Interindividual Brain and Behavior Differences in Adaptation to Unexpected Uncertainty

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Decision Making

Background:

• Adapting to new environments requires balancing exploitation of known strategies with exploration of novel actions.
• The neural underpinnings and individual variability of this exploration/exploitation trade-off, especially concerning neural connectivity, are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural mechanisms, specifically intrinsic connectivity patterns, underlying the exploration/exploitation trade-off.
• To examine how environmental uncertainty, induced by false feedback, affects brain connectivity and behavior.
• To explore correlations between neural connectivity changes, behavioral measures, and psychological factors like anxiety.

Main Methods:

• An associative learning task was employed with a phase introducing false feedback to create environmental uncertainty.
• Resting-state functional connectivity (rFC) was analyzed before and after the task to assess changes in intrinsic brain connectivity.
• Participants were categorized into groups based on their cost of uncertainty to compare patterns of rFC changes.

Main Results:

• Distinct patterns of resting-state functional connectivity (rFC) changes were observed between groups with differing costs of uncertainty.
• Exploitation was significantly correlated with rFC changes between the anterior cingulate cortex and cerebellum region 3, and between specific parts of the left and right frontal inferior gyrus.
• Anxiety and doubt showed weak correlations with some observed rFC changes.

Conclusions:

• The exploration/exploitation trade-off is associated with dynamic modulation of intrinsic cortico-cerebellar connectivity.
• Individual differences in the response to uncertainty are reflected in distinct patterns of brain connectivity changes.
• Neural connectivity, particularly within cortico-cerebellar circuits, plays a crucial role in balancing exploration and exploitation during adaptation.