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Operant Protocols for Assessing the Cost-benefit Analysis During Reinforced Decision Making by Rodents

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Orbitofrontal State Representations Are Related to Choice Adaptations and Reward Predictions.

Thomas A Stalnaker¹, Nishika Raheja², Geoffrey Schoenbaum¹

¹Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, Maryland 21224 thomas.stalnaker@nih.gov geoffrey.schoenbaum@nih.gov.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|January 15, 2021

Summary

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in rats represents distinct environmental states, crucial for decision-making and predicting outcomes. OFC neural activity tracks these states, influencing adaptive behavior and outcome prediction accuracy.

Keywords:

cognitive map odor orbitofrontal rat single unit

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science
Animal Behavior

Background:

Animals navigate environments by recognizing distinct "states" characterized by specific action-outcome rules.
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is hypothesized to maintain these state representations, aiding in decision-making and outcome prediction.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in representing cognitive states in rats.
To determine if OFC neural activity encodes information about distinct action-outcome contingencies and their transitions.

Main Methods:

Neural activity was recorded from the OFC of male rats during an odor-guided choice task.
Rats performed trials with varying action-outcome contingencies across five distinct blocks (states) with unsignaled transitions.
Decoding algorithms were applied to OFC neural ensemble activity to analyze state representations.

Main Results:

The majority of OFC neurons significantly contributed to representing the current environmental state, independent of sensory cues or rewards.
OFC state representations dynamically integrated evidence for new states during transitions, with integration speed correlating with behavioral adaptation.
Accurate OFC state representations were essential for reliable OFC-mediated outcome predictions.

Conclusions:

OFC neural ensembles form robust representations of environmental states, supporting adaptive behavior and accurate outcome predictions.
These findings challenge previous notions of OFC function, emphasizing its role in state-based cognitive mapping.
Understanding OFC state representation may offer new insights into pathologies like addiction linked to OFC dysfunction.