Neural representation of action symbols in primate frontal cortex
14 affiliations
- 1Center for Brains, Minds and Machines, Cambridge, MA, USA. [email protected]
- 2Laboratory of Neural Systems, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA. [email protected]
- 3The Price Family Center for the Social Brain, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA. [email protected]
- 4Laboratory of Neural Systems, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
- 5Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA
- 6Department of Neurosurgery, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA
- 7Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
- 8Department of Neurology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
- 9Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
- 10Center for Brains, Minds and Machines, Cambridge, MA, USA
- 11Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- 12Center for Brains, Minds and Machines, Cambridge, MA, USA. [email protected]
- 13Laboratory of Neural Systems, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA. [email protected]
- 14The Price Family Center for the Social Brain, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA. [email protected]
Abstract
A hallmark of intelligence is proficiency in solving new problems, including those that differ dramatically from problems seen before. Problem-solving, in turn, depends on goal-directed generation of novel ideas and behaviors 1 , which has been proposed to rely on internal representations of discrete units, or symbols, and processes that recombine these units into a large set of possible composite representations 1–9 . Although this view has been influential in formulating cognitive-level explanations of behavior, definitive evidence for a neuronal substrate of symbols has remained elusive. Here, we identify a neural population encoding action symbols—recombinable representations of discrete units of motor behavior—localized to a specific area of frontal cortex. In macaque monkeys performing a drawing-like task, we found behavioral evidence that action elements (strokes) exhibit three critical features indicating an underlying symbolic representation: (i) invariance over low-level motor parameters; (ii) categorical structure, reflecting discrete types of action; and (iii) recombination into novel sequences. In simultaneous neural recordings across motor, premotor, and prefrontal cortex, we found that planning-related population activity in ventral premotor cortex (PMv) encodes actions in a manner that, like behavior, reflects motor invariance, categorical structure, and recombination. Activity in no other recorded area exhibited these three properties of symbols. These findings reveal a neural representation of action symbols localized to PMv, and therefore identify a putative neural substrate for symbolic cognitive operations.
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BibTeX
@article{tian2026neural,
title = {{Neural representation of action symbols in primate frontal cortex}},
author = {Lucas Y Tian and Kedar Garzón Gupta and Daniel J. Hanuska and Adam G. Rouse and Mark A. G. Eldridge and Marc H. Schieber and Xiao‐Jing Wang and Joshua B. Tenenbaum and Winrich A. Freiwald},
journal = {Nature},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.1038/s41586-026-10297-x},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10297-x},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Neural representation of action symbols in primate frontal cortex
AU - Lucas Y Tian
AU - Kedar Garzón Gupta
AU - Daniel J. Hanuska
AU - Adam G. Rouse
AU - Mark A. G. Eldridge
AU - Marc H. Schieber
AU - Xiao‐Jing Wang
AU - Joshua B. Tenenbaum
AU - Winrich A. Freiwald
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/20
JO - Nature
DO - 10.1038/s41586-026-10297-x
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10297-x
AB - A hallmark of intelligence is proficiency in solving new problems, including those that differ dramatically from problems seen before. Problem-solving, in turn, depends on goal-directed generation of novel ideas and behaviors 1 , which has been proposed to rely on internal representations of discrete units, or symbols, and processes that recombine these units into a large set of possible composite representations 1–9 . Although this view has been influential in formulating cognitive-level explanations of behavior, definitive evidence for a neuronal substrate of symbols has remained elusive. Here, we identify a neural population encoding action symbols—recombinable representations of discrete units of motor behavior—localized to a specific area of frontal cortex. In macaque monkeys performing a drawing-like task, we found behavioral evidence that action elements (strokes) exhibit three critical features indicating an underlying symbolic representation: (i) invariance over low-level motor parameters; (ii) categorical structure, reflecting discrete types of action; and (iii) recombination into novel sequences. In simultaneous neural recordings across motor, premotor, and prefrontal cortex, we found that planning-related population activity in ventral premotor cortex (PMv) encodes actions in a manner that, like behavior, reflects motor invariance, categorical structure, and recombination. Activity in no other recorded area exhibited these three properties of symbols. These findings reveal a neural representation of action symbols localized to PMv, and therefore identify a putative neural substrate for symbolic cognitive operations.
SN - 0028-0836
SN - 1476-4687
ER -