Task state representations in vmPFC mediate relevant and irrelevant value signals and their behavioral influence

Journal article

How valuable a choice option is often changes over time, making the prediction of value changes an important challenge for decision making. Prior studies identified a cognitive map in the hippocampal-entorhinal system that encodes relationships between states and enables prediction of future states, but does not inherently convey value during prospective decision making. In this fMRI study, participants predicted changing values of choice options in a sequence, forming a trajectory through an abstract two-dimensional value space. During this task, the entorhinal cortex exhibited a grid-like representation with an orientation aligned to the axis through the value space most informative for choices. A network of brain regions, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex, tracked the prospective value difference between options. These findings suggest that the entorhinal grid system supports the prediction of future values by representing a cognitive map, which might be used to generate lower-dimensional value signals to guide prospective decision making

Authors: Moneta, N; Garvert, MM; Heekeren, HR; Schuck, NW

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 3156-3156
• Publication date: 2023-05-31
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38709-w
• EISSN: 2041-1723
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• Language: English
• Keywords: Ventromedial prefrontal cortex; Cognitive psychology; Context (archaeology); Cognition; Prefrontal cortex; Stimulus (psychology); Neuroscience; Psychology; Task (project management)