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Rats adopt the optimal timescale for evidence integration in a dynamic environment
Alex T Piet1, Ahmed El Hady2,3, Carlos D Brody4,5,6
1Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, USA.
Nature Communications
|October 17, 2018
Summary
Rats can optimally discount old evidence in changing environments by adjusting their evidence accumulation timescale. This finding suggests sophisticated decision-making mechanisms in rodents, offering new research avenues.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Animal Behavior
- Computational Modeling
Background:
- Effective decision-making in dynamic environments necessitates discounting outdated information.
- Human studies show suboptimal evidence discounting in changing environments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if rats can optimally discount evidence in dynamic environments.
- To determine if rats adapt their evidence accumulation timescale for optimal discounting.
Main Methods:
- Utilized discrete evidence pulses to model the optimal inference process.
- Calculated the optimal timescale based on stimulus statistics and sensory noise.
- Manipulated environmental volatility to assess control over accumulation timescales.
Main Results:
- The optimal timescale for evidence discounting is contingent on stimulus statistics and sensory processing noise.
- Rats demonstrated optimal evidence accumulation and discounting when these factors were considered.
- Environmental volatility was experimentally controlled, influencing the rats' accumulation timescale.
Conclusions:
- Rats exhibit optimal evidence discounting in dynamic environments by adaptively adjusting their accumulation timescales.
- This adaptive mechanism is influenced by environmental statistics and internal noise.
- Experimental control over these timescales provides a novel tool for studying evidence integration mechanisms.
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