Monkeys that ‘draw’ reveal a neuronal population that encodes combinable actions

Nature, Published online: 20 May 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00928-8

When faced with unfamiliar problems, humans and other animals must plan and execute action sequences that they might not have used before. In macaque monkeys, this ability is supported by a population of neurons in the brain’s frontal cortex that encode recombinable action units or ‘action symbols’.