A prefrontal motor circuit initiates persistent movement

Persistence reinforces continuous action, which benefits animals in many aspects. Diverse information may trigger animals to start a persistent movement. However, it is unclear how the brain decides to persist with current actions by selecting specific information. Using single-unit extracellular recordings and opto-tagging in awake mice, we demonstrated that a group of dorsal mPFC (dmPFC) motor cortex projecting (MP) neurons initiate a persistent movement selectively encoding contextual information rather than natural valence. Inactivation of dmPFC MP neurons impairs the initiation and reduces neuronal activity in the insular and motor cortex. Finally, a computational model suggests that a successive sensory stimulus acts as an input signal for the dmPFC MP neurons to initiate a persistent movement. These results reveal a neural initiation mechanism on the persistent movement.