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Evidence accumulation for value computation in the prefrontal cortex during decision making.

ABSTRACT: A key step of decision making is to determine the value associated with each option. The evaluation process often depends on the accumulation of evidence from multiple sources, which may arrive at different times. How evidence is accumulated for value computation in the brain during decision making has not been well studied. To address this problem, we trained rhesus monkeys to perform a decision-making task in which they had to make eye movement choices between two targets, whose reward probabilities had to be determined with the combined evidence from four sequentially presented visual stimuli. We studied the encoding of the reward probabilities associated with the stimuli and the eye movements in the orbitofrontal (OFC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC) cortices during the decision process. We found that the OFC neurons encoded the reward probability associated with individual pieces of evidence in the stimulus domain. Importantly, the representation of the reward probability in the OFC was transient, and the OFC did not encode the reward probability associated with the combined evidence from multiple stimuli. The computation of the combined reward probabilities was observed only in the DLPFC and only in the action domain. Furthermore, the reward probability encoding in the DLPFC exhibited an asymmetric pattern of mixed selectivity that supported the computation of the stimulus-to-action transition of reward information. Our results reveal that the OFC and the DLPFC play distinct roles in the value computation during evidence accumulation.

SUBMITTER: Lin Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7720192 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:RATIONALE:During value-based decision-making, organisms make choices on the basis of reward expectations, which have been formed during prior action-outcome learning. Although it is known that neuronal manipulations of different subregions of the rat prefrontal cortex (PFC) have qualitatively different effects on behavioral tasks involving value-based decision-making, it is unclear how these regions contribute to the underlying component processes. OBJECTIVES:Assessing how different regions of the rodent PFC contribute to component processes of value-based decision-making behavior, including reward (or positive feedback) learning, punishment (or negative feedback) learning, response persistence, and exploration versus exploitation. METHODS:We performed behavioral modeling of data of rats in a probabilistic reversal learning task after pharmacological inactivation of five PFC subregions, to assess how inactivation of these different regions affected the structure of responding of animals in the task. RESULTS:Our results show reductions in reward and punishment learning after PFC subregion inactivation. The prelimbic, infralimbic, lateral orbital, and medial orbital PFC particularly contributed to punishment learning, and the prelimbic and lateral orbital PFC to reward learning. In addition, response persistence depended on the infralimbic and medial orbital PFC. As a result, pharmacological inactivation of the infralimbic and lateral orbitofrontal cortex reduced the number of reversals achieved, whereas inactivation of the prelimbic and medial orbitofrontal cortex decreased the number of rewards obtained. Finally, using simulated data, we explain discrepancies with a previous study and demonstrate complex, interacting relationships between conventional measures of probabilistic reversal learning performance, such as win-stay/lose-switch behavior, and component processes of value-based decision-making. CONCLUSIONS:Together, our data suggest that distinct components of value-based learning and decision-making are generated in medial and orbital PFC regions, displaying functional specialization and overlap, with a prominent role of large parts of the PFC in negative feedback processing.

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Evidence accumulation for value computation in the prefrontal cortex during decision making.

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