Neural representation of behavioral outcomes in the orbitofrontal cortex

Mainen, Z. F., Kepecs, A. (February 2009) Neural representation of behavioral outcomes in the orbitofrontal cortex. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 19 (1). pp. 84-91.

Abstract

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is important in processing rewards and other behavioral outcomes. Here, we review from a computational perspective recent progress in understanding this complex function. OFC neurons appear to represent abstract outcome values, which may facilitate the comparison of options, as well as concrete outcome attributes, such as flavor or location, which may enable predictive cues to access current outcome values in the face of dynamic modulation by internal state, context and learning. OFC can use reinforcement learning to generate outcome predictions; it can also generate outcome predictions using other mechanisms, including the evaluation of decision confidence or uncertainty. OFC neurons encode not only the mean expected outcome but also the variance, consistent with the idea that OFC uses a probabilistic population code to represent outcomes. We suggest that further attention to the nature of its representations and algorithms will be critical to further elucidating OFC function.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: organism description > animal behavior
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > orbitofrontal cortex
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Kepecs lab
CSHL labs > Mainen lab
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: February 2009
Date Deposited: 20 Feb 2013 19:11
Last Modified: 03 Dec 2014 18:05
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/27423

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