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Lloyd A, Roiser JP, Skeen S, Freeman Z, Badalova A, Agunbiade A, Busakhwe C, DeFlorio C, Marcu A, Pirie H, Saleh R, Snyder T, Fearon P, Viding E. Reviewing explore/exploit decision-making as a transdiagnostic target for psychosis, depression, and anxiety. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2024:10.3758/s13415-024-01186-9. [PMID: 38653937 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-024-01186-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/25/2024]
Abstract
In many everyday decisions, individuals choose between trialling something novel or something they know well. Deciding when to try a new option or stick with an option that is already known to you, known as the "explore/exploit" dilemma, is an important feature of cognition that characterises a range of decision-making contexts encountered by humans. Recent evidence has suggested preferences in explore/exploit biases are associated with psychopathology, although this has typically been examined within individual disorders. The current review examined whether explore/exploit decision-making represents a promising transdiagnostic target for psychosis, depression, and anxiety. A systematic search of academic databases was conducted, yielding a total of 29 studies. Studies examining psychosis were mostly consistent in showing that individuals with psychosis explored more compared with individuals without psychosis. The literature on anxiety and depression was more heterogenous; some studies found that anxiety and depression were associated with more exploration, whereas other studies demonstrated reduced exploration in anxiety and depression. However, examining a subset of studies that employed case-control methods, there was some evidence that both anxiety and depression also were associated with increased exploration. Due to the heterogeneity across the literature, we suggest that there is insufficient evidence to conclude whether explore/exploit decision-making is a transdiagnostic target for psychosis, depression, and anxiety. However, alongside our advisory groups of lived experience advisors, we suggest that this context of decision-making is a promising candidate that merits further investigation using well-powered, longitudinal designs. Such work also should examine whether biases in explore/exploit choices are amenable to intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex Lloyd
- Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK.
| | - Jonathan P Roiser
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
| | - Sarah Skeen
- Institute for Life Course Health Research, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
| | - Ze Freeman
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Aygun Badalova
- Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | | | | | | | - Anna Marcu
- Young People's Advisor Group, London, UK
| | | | | | | | - Pasco Fearon
- Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK
- Centre for Family Research, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Essi Viding
- Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AP, UK
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Shen X, Helion C, Smith DV, Murty VP. Motivation as a Lens for Understanding Information-seeking Behaviors. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:362-376. [PMID: 37944120 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2023]
Abstract
Most prior research characterizes information-seeking behaviors as serving utilitarian purposes, such as whether the obtained information can help solve practical problems. However, information-seeking behaviors are sensitive to different contexts (i.e., threat vs. curiosity), despite having equivalent utility. Furthermore, these search behaviors can be modulated by individuals' life history and personality traits. Yet the emphasis on utilitarian utility has precluded the development of a unified model, which explains when and how individuals actively seek information. To account for this variability and flexibility, we propose a unified information-seeking framework that examines information-seeking through the lens of motivation. This unified model accounts for integration across individuals' internal goal states and the salient features of the environment to influence information-seeking behavior. We propose that information-seeking is determined by motivation for information, invigorated either by instrumental utility or hedonic utility, wherein one's personal or environmental context moderates this relationship. Furthermore, we speculate that the final common denominator in guiding information-seeking is the engagement of different neuromodulatory circuits centered on dopaminergic and noradrenergic tone. Our framework provides a unified framework for information-seeking behaviors and generates several testable predictions for future studies.
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Shourkeshti A, Marrocco G, Jurewicz K, Moore T, Ebitz RB. Pupil size predicts the onset of exploration in brain and behavior. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.24.541981. [PMID: 37292773 PMCID: PMC10245915 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.24.541981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
In uncertain environments, intelligent decision-makers exploit actions that have been rewarding in the past, but also explore actions that could be even better. Several neuromodulatory systems are implicated in exploration, based, in part, on work linking exploration to pupil size-a peripheral correlate of neuromodulatory tone and index of arousal. However, pupil size could instead track variables that make exploration more likely, like volatility or reward, without directly predicting either exploration or its neural bases. Here, we simultaneously measured pupil size, exploration, and neural population activity in the prefrontal cortex while two rhesus macaques explored and exploited in a dynamic environment. We found that pupil size under constant luminance specifically predicted the onset of exploration, beyond what could be explained by reward history. Pupil size also predicted disorganized patterns of prefrontal neural activity at both the single neuron and population levels, even within periods of exploitation. Ultimately, our results support a model in which pupil-linked mechanisms promote the onset of exploration via driving the prefrontal cortex through a critical tipping point where prefrontal control dynamics become disorganized and exploratory decisions are possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akram Shourkeshti
- Department of Neurosciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Gabriel Marrocco
- Department of Neurosciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Katarzyna Jurewicz
- Department of Neurosciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
- Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
| | - Tirin Moore
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA
| | - R. Becket Ebitz
- Department of Neurosciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
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