{
  "abstract": "The prefrontal cortex (PFC) transforms what we know about the world into intelligent, adaptive behaviour. Existing theories have traditionally explained this function through cross-circuit interactions, where PFC neurons control sensory-action mappings elsewhere in the brain. However, recent findings reveal a remarkable organisation of neuronal activity that enables flexible computation within the PFC itself. These findings motivate a framework of duplicated and structured representations (DSRs), where the abstract structure of the world is embedded locally in connections between prefrontal neurons encoding conjunctions of action and context. We review an extensive body of empirical findings showing that DSRs explain canonical PFC dependent behaviours as diverse as sequence working memory, planning, and value-guided decisions. In each case, PFC neurons represent multiple actions simultaneously. Structured connectivity between these action representations then guides local network dynamics to infer how behaviour should be organised - simplifying both computation and readout. Taken further, the same logic offers a mechanistic foothold on some of the PFC's most elusive functions, including hierarchical reasoning and social computations. Overall, the DSR framework provides a unified understanding of prefrontal computations and a tractable basis for a new generation of mechanistic research.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Mohamady El-Gaby"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kris Jensen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Svenja Kuechenhoff"
    },
    {
      "name": "Peter Thomas Doohan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Adam Loyd Harris"
    },
    {
      "name": "Alif Aziz"
    },
    {
      "name": "Arya Bhomick"
    },
    {
      "name": "Daniel Shani"
    },
    {
      "name": "Diksha Gupta"
    },
    {
      "name": "Emily Lewis"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0saz1drn5q4xc.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/j75zw_v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "0saz1drn5q4xc",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/j75zw_v1/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Behavioral Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Cognitive Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Computational Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223199322",
  "pdf_url": "https://osf.io/j75zw/download",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-22",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0saz1drn5q4xc.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:59Z",
      "native_id": "j75zw",
      "source": "osf",
      "url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/j75zw_v1/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "bepress:Cognitive Neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "From structured knowledge to flexible behaviour: the importance of local prefrontal computations",
  "title_text": "From structured knowledge to flexible behaviour: the importance of local prefrontal computations",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:59Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0saz1drn5q4xc",
  "venue": "PsyArXiv",
  "versions": []
}