Dataset Information

Visual fixation patterns during economic choice reflect covert valuation processes that emerge with learning.

ABSTRACT: Visual fixations play a vital role in decision making. Recent studies have demonstrated that the longer subjects fixate an option, the more likely they are to choose it. However, the role of evaluating stimuli covertly (i.e., without fixating them), and how covert evaluations determine where to subsequently fixate, remains relatively unexplored. Here, we trained monkeys to perform a decision-making task where they made binary choices between reward-predictive stimuli which were well-learned ("overtrained"), recently learned ("novel"), or a combination of both ("mixed"). Subjects were free to saccade around the screen and make a choice (via joystick response) at any time. Subjects rarely fixated both options, yet choice behavior was better explained by assuming the values of both stimuli governed choices. The first fixation latency was fast (?150 ms) but, surprisingly, its direction was value-driven. This suggests covert evaluation of stimulus values prior to first saccade. This was particularly evident for overtrained stimuli. For novel stimuli, first fixations became increasingly value-driven throughout a behavioral session. However, this improvement lagged behind learning of accurate economic choices, suggesting separate processes governed their learning. Finally, mixed trials revealed a strong bias toward fixating the novel stimulus first but no bias toward choosing it. Our results suggest that the primate brain contains fast covert evaluation mechanisms for guiding fixations toward highly valuable and novel information. By employing such covert mechanisms, fixation behavior becomes dissociable from the value comparison processes that drive final choice. This implies that primates use separable decision systems for value-guided fixations and value-guided choice.

SUBMITTER: Cavanagh SE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6842638 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Visual fixation patterns during economic choice reflect covert valuation processes that emerge with learning.

Cavanagh Sean E SE Malalasekera W M Nishantha WMN Miranda Bruno B Hunt Laurence T LT Kennerley Steven W SW

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20191021 45

Visual fixations play a vital role in decision making. Recent studies have demonstrated that the longer subjects fixate an option, the more likely they are to choose it. However, the role of evaluating stimuli covertly (i.e., without fixating them), and how covert evaluations determine where to subsequently fixate, remains relatively unexplored. Here, we trained monkeys to perform a decision-making task where they made binary choices between reward-predictive stimuli which were well-learned ("ov ...[more]

PMID: 31636178

Similar Datasets

Project description:Value-based decision-making is of central interest in cognitive neuroscience and psychology, as well as in the context of neuropsychiatric disorders characterised by decision-making impairments. Studies examining (neuro-)computational mechanisms underlying choice behaviour typically focus on participants' decisions. However, there is increasing evidence that option valuation might also be reflected in motor response vigour and eye movements, implicit measures of subjective utility. To examine motor response vigour and visual fixation correlates of option valuation in intertemporal choice, we set up a task where the participants selected an option by pressing a grip force transducer, simultaneously tracking fixation shifts between options. As outlined in our preregistration (https://osf.io/k6jct), we used hierarchical Bayesian parameter estimation to model the choices assuming hyperbolic discounting, compared variants of the softmax and drift diffusion model, and assessed the relationship between response vigour and the estimated model parameters. The behavioural data were best explained by a drift diffusion model specifying a non-linear scaling of the drift rate by the subjective value differences. Replicating previous findings, we found a magnitude effect for temporal discounting, such that higher rewards were discounted less. This magnitude effect was further reflected in motor response vigour, such that stronger forces were exerted in the high vs. the low magnitude condition. Bayesian hierarchical linear regression further revealed higher grip forces, faster response times and a lower number of fixation shifts for trials with higher subjective value differences. An exploratory analysis revealed that subjective value sums across options showed an even more pronounced association with trial-wise grip force amplitudes. Our data suggest that subjective utility or implicit valuation is reflected in motor response vigour and visual fixation patterns during intertemporal choice. Taking into account response vigour might thus provide deeper insight into decision-making, reward valuation and maladaptive changes in these processes, e.g. in the context of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dataset Information

Visual fixation patterns during economic choice reflect covert valuation processes that emerge with learning.

Publications

Visual fixation patterns during economic choice reflect covert valuation processes that emerge with learning.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets