Dynamic prefrontal coupling coordinates adaptive decision-making

Adaptive decision-making requires flexibly maintaining or changing behavior in response to uncertainty. While the dorsomedial (dmPFC) and dorsolateral (dlPFC) prefrontal cortex are each essential for this ability, how they coordinate to drive adaptation remains unknown. Using intracranial EEG recordings from human participants performing a dynamic reward task, we identified distinct, frequency-specific computations: dmPFC high-gamma activity encoded uncertainty before stay decisions but transitioned to prediction error before switches, while theta activity shifted from uncertainty to value representation. In contrast, dlPFC theta activity signaled both value and uncertainty before stays, but predominantly value before switches. Crucially, these regions coordinated through two temporally specific coupling mechanisms that predicted behavioral changes: theta-theta amplitude coupling during feedback processing and theta-gamma phase coupling before decisions. Both coupling mechanisms strengthened before switches, suggesting that changing behavior requires greater dmPFC-dlPFC integration than maintaining. These findings reveal how the dorsal prefrontal cortex employs frequency-specific computations and precise temporal coordination to guide adaptive behavior.