Adaptive reorganization of history encoding in the retrosplenial cortex supports flexible decision-making strategies

Abstract

Effective decision-making in dynamic environments requires adaptive adjustments of behavioral strategies, particularly in how past experiences inform future choices. To explore the neural basis of this adaptability, we trained mice on two decision-making tasks designed to mimic fast-changing or slow-changing environments. Mice adapted their behavioral strategies accordingly, relying on brief history in the former and integrating longer history in the latter. Two-photon calcium imaging across multiple dorsal cortical areas revealed that the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) displayed a wide range of history-integration timescales that shifted in concert with changes in behavior. This shift in timescales involved population-level reorganization of which neurons encoded longer vs. shorter timescales. Furthermore, optogenetic inactivation of RSC impaired the use of history information in both tasks, supporting its importance in history-based strategies. These findings highlight RSC as a key cortical hub that dynamically adapts its temporal integration of past experiences to support flexible, context-dependent decision-making strategies.