Impaired decision-making flexibility in the absense of inhibitory interneurons in plan cortex.

Axis and subplot labels are as in Fig 5. A, Plan map. The plan cortical inhibitory interneurons are 'lesioned' in the simulation. B, Salience map for appetitive (positive) stimuli. C, Salience map for aversive (negative) stimuli. D, E, F, Sensory map, including sensory cortex (D), sensory TRN sector (E) and sensory thalamus (F). G, Input to sensory thalamus (stimuli and distractors). H, Reinforcement signals and Conditioned Stimuli (CSs). During the second testing phase (to the right of the vertical dotted line) top-down bias is applied to the feed plan. The plans (A) cannot shift as in the previous simulations. Thus in the absense of inhibition onto the plan cortical neurons (triggered by expectation confirmation and violation), the decision-making flexibility of the system is degraded. (In this simulation M₁ = 160 during the second testing phase).