Polarity of uncertainty representation during exploration and exploitation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Archive ouverte

Trudel, Nadescha | Scholl, Jacqueline | Klein-Flügge, Miriam, C | Fouragnan, Elsa | Tankelevitch, Lev | Wittmann, Marco, K | Rushworth, Matthew, F S

Edité par CCSD ; Nature Research [2017-....] -

International audience. Environments furnish multiple information sources for making predictions about future events. Here we use behavioural modelling and functional magnetic resonance imaging to describe how humans select predictors that might be most relevant. First, during early encounters with potential predictors, participants’ selections were explorative and directed towards subjectively uncertain predictors (positive uncertainty effect). This was particularly the case when many future opportunities remained to exploit knowledge gained. Then, preferences for accurate predictors increased over time, while uncertain predictors were avoided (negative uncertainty effect). The behavioural transition from positive to negative uncertainty-driven selections was accompanied by changes in the representations of belief uncertainty in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The polarity of uncertainty representations (positive or negative encoding of uncertainty) changed between exploration and exploitation periods. Moreover, the two periods were separated by a third transitional period in which beliefs about predictors’ accuracy predominated. The vmPFC signals a multiplicity of decision variables, the strength and polarity of which vary with behavioural context.

Suggestions

Du même auteur

Global reward state affects learning and activity in raphe nucleus and anterior insula in monkeys

Archive ouverte | Wittmann, Marco, K | CCSD

International audience. People and other animals learn the values of choices by observing the contingencies between them and their outcomes. However, decisions are not guided by choice-linked reward associations alo...

Differential relationship between meditation methods and psychotic-like and mystical experiences

Archive ouverte | Palmer, Timothy | CCSD

International audience. Much work has investigated beneficial effects of mindfulness-based meditation methods, but less work has investigated potential risks and differences across meditation methods. We addressed t...

The effect of apathy and compulsivity on planning and stopping in sequential decision-making

Archive ouverte | Scholl, Jacqueline | CCSD

International audience. Real-life decision-making often comprises sequences of successive decisions about whether to take opportunities as they are encountered or keep searching for better ones instead. We investiga...

Chargement des enrichissements...