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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 24, 2026

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

A Gaze-Contingent Display Framework for Perceptual Learning Research with Simulated Central Vision Loss

Published on: April 11, 2025

Supplementary eye field encodes reward prediction error.

Nayoung So¹, Veit Stuphorn

¹Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|March 2, 2012

Summary

The supplementary eye field (SEF) evaluates uncertain decisions by representing expected value and uncertainty. It also encodes reward prediction error, suggesting a key role in value-based decision-making.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Decision Science
Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

Decision-making often involves uncertain outcomes requiring evaluation.
The supplementary eye field (SEF) plays a role in motor control and decision processes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how the supplementary eye field (SEF) evaluates uncertain outcomes during decision-making.
To record neuronal activity in the SEF during a task involving reward uncertainty.

Main Methods:

Neuronal activity was recorded in the SEF of monkeys performing an oculomotor gambling task.
The task involved presenting choices with uncertain outcomes.

Main Results:

SEF neurons represented expected value and uncertainty during the delay before outcome reveal.
Post-outcome, some SEF neurons encoded the actual reward, while others signaled reward prediction error.
Reward prediction error was encoded as the difference between expected and actual reward.

Conclusions:

The SEF encodes reward prediction error and its constituent components: expected value, uncertainty, and actual outcome.
This suggests the SEF actively evaluates value-based decisions in the oculomotor domain, potentially independent of other brain regions.