Silencing the Brain’s Executive Center Accelerates Creative Strategy Shifts in Mice

In mice, the medial prefrontal cortex—traditionally linked to flexible thinking—can impede problem-solving by enforcing a memory-based win-stay habit. Chemogenetic silencing of the mPFC speeds the shift to a superior sound-guided strategy from 4–8 days in controls to 2–3 days, with the auditory cortex also crucial for cue learning. These findings suggest suppressing executive control can help acquire new, sensory-driven habits and may guide human therapies (e.g., TMS) to modulate prefrontal activity in cognitive disorders.