem-lens widefield fluorescence macroscope (85 mm f/1.8D objective, 50 mm f/1.4D tube lens, Nikon; described previously ).

Techniques: Imaging, Fluorescence, Activity Assay, Whisker Assay

Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions

doi: 10.64898/2025.12.11.693624

Figure Lengend Snippet: a , Example images from the side camera showing the lickport retracted (left) and extended (middle). A close up of the eye (white dashed box) is shown on the right. SLEAP nodes are shown as coloured circular markers, note that the tongue node (yellow) is only present during licking (middle image). For pupillometry, an ellipse (magenta) was fit to 8 SLEAP nodes outlining the pupil. b , Example image from the front camera. SLEAP nodes for the left (blue) and right (red) forepaws are shown as circular markers. Regions of interest (ROI) around the left (blue) and right (red) whisker pads are shown as dashed boxes. c , Timing of lickport extension quantified as the lateral position of ‘lickport’ node across time. The inset shows a close-up of the translation period indicating the time to reach final position is short (∼140 ms). Data show the mean for an example session. d , Videography detection of the tongue using the side camera. The point-score for the tongue node provides a measure of SLEAP tracking confidence of tongue detection across time. Thin lines show individual mice (n = 16 mice; 1 representative session per mouse), black line shows the average across mice. The green line shows the point-score value used as a binary detection threshold. e , Quantification of licking across the trial. Using the point-score threshold in d , lick probability was assessed in 100 ms bins across each trial. Thin lines show individual mice (n = 16), black shows the average. Mice showed minimal anticipatory licking outside of the response window. f , Average pupillometry response across the trial. Data show mean ± s.e.m. across 6 widefield mice. g , Average nose movement across the trial. Data show mean ± s.e.m. across mice. h , Similar to g , but showing jaw movement. i , Similar to g , but showing left (blue) and right (red) paw movement. j , Average left (blue) and right (red) whisker motion. Data show mean ± s.e.m. across mice.

Article Snippet: Imaging was performed on a tandem-lens widefield fluorescence macroscope (85 mm f/1.8D objective, 50 mm f/1.4D tube lens, Nikon; described previously ).

Techniques: Whisker Assay

Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions

doi: 10.64898/2025.12.11.693624

Figure Lengend Snippet: a , Lottery value encoding across behavioural states. Kernel regressor traces were averaged across different bilateral cortical areas. Top, data from engaged trials; bottom, data from disengaged trials. Data show mean ± s.e.m across mice. b , Lottery value encoding in mice trained with opposing auditory-to-value mappings. Kernel regressor traces were averaged across cortical areas as in a . Top, data from positive tone-frequency-to-value mapping mice (n = 2); bottom, data from negative tone-frequency-to-value mapping mice (n = 4). Data show mean ± s.e.m across mice, engaged trials only. c , Abstract choice encoding across behavioural states. Kernel regressor traces for lottery (green) and surebet choice (orange) across cortical areas as in a . Top, data from engaged trials; bottom, data from disengaged trials. Data show mean ± s.e.m across mice. d , Abstract choice encoding across mice trained wtih opposing whisker-to-offer location rule mappings. Kernel regressor traces for lottery (green) and surebet choice (orange) were averaged across cortical areas as in a . Top, data from mice where whisker stimulation side cued lottery offer location (n = 4 mice). Bottom, data from mice where whisker stimulation side cued the surebet offer location (n = 2 mice). Data show mean ± s.e.m across mice, engaged trials only. e , Decoding of whisker stimulation side using fluorescence activity across all CCF-defined cortical areas across engaged and disengaged trials. Data show mean and s.e.m across mice (n = 6). Bars on top indicate time points when decoding is significantly better than chance tested using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and P < 0.05. Decoding performance for whisker location was not significantly different between the engaged and the disengaged states. f , Decoding of task variables using single CCF-defined cortical regions (thin coloured lines) vs all cortical regions (thick black line) in engaged trials. g , Cross-temporal and cross-validated decoding of abstract choice using multi-region widefield fluorescence signals in engaged and disengaged trials. Data show mean across 6 mice. h , Similar to g , for whisker stimulation side. i , Similar to g , for spatial choice.

Article Snippet: Imaging was performed on a tandem-lens widefield fluorescence macroscope (85 mm f/1.8D objective, 50 mm f/1.4D tube lens, Nikon; described previously ).

Techniques: Whisker Assay, Fluorescence, Activity Assay

Journal: bioRxiv

Article Title: A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions

doi: 10.64898/2025.12.11.693624

Figure Lengend Snippet:

Article Snippet: Imaging was performed on a tandem-lens widefield fluorescence macroscope (85 mm f/1.8D objective, 50 mm f/1.4D tube lens, Nikon; described previously ).

Techniques: Imaging