Learning of distant state predictions by the orbitofrontal cortex in humans

TY - JOUR

T1 - Learning of distant state predictions by the orbitofrontal cortex in humans

AU - Elliott Wimmer, G

AU - Büchel, Christian

N1 - Diese Studie wurde komplett im IsN des UKE durchgeführt. Der Erstautor GE Wimmer war zum Zeitpunkt der Datenerhebung und Verfassen des Papers im IsN des UKE.

PY - 2019/6/11

Y1 - 2019/6/11

N2 - Representations of our future environment are essential for planning and decision making. Previous research in humans has demonstrated that the hippocampus is a critical region for forming and retrieving associations, while the medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is an important region for representing information about recent states. However, it is not clear how the brain acquires predictive representations during goal-directed learning. Here, we show using fMRI that while participants learned to find rewards in multiple different Y-maze environments, hippocampal activity was highest during initial exposure and then decayed across the remaining repetitions of each maze, consistent with a role in rapid encoding. Importantly, multivariate patterns in the OFC-VPFC came to represent predictive information about upcoming states approximately 30 s in the future. Our findings provide a mechanism by which the brain can build models of the world that span long-timescales to make predictions.

AB - Representations of our future environment are essential for planning and decision making. Previous research in humans has demonstrated that the hippocampus is a critical region for forming and retrieving associations, while the medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is an important region for representing information about recent states. However, it is not clear how the brain acquires predictive representations during goal-directed learning. Here, we show using fMRI that while participants learned to find rewards in multiple different Y-maze environments, hippocampal activity was highest during initial exposure and then decayed across the remaining repetitions of each maze, consistent with a role in rapid encoding. Importantly, multivariate patterns in the OFC-VPFC came to represent predictive information about upcoming states approximately 30 s in the future. Our findings provide a mechanism by which the brain can build models of the world that span long-timescales to make predictions.

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-019-10597-z

DO - 10.1038/s41467-019-10597-z

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 31186425

VL - 10

SP - 2554

JO - NAT COMMUN

JF - NAT COMMUN

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

ER -