Orbitofrontal cortical activity during repeated free choice

Neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) have been shown to encode subjective values, suggesting a role in preference-based decision-making, although the precise relation to choice behavior is unclear. In a repeated two-choice task, subjective values of each choice can account for aggregate choice behavior, which is the overall likelihood of choosing one option over the other. Individual choices, however, are impossible to predict with knowledge of relative subjective values alone. In this study we investigated the role of internal factors in choice behavior with a simple but novel free-choice task and simultaneous recording from individual neurons in nonhuman primate OFC. We found that, first, the observed sequences of choice behavior included periods of exceptionally long runs of each of two available options and periods of frequent switching. Neither a satiety-based mechanism nor a random selection process could explain the observed choice behavior. Second, OFC neurons encode important features of the choice behavior. These features include activity selective for exceptionally long runs of a given choice (stay selectivity) as well as activity selective for switches between choices (switch selectivity). These results suggest that OFC neural activity, in addition to encoding subjective values on a long timescale that is sensitive to satiety, also encodes a signal that fluctuates on a shorter timescale and thereby reflects some of the statistically improbable aspects of free-choice behavior.