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

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Adaptive reward representations integrate expected uncertainty signals in orbitofrontal cortex.

Qianru Zhang¹, Jingfeng Zhou²

¹School of Basic Medical Sciences, Capital Medical University & Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing 100069, China.

Science Advances

|July 16, 2025

Summary

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) integrates reward uncertainty into value calculations. OFC neurons encode reward attributes and their uncertainties, crucial for adaptive learning and risk management.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Behavioral Science
Computational Neuroscience

Background:

Adaptive learning and behavior depend on evaluating rewards and their uncertainties.
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is implicated in processing reward attributes (delay, magnitude) and associated risks.
The cellular mechanisms underlying the integration of reward value and uncertainty in the OFC are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the cellular basis of how reward attributes and their uncertainties are represented in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).
To determine if OFC neurons encode expected uncertainties related to reward delay and magnitude.
To elucidate how uncertainty signals interact with reward attribute representations within OFC neurons.

Main Methods:

Rats were trained on a task involving odor cues predicting sucrose rewards with variable delay or magnitude uncertainty.
Single-unit recordings were performed in the OFC during task performance.
Population-level analyses were used to decode neural representations of reward attributes and uncertainties.

Main Results:

A significant proportion of OFC neurons encoded expected uncertainties concerning reward delay or magnitude.
Distinct neural codes were identified for delay and magnitude uncertainties, separate from the codes for delay and magnitude themselves.
Signals for reward attributes and their uncertainties converged onto the same OFC neurons.
Increased uncertainty reduced the sensitivity of OFC neurons encoding reward delay and magnitude.

Conclusions:

OFC neurons perform computations that integrate uncertainty signals into attribute-specific reward representations.
This integration mechanism in the OFC may support flexible learning and effective risk control.
The findings provide insight into the cellular-level computations underlying value-based decision-making under uncertainty.