Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30581022›Full record

ArticleCurrent biology : CB2019

Novelty, Salience, and Surprise Timing Are Signaled by Neurons in the Basal Forebrain.

Kaining Zhang, Charles D Chen, Ilya E Monosov

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Current biology : CB, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
29citing papers in PubMed
3.4field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

29 citing papers in PubMed, 60 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Distinct Patterns of PV and SST GABAergic Neuronal Activity in the Basal Forebrain during Olfactory-Guided Behavior in Mice.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Neurons of Macaque Frontal Eye Field Signal Reward-Related Surprise.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Cognitive Aging and the Primate Basal Forebrain Revisited: Disproportionate GABAergic Vulnerability Revealed.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023
    Article
  9. Cholinergic Reinforcement Signaling Is Impaired by Amyloidosis Prior to Its Synaptic Loss.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. Neuromodulation of prefrontal cortex cognitive function in primates: the powerful roles of monoamines and acetylcholine.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022
    Review
  17. Article
  18. Interactions between ventrolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex during learning and behavioural change.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022
    Review
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Kaining ZhangDepartment of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Charles D ChenDepartment of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110.
Ilya E MonosovDepartment of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Electronic address: ilya.monosov@gmail.com.
Washington University in St. Louis · US

Funding

MECHANISMS OF INFORMATION SEEKING IN THE PRIMATE BRAINR01MH116937 · NIMH · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI Ilya E. Monosov · 2019 to 2026
$4.0M
Neural Circuits that Regulate Risk SeekingR01MH110594 · NIMH · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI Ilya E. Monosov · 2017 to 2026
$3.9M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH110594NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH116937
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The basal forebrain (BF) is a principal source of modulation of the neocortex [1-6] and is thought to regulate cognitive functions such as attention, motivation, and learning by broadcasting information about salience [2, 3, 5, 7-19]. However, events can be salient for multiple reasons-such as novelty, surprise, or reward prediction errors [20-24]-and to date, precisely which salience-related information the BF broadcasts is unclear. Here, we report that the primate BF contains at least two types of neurons that often process salient events in distinct manners: one with phasic burst responses to cues predicting salient events and one with ramping activity anticipating such events. Bursting neurons respond to cues that convey predictions about the magnitude, probability, and timing of primary reinforcements. They also burst to the reinforcement itself, particularly when it is unexpected. However, they do not have a selective response to reinforcement omission (the unexpected absence of an event). Thus, bursting neurons do not convey value-prediction errors but do signal surprise associated with external events. Indeed, they are not limited to processing primary reinforcement: they discriminate fully expected novel visual objects from familiar objects and respond to object-sequence violations. In contrast, ramping neurons predict the timing of many salient, novel, and surprising events. Their ramping activity is highly sensitive to the subjects' confidence in event timing and on average encodes the subjects' surprise after unexpected events occur. These data suggest that the primate BF contains mechanisms to anticipate the timing of a diverse set of important external events (via ramping activity) and to rapidly deploy cognitive resources when these events occur (via short latency bursting).

Indexed as

RewardAnimalsAttentionBasal ForebrainCuesExploratory BehaviorLearningMacaca mulattaMaleMotivationNeuronsattentionbasal forebrainmotivationneurophysiologynoveltysalience

Identifiers

PMID30581022
PMCPMC6901356
OpenAlexW2906030414

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.