Temporal-orbitofrontal pathway regulates choices across physical reward and visual novelty

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Decision Science
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Expectation of perceptual novelty influences daily decisions and reward evaluation.
• Understanding the neural basis of novelty-reward interactions is crucial for explaining valuation processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the neural circuitry underlying the interaction between expected novelty and reward valuation.
• To investigate how the brain integrates information about potential rewards and novel experiences.

Main Methods:

• Subjects chose between offers with varying probabilities of juice rewards and novel objects.
• Neural activity was recorded in anterior ventral medial temporal cortex (AVMTC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).
• Chemogenetic disruption of AVMTC projections to OFC was employed to assess causal roles.

Main Results:

• Anticipated novelty increased choice preference and motivational value for large rewards.
• Novelty and reward signals were detected in AVMTC, with OFC activity reflecting subjective preference.
• Disrupting AVMTC→OFC pathways altered the influence of novelty on reward valuation.

Conclusions:

• The anterior ventral medial temporal cortex (AVMTC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) form a circuit critical for novelty-reward interactions.
• The ventral visual system, via projections to prefrontal cortex, plays a role in integrating novelty and reward during valuation.