TY - JOUR TI - Neural representation of newly instructed rule identities during early implementation trials AU - Ruge, Hannes AU - Schäfer, Theo AJ AU - Zwosta, Katharina AU - Mohr, Holger AU - Wolfensteller, Uta A2 - Badre, David A2 - Behrens, Timothy E A2 - Bhandari, Apoorva A2 - Woolgar, Alexandra VL - 8 PY - 2019 DA - 2019/11/18 SP - e48293 C1 - eLife 2019;8:e48293 DO - 10.7554/eLife.48293 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.48293 AB - By following explicit instructions, humans instantaneously get the hang of tasks they have never performed before. We used a specially calibrated multivariate analysis technique to uncover the elusive representational states during the first few implementations of arbitrary rules such as ‘for coffee, press red button’ following their first-time instruction. Distributed activity patterns within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) indicated the presence of neural representations specific of individual stimulus-response (S-R) rule identities, preferentially for conditions requiring the memorization of instructed S-R rules for correct performance. Identity-specific representations were detectable starting from the first implementation trial and continued to be present across early implementation trials. The increasingly fluent application of novel rule representations was channelled through increasing cooperation between VLPFC and anterior striatum. These findings inform representational theories on how the prefrontal cortex supports behavioral flexibility specifically by enabling the ad-hoc coding of newly instructed individual rule identities during their first-time implementation. KW - cognitive control KW - instruction-based learning KW - rapid instructed task learning KW - task representation KW - rule representation KW - MVPA JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -