The Effect of Counterfactual Information on Outcome Value Coding in Medial Prefrontal and Cingulate Cortex: From an...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Decision Science

Background:

• Adaptive coding optimizes neural responses across varying stimuli, observed in perception and recently in value-based decision-making.
• Value-based decisions in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) utilize relative coding, where neuronal responses depend on choice context, unlike absolute coding.
• Learning from feedback is influenced by its completeness; complete feedback (obtained and forgone outcomes) enhances learning more than partial feedback (obtained outcome only).

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically investigate univariate and multivariate outcome value encoding in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) regions.
• To determine how different amounts of feedback information (partial vs. complete) affect neural coding modes (absolute, partially-adaptive, fully-adaptive).
• To compare three models of neural coding for value signals in mPFC and cingulate cortex.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used on 28 human participants performing a learning task.
• Participants received either partial or complete feedback on their choices in a controlled experimental design.
• Univariate and multivariate analyses were employed to analyze value encoding under different feedback conditions.

Main Results:

• Both obtained and forgone outcomes were encoded in the mPFC, with opposing signs in ventral and dorsal subdivisions.
• Increased feedback information (complete feedback) induced a shift from absolute to relative neural coding of value.
• The findings indicate that complete feedback information promotes context-dependent encoding of outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Complete feedback information enhances context-dependent outcome encoding in the mPFC.
• The study provides evidence for relative value representation, particularly when both obtained and forgone outcomes are presented.
• Results contribute to a deeper understanding of how the human brain encodes and processes outcome value for decision-making and adaptation.