Title: Temporal-frontal interactions in memory-guided decision making

Speaker: Prof. Matthew Rushworth, Oxford University

Time：13:00, September 25, 2018

Location: Room 1113, Wang Kezhen Building

Abstract:

Decision making is not just guided by immediately available sensory evidence but by information held in memory.  In recent experiments with macaques and humans we have found that decision making depends on interactions between temporal and frontal cortical regions.  In one recent experiment macaques chose between two options while retaining information about a third option that could become available to choose on a future trial.  Activity in the medial temporal lobe, in the hippocampus, tracked the value of currently unavailable options – counterfactual choices – and was predictive of accuracy in future decisions concerning that option.  Anterior cingulate cortex activity also tracked counterfactual choice value but in a distinct framework linked to the best alternative.  Temporary disruption of anterior cingulate cortex compromised translation of counterfactual values into actual choices.  In a second experiment monkeys learned that attributes of visual stimuli predicted either reward magnitude or probability. After extensive training, activity in anterior temporal, perirhinal, and orbitofrontal cortex tracked the value of the stimuli.  Animals were, however, also able to combine information about both attributes when they encountered novel stimuli comprising features of both original stimulus sets.   The ability to make such novel decisions was related to activity in an anterior medial frontal cortical region that is homologous to one identified in many human neuroimaging experiments. Some features of the activity suggested a grid-like encoding of an abstract value space occurred in these regions.  Temporary disruption of this area compromised monkeys’ ability to make novel decisions.

Host PI: Prof. Xiaolin Zhou