Learning-induced plasticity in medial prefrontal cortex predicts preference malleability.

ABSTRACT: Learning induces plasticity in neuronal networks. As neuronal populations contribute to multiple representations, we reasoned plasticity in one representation might influence others. We used human fMRI repetition suppression to show that plasticity induced by learning another individual's values impacts upon a value representation for oneself in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a plasticity also evident behaviorally in a preference shift. We show this plasticity is driven by a striatal "prediction error," signaling the discrepancy between the other's choice and a subject's own preferences. Thus, our data highlight that mPFC encodes agent-independent representations of subjective value, such that prediction errors simultaneously update multiple agents' value representations. As the resultin

SUBMITTER: Garvert MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4306543 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature