Surprise, value and control in anterior cingulate cortex during speeded decision-making.
Eliana Vassena1,2, James Deraeve2, William H Alexander3,4
1Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Nature Human Behaviour
|January 15, 2020
Summary
The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) may use surprise signaling for both stopping actions and motivating behavior. This finding suggests surprise is a core computation underlying diverse dACC functions in cognitive neuroscience.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
- Decision Science
Background:
- Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activity is implicated in various cognitive tasks, but its precise function is debated.
- Traditional views link dACC to inhibitory control, while recent theories propose roles in motivated control for reward acquisition.
- Existing computational models of dACC primarily address inhibitory control, lacking integration with motivated control mechanisms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the computational mechanisms underlying dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) function.
- To test whether models of dACC function in inhibitory control generalize to motivated control.
- To identify shared neural computations driving both inhibitory and motivated control processes.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to measure brain activity.
- Participants engaged in value-based decision-making tasks under time pressure.
- Predictions from three prominent computational accounts of dACC function were derived and tested.
Main Results:
- Activity in the dACC during a response-invigoration task was best explained by the computational mechanism of surprise.
- This finding suggests that surprise signaling is a key factor in dACC function during motivated control.
- The results indicate that surprise may be a unifying computation across different dACC-related functions.
Conclusions:
- Surprise signaling appears to be a fundamental computation within the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC).
- This mechanism may serve as a shared driver for both inhibitory control and motivated control.
- The findings offer a unified account of dACC function in cognitive neuroscience.
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