Reward contingency reorganizes lateral orbitofrontal cortex pyramidal neuron activity from reward-aligned to action-aligned during associative learning.
Paper
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The authors' code
MATLAB · 33 lines · 886 B · MIT
- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
- %% Zicheng Yang CCMU
- %% origin averaged calcium signal of several mice; heatmap
- %% Version: 0.1-2024/07/08-YZC-initial version
- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
- clear all;
- close all;
- % parameters
- nko=5;
- nwt=5;
- Ts=1/100;
- mcako =xlsread('x');
- mcawt =xlsread('x');
- avmcak =mean(mcako,1);
- stmcak=std(mcako,0,1);
- avmcaw =mean(mcawt,1);
- stmcaw=std(mcawt,0,1);
- plotHeatmap(-1.99:Ts:15,1:size(mcawt',2),mcawt,'Time (s)','#Trial','WT',false);
- plotHeatmap(-1.99:Ts:15,1:size(mcako',2),mcako,'Time (s)','#Trial','KO',false);
- figure('color',[1 1 1]);
- h1=drawErrorLine(-1.99:Ts:15,avmcak*100,stmcak/sqrt(nko-1)*100,'r');
- h2=drawErrorLine(-1.99:Ts:15,avmcaw*100,stmcaw/sqrt(nwt-1)*100,'b');
- xlabel('Time (s)');
- ylabel('dF/F(%)');%'fontweight','bold'
- xlim([-2,15]);
- set(gca,'xtick',-2:5:15);
- set(gca,'linewidth',2,'FontSize',10,'fontweight','bold');
Average_signal.m at commit 3b88821, under MIT · at the source
Overview
Abstract
Background: Animals must learn not only which cues predict reward, but also when to act to obtain it. Although the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) encodes reward-related information, whether reward contingency is sufficient to reorganize the temporal alignment of OFC activity remains unclear.
Methods: We recorded calcium signals from lateral OFC pyramidal neurons (lOFC-PNs) in wild-type (WT) and Sapap3 knockout (KO) mice using fiber photometry, during sequential learning of Pavlovian and instrumental contingencies in a single-odor reward association task. We further used a cue-free lick test and linear mixed-effects modeling to dissociate the contribution of reward contingency from that of licking behavior.
Results: Licking behavior and lOFC-PN activity were comparable between WT and KO mice, supporting pooled analysis. Under Pavlovian contingencies, licking and lOFC-PN activity were concentrated around reward delivery. Under instrumental contingencies, both shifted to the pre-reward delay period, and the timing of lOFC-PN activity became progressively coupled to anticipatory licking as learning advanced. A cue-free lick test and linear mixed-effects modeling confirmed that these contingency-related differences reflected reward contingency rather than licking per se.
Conclusion: These findings indicate that reward contingency dynamically reorganizes the temporal alignment of lOFC-PN activity and its coupling with behavior, shifting from reward-aligned under Pavlovian learning to action-aligned under instrumental learning. This contingency-dependent temporal reorganization may support flexible adaptation of neural processing to changing reward contingencies during associative learning.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Repository
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zichengyang/imaging_behavior
3b888212b2d076e35562e6c1297fd857690c5dd2, 9 December 2025Availability: 1 check, the latest on 27 September 2026: the link answers
- 27 September 2026: the link answers
7 files
- imaging_behavior/
Average_signal.m — MATLAB, 33 lines - imaging_behavior/
Behavioral_metrics.m — MATLAB, 129 lines - imaging_behavior/
Behavioral_rate.m — MATLAB, 149 lines - imaging_behavior/
Recorded.m — MATLAB, 268 lines - imaging_behavior/
functionf.m — MATLAB, 26 lines - imaging_behavior/
gaus_smooth.m — MATLAB, 13 lines - LICENSE — License, 21 lines
Tracing map
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Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Versions
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Version 2, 28 September 2026
- Funding: added National Natural Science Foundation of China: 82271550, 31970949
Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record
Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 4 authors, 7 keywords, 36 references.
Cite
This paper
Yang, Z., Chen, X., Sun, X., & Lei, H. (2026). Reward contingency reorganizes lateral orbitofrontal cortex pyramidal neuron activity from reward-aligned to action-aligned during associative learning. Frontiers in cellular neuroscience, 20, 1850197. https://
BibTeX
@article{yang2026reward,
author = {Yang, Zicheng and Chen, Xiaolan and Sun, Xiaohong and Lei, Huimeng},
title = {{Reward contingency reorganizes lateral orbitofrontal cortex pyramidal neuron activity from reward-aligned to action-aligned during associative learning}},
journal = {Frontiers in cellular neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
volume = {20},
pages = {1850197},
publisher = {Frontiers Media SA},
issn = {1662-5102},
doi = {10.3389/
url = {https://
pmid = {42698431},
pmcid = {PMC13541488}
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
AU - Yang, Zicheng
AU - Chen, Xiaolan
AU - Sun, Xiaohong
AU - Lei, Huimeng
TI - Reward contingency reorganizes lateral orbitofrontal cortex pyramidal neuron activity from reward-aligned to action-aligned during associative learning
T2 - Frontiers in cellular neuroscience
J2 - Front Cell Neurosci
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/
VL - 20
SP - 1850197
SN - 1662-5102
PB - Frontiers Media SA
DO - 10.3389/
UR - https://
LA - en
ER -
CSL-JSON
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"container-title": "Frontiers in cellular neuroscience",
"author": [
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"family": "Yang",
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"given": "Xiaohong"
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"family": "Lei",
"given": "Huimeng"
}
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"container-title-short":
"volume": "20",
"page": "1850197",
"DOI": "10.3389/
"PMID": "42698431",
"PMCID": "PMC13541488",
"ISSN": "1662-5102",
"publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
"URL": "https://
"language": "en",
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
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