The premises of a transitive inference task modulate the synchrony of local field potentials in macaque dorsal premoto rcortex

Transitive reasoning is a high-level cognitive ability allowing the prediction of novel knowledge by linking previously acquiredinformation. To study this ability in experimental settings participants are required first to acquire a set of premises for an inferential deduction as A>B, B>C, C>D, D>E, or E>F (Learning phase), and then to identify the ordinal relationship between two items notembedded in the premises as infer that B>E (Test phase). Several brain imaging studies in humans highlighted which cortical and subcortical areas are recruited during the execution of the different steps of this Transitive Inference (TI) task (Xiaoyinget al., 2022). Recently monkey neurophysiology studies approached the investigation of the neuronal computations subtending this ability and observed that the activity of premotor cortex is modulated by the difficulty in comparing items during the test phase. If and how the activity of this area is modulated by the acquisition of the premises of this task is an open question. Here we investigated if this acquisition is reflected in the modulation of the local field potential (LFP).