Mice learn to avoid regret.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Animal Behavior
• Decision Science

Background:

• Regret, a negative emotional experience from suboptimal choices, influences immediate valuations and long-term decision strategies.
• While short-term regret effects are studied, long-term regret avoidance in nonhuman decision-making remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate long-term regret avoidance strategies in mice using a novel economic decision-making task.
• To determine if mice can learn to prevent future regret-inducing decisions independent of reinforcement rate.

Main Methods:

• 31 mice were trained on a modified Restaurant Row task for 70 days, with food rewards varying in delay costs.
• Longitudinal testing allowed observation of interdependent decision strategies across trials and days.
• Decisions were analyzed for regret-like behaviors and strategic shifts over time.

Main Results:

• Mice displayed regret-like behaviors, adjusting waiting times and consumption speed after correcting disadvantageous choices.
• Over weeks, mice adapted strategies to maximize reinforcement rate in a changing environment.
• A distinct shift from foraging to deliberation/planning strategies was observed, reducing regretful change-of-mind decisions.

Conclusions:

• Mice demonstrate sophisticated regret-like behaviors and learn to avoid future regret through strategic planning.
• This learning occurs independently of simply maximizing reinforcement rates, suggesting a separate mechanism for regret avoidance.