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Science 17 June 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5729, pp. 1798 - 1801
DOI: 10.1126/science.1109154
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Reports

Complementary Process to Response Bias in the Centromedian Nucleus of the Thalamus

Takafumi Minamimoto,* Yukiko Hori, Minoru Kimura{dagger}

Activity in several areas of the human brain and the monkey brain increases when a subject anticipates events associated with a reward, implicating a role for bias of decision and action. However, in real life, events do not always appear as expected, and we must choose an undesirable action. More than half of the neurons in the monkey centromedian (CM) thalamus were selectively activated when a small-reward action was required but a large-reward option was anticipated. Electrical stimulation of the CM after a large-reward action request substituted a brisk performance with a sluggish performance. These results suggest involvement of the CM in a mechanism complementary to decision and action bias.

Department of Physiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan.

* Present address: Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mkimura{at}koto.kpu-m.ac.jp

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