Is the core function of orbitofrontal cortex to signal values or make predictions?
Jingfeng Zhou1, Matthew P H Gardner1, Geoffrey Schoenbaum1
1Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore MD, USA.
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
|April 19, 2021
Summary
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) may not just signal subjective values but also represent broader environmental structures for predicting outcomes. Emerging evidence supports this broader role in decision-making and learning.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is traditionally thought to signal subjective outcome values for decision-making.
- This view overlooks the OFC's non-essential role in simple, directly experienced value-based behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review emerging data on orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) function.
- To discuss the relative merits of two competing hypotheses regarding OFC's role in representing value versus structural information.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of recent neuroscientific studies.
- Comparative analysis of evidence supporting different OFC functional models.
Main Results:
- Accumulating data supports both the value-signaling and structural representation hypotheses for OFC function.
- Evidence suggests OFC's role might be broader than just value signaling, potentially encompassing environmental structure representation.
Conclusions:
- The traditional value-signaling hypothesis for OFC function may be incomplete.
- An emerging view posits OFC represents structural information, with value signaling being a derivative function, supported by new evidence.
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