Neuron
Volume 99, Issue 3, 8 August 2018, Pages 598-608.e4
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Article
Volatility Facilitates Value Updating in the Prefrontal Cortex

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Highlights

  • Animals repeat rewarded actions more often when reward probabilities vary

  • Outcome signals are stronger in the OFC when reward probabilities vary

  • Rewards enhance task-relevant signals in the DLPFC when reward probabilities vary

  • Task-irrelevant signals are unaffected by the outcome of the previous trial

Summary

Adaptation of learning and decision-making might depend on the regulation of activity in the prefrontal cortex. Here we examined how volatility of reward probabilities influences learning and neural activity in the primate prefrontal cortex. We found that animals selected recently rewarded targets more often when reward probabilities of different options fluctuated across trials than when they were fixed. Additionally, neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex displayed more sustained activity related to the outcomes of their previous choices when reward probabilities changed over time. Such volatility also enhanced signals in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex related to the current but not the previous location of the previously rewarded target. These results suggest that prefrontal activity related to choice and reward is dynamically regulated by the volatility of the environment and underscore the role of the prefrontal cortex in identifying aspects of the environment that are responsible for previous outcomes and should be learned.

Keywords

reward
decision-making
prefrontal cortex
reinforcement learning
orbitofrontal cortex
anterior cingulate cortex
uncertainty

Cited by (0)

6

These authors contributed equally

7

Present address: Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA

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