Fig. 5: Structures in the input and output weights of the sensorimotor module enable rule-dependent action selection.

a Excitatory neurons in the sensorimotor module were classified according to their preferred rule R, response location L and shared feature F. For example, neurons with R = color rule, L = 1 and F = blue have the highest activity during color rule trials when the network chooses the test card at L = 1, and when that card shares the F = blue feature with the reference card. For a neuron with a given R, L and F, its “preferred features” are defined as the feature F of the reference card and same feature of the test card at location L. For example, the preferred features for the above neurons with R = color rule, L = 1 and F = blue are the blue feature of the reference card and the test card at L = 1. b The joint distribution of the selectivity for rule (R), response location (L) and shared feature (F) across all neurons in the sensorimotor module. Result is aggregated across all trained networks. c Excitatory neurons in the sensorimotor module receive stronger connections from the input neurons that encode their preferred features (as defined in a). Each line represents one excitatory neuron in the sensorimotor module. One-sided Student’s t-test, p = 2.4 × 10⁻¹⁵, n = 47 neurons. d Excitatory neurons in the sensorimotor module send stronger connections to the output neuron that represents their preferred response location. Each line represents one excitatory neuron in the sensorimotor module. One-sided Student’s t-test, p = 2.3 × 10⁻¹⁷, n = 45 neurons. Panel a shows an example trial that illustrates how the sensorimotor module can generate the correct response. See text for the detailed mechanism.