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Ferro D, Cash-Padgett T, Wang MZ, Hayden BY, Moreno-Bote R. Gaze-centered gating, reactivation, and reevaluation of economic value in orbitofrontal cortex. Nat Commun 2024; 15:6163. [PMID: 39039055 PMCID: PMC11263430 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50214-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 07/03/2024] [Indexed: 07/24/2024] Open
Abstract
During economic choice, options are often considered in alternation, until commitment. Nonetheless, neuroeconomics typically ignores the dynamic aspects of deliberation. We trained two male macaques to perform a value-based decision-making task in which two risky offers were presented in sequence at the opposite sides of the visual field, each followed by a delay epoch where offers were invisible. Surprisingly, during the two delays, subjects tend to look at empty locations where the offers had previously appeared, with longer fixations increasing the probability of choosing the associated offer. Spiking activity in orbitofrontal cortex reflects the value of the gazed offer, or of the offer associated with the gazed empty spatial location, even if it is not the most recent. This reactivation reflects a reevaluation process, as fluctuations in neural spiking correlate with upcoming choice. Our results suggest that look-at-nothing gazing triggers the reactivation of a previously seen offer for further evaluation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Demetrio Ferro
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.
- Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08002, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Tyler Cash-Padgett
- Department of Neuroscience, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN55455, USA
| | - Maya Zhe Wang
- Department of Neuroscience, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN55455, USA
| | - Benjamin Y Hayden
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Rubén Moreno-Bote
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08002, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08002, Barcelona, Spain
- Serra Húnter Fellow Programme, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
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2
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Nikolaev AR, Meghanathan RN, van Leeuwen C. Refixation behavior in naturalistic viewing: Methods, mechanisms, and neural correlates. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024:10.3758/s13414-023-02836-9. [PMID: 38169029 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02836-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/17/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
When freely viewing a scene, the eyes often return to previously visited locations. By tracking eye movements and coregistering eye movements and EEG, such refixations are shown to have multiple roles: repairing insufficient encoding from precursor fixations, supporting ongoing viewing by resampling relevant locations prioritized by precursor fixations, and aiding the construction of memory representations. All these functions of refixation behavior are understood to be underpinned by three oculomotor and cognitive systems and their associated brain structures. First, immediate saccade planning prior to refixations involves attentional selection of candidate locations to revisit. This process is likely supported by the dorsal attentional network. Second, visual working memory, involved in maintaining task-related information, is likely supported by the visual cortex. Third, higher-order relevance of scene locations, which depends on general knowledge and understanding of scene meaning, is likely supported by the hippocampal memory system. Working together, these structures bring about viewing behavior that balances exploring previously unvisited areas of a scene with exploiting visited areas through refixations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrey R Nikolaev
- Department of Psychology, Lund University, Box 213, 22100, Lund, Sweden.
- Brain & Cognition Research Unit, KU Leuven-University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
| | | | - Cees van Leeuwen
- Brain & Cognition Research Unit, KU Leuven-University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Center for Cognitive Science, Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau, Kaiserslautern, Germany
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3
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Lupkin SM, McGinty VB. Monkeys exhibit human-like gaze biases in economic decisions. eLife 2023; 12:e78205. [PMID: 37497784 PMCID: PMC10465126 DOI: 10.7554/elife.78205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023] Open
Abstract
In economic decision-making individuals choose between items based on their perceived value. For both humans and nonhuman primates, these decisions are often carried out while shifting gaze between the available options. Recent studies in humans suggest that these shifts in gaze actively influence choice, manifesting as a bias in favor of the items that are viewed first, viewed last, or viewed for the overall longest duration in a given trial. This suggests a mechanism that links gaze behavior to the neural computations underlying value-based choices. In order to identify this mechanism, it is first necessary to develop and validate a suitable animal model of this behavior. To this end, we have created a novel value-based choice task for macaque monkeys that captures the essential features of the human paradigms in which gaze biases have been observed. Using this task, we identified gaze biases in the monkeys that were both qualitatively and quantitatively similar to those in humans. In addition, the monkeys' gaze biases were well-explained using a sequential sampling model framework previously used to describe gaze biases in humans-the first time this framework has been used to assess value-based decision mechanisms in nonhuman primates. Together, these findings suggest a common mechanism that can explain gaze-related choice biases across species, and open the way for mechanistic studies to identify the neural origins of this behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shira M Lupkin
- Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers UniversityNewarkUnited States
- Behavioral and Neural Sciences Graduate Program, Rutgers UniversityNewarkUnited States
| | - Vincent B McGinty
- Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers UniversityNewarkUnited States
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4
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Barack DL, Bakkour A, Shohamy D, Salzman CD. Visuospatial information foraging describes search behavior in learning latent environmental features. Sci Rep 2023; 13:1126. [PMID: 36670132 PMCID: PMC9860038 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-27662-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
In the real world, making sequences of decisions to achieve goals often depends upon the ability to learn aspects of the environment that are not directly perceptible. Learning these so-called latent features requires seeking information about them. Prior efforts to study latent feature learning often used single decisions, used few features, and failed to distinguish between reward-seeking and information-seeking. To overcome this, we designed a task in which humans and monkeys made a series of choices to search for shapes hidden on a grid. On our task, the effects of reward and information outcomes from uncovering parts of shapes could be disentangled. Members of both species adeptly learned the shapes and preferred to select tiles expected to be informative earlier in trials than previously rewarding ones, searching a part of the grid until their outcomes dropped below the average information outcome-a pattern consistent with foraging behavior. In addition, how quickly humans learned the shapes was predicted by how well their choice sequences matched the foraging pattern, revealing an unexpected connection between foraging and learning. This adaptive search for information may underlie the ability in humans and monkeys to learn latent features to support goal-directed behavior in the long run.
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Affiliation(s)
- David L Barack
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA.
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA.
| | - Akram Bakkour
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
| | - Daphna Shohamy
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences, Columbia University, New York, USA
| | - C Daniel Salzman
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, USA
- New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA
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5
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Preferences for seeking effort or reward information bias the willingness to work. Sci Rep 2022; 12:19486. [PMID: 36376340 PMCID: PMC9663561 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-21917-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Research suggests that the temporal order in which people receive information about costs and benefits whilst making decisions can influence their choices. But, do people have a preference for seeking information about costs or benefits when making effort-based decisions, and does this impact motivation? Here, participants made choices about whether to exert different levels of physical effort to obtain different magnitudes of reward, or rest for low reward. Prior to each effort-based choice, they also had to decide which information they wanted to see first: how much physical effort would be required, or how large the reward would be. We found no overall preference for seeking reward or effort information first, but motivation did change when people saw reward or effort information first. Seeking effort information first, both someone's average tendency to do so and their choice to see effort first on a given trial, was associated with reductions in the willingness to exert higher effort. Moreover, the tendency to prefer effort information first was associated with reduced vigorous exercise and higher levels of fatigue in everyday life. These findings highlight that preferences for seeking effort information may be a bias that reduces people's willingness to exert effort in the lab and in everyday life.
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MouseView.js: Reliable and valid attention tracking in web-based experiments using a cursor-directed aperture. Behav Res Methods 2021; 54:1663-1687. [PMID: 34590288 PMCID: PMC8480466 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-021-01703-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/07/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Psychological research is increasingly moving online, where web-based studies allow for data collection at scale. Behavioural researchers are well supported by existing tools for participant recruitment, and for building and running experiments with decent timing. However, not all techniques are portable to the Internet: While eye tracking works in tightly controlled lab conditions, webcam-based eye tracking suffers from high attrition and poorer quality due to basic limitations like webcam availability, poor image quality, and reflections on glasses and the cornea. Here we present MouseView.js, an alternative to eye tracking that can be employed in web-based research. Inspired by the visual system, MouseView.js blurs the display to mimic peripheral vision, but allows participants to move a sharp aperture that is roughly the size of the fovea. Like eye gaze, the aperture can be directed to fixate on stimuli of interest. We validated MouseView.js in an online replication (N = 165) of an established free viewing task (N = 83 existing eye-tracking datasets), and in an in-lab direct comparison with eye tracking in the same participants (N = 50). Mouseview.js proved as reliable as gaze, and produced the same pattern of dwell time results. In addition, dwell time differences from MouseView.js and from eye tracking correlated highly, and related to self-report measures in similar ways. The tool is open-source, implemented in JavaScript, and usable as a standalone library, or within Gorilla, jsPsych, and PsychoJS. In sum, MouseView.js is a freely available instrument for attention-tracking that is both reliable and valid, and that can replace eye tracking in certain web-based psychological experiments.
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7
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Neuronal Activity in the Posterior Cingulate Cortex Signals Environmental Information and Predicts Behavioral Variability during Trapline Foraging. J Neurosci 2021; 41:2703-2712. [PMID: 33536199 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0305-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2020] [Revised: 11/02/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals engage in routine behavior to efficiently navigate their environments. This routine behavior may be influenced by the state of the environment, such as the location and size of rewards. The neural circuits tracking environmental information and how that information impacts decisions to deviate from routines remain unexplored. To investigate the representation of environmental information during routine foraging, we recorded the activity of single neurons in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in 2 male monkeys searching through an array of targets in which the location of rewards was unknown. Outside the laboratory, people and animals solve such traveling salesman problems by following routine traplines that connect nearest-neighbor locations. In our task, monkeys also deployed traplining routines; but as the environment became better known, they deviate from them despite the reduction in foraging efficiency. While foraging, PCC neurons tracked environmental information but not reward and predicted variability in the pattern of choices. Together, these findings suggest that PCC may mediate the influence of information on variability in choice behavior.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Many animals seek information to better guide their decisions and update behavioral routines. In our study, subjects visually searched through a set of targets on every trial to gather two rewards. Greater amounts of information about the distribution of rewards predicted less variability in choice patterns, whereas smaller amounts predicted greater variability. We recorded from the posterior cingulate cortex, an area implicated in the coding of reward and uncertainty, and discovered that these neurons signaled the expected information about the distribution of rewards instead of signaling expected rewards. The activity in these cells also predicted the amount of variability in choice behavior. These findings suggest that the posterior cingulate helps direct the search for information to augment routines.
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8
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Callaway F, Rangel A, Griffiths TL. Fixation patterns in simple choice reflect optimal information sampling. PLoS Comput Biol 2021; 17:e1008863. [PMID: 33770069 PMCID: PMC8026028 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2020] [Revised: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple choices (e.g., eating an apple vs. an orange) are made by integrating noisy evidence that is sampled over time and influenced by visual attention; as a result, fluctuations in visual attention can affect choices. But what determines what is fixated and when? To address this question, we model the decision process for simple choice as an information sampling problem, and approximate the optimal sampling policy. We find that it is optimal to sample from options whose value estimates are both high and uncertain. Furthermore, the optimal policy provides a reasonable account of fixations and choices in binary and trinary simple choice, as well as the differences between the two cases. Overall, the results show that the fixation process during simple choice is influenced dynamically by the value estimates computed during the decision process, in a manner consistent with optimal information sampling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frederick Callaway
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
| | - Antonio Rangel
- Departments of Humanities and Social Sciences and Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America
| | - Thomas L. Griffiths
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
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9
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Stojić H, Orquin JL, Dayan P, Dolan RJ, Speekenbrink M. Uncertainty in learning, choice, and visual fixation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:3291-3300. [PMID: 31980535 PMCID: PMC7022187 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1911348117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Uncertainty plays a critical role in reinforcement learning and decision making. However, exactly how it influences behavior remains unclear. Multiarmed-bandit tasks offer an ideal test bed, since computational tools such as approximate Kalman filters can closely characterize the interplay between trial-by-trial values, uncertainty, learning, and choice. To gain additional insight into learning and choice processes, we obtained data from subjects' overt allocation of gaze. The estimated value and estimation uncertainty of options influenced what subjects looked at before choosing; these same quantities also influenced choice, as additionally did fixation itself. A momentary measure of uncertainty in the form of absolute prediction errors determined how long participants looked at the obtained outcomes. These findings affirm the importance of uncertainty in multiple facets of behavior and help delineate its effects on decision making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hrvoje Stojić
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London WC1B 5EH, United Kingdom;
| | - Jacob L Orquin
- Department of Management/MAPP, Aarhus University, Aarhus 8210, Denmark
- Centre for Research in Marketing and Consumer Psychology, Reykjavik University, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
| | - Peter Dayan
- Department of Computational Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Raymond J Dolan
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London WC1B 5EH, United Kingdom
| | - Maarten Speekenbrink
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, United Kingdom
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10
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Mas M, Brindisi MC, Chabanet C, Nicklaus S, Chambaron S. Weight Status and Attentional Biases Toward Foods: Impact of Implicit Olfactory Priming. Front Psychol 2019; 10:1789. [PMID: 31447733 PMCID: PMC6696981 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2019] [Accepted: 07/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective: Numerous studies highlight the involvement of cognitive factors in the development and maintenance of obesity. We aimed to measure attentional biases (AB) toward foods (i.e., the individual tendency to automatically orient one's attention toward food stimuli) in normal-weight (NW) individuals and those with overweight (OW) and obesity (OB). We evaluated whether implicit or explicit exposure to olfactory food cues could modify AB. Methods: Eighty-five participants with different weight statuses took part in this experiment. We measured AB toward food pictures with an adapted visual probe task and the variations in AB, while participants were primed with olfactory food cues (within-subject design: no odor/low-energy dense food odor/high-energy dense food odor). Odors were non-attentively perceived during session 1 (implicit condition) and attentively perceived during session 2 (explicit condition). Results: Our results highlighted AB toward food pictures, especially when foods were energy dense, regardless of weight status (p < 0.001). The olfactory priming effect was only significant in the implicit condition. Participants with obesity had a stronger AB toward foods when they were primed with a non-attentively perceived high-energy dense food odor than with a non-attentively perceived low-energy dense food odor (p = 0.02). The trend was reversed for normal-weight participants, while no significant effect was found for participants with overweight. Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis that an obesity-specific cognitive vulnerability may influence the processing of food-related stimuli and only while food cues are non-attentively perceived. Future research should seek to understand the mechanisms of this phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marine Mas
- Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRA, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Marie-Claude Brindisi
- Department of Diabetes and Clinical Nutrition, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Dijon, Dijon, France
| | - Claire Chabanet
- Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRA, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Sophie Nicklaus
- Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRA, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Stéphanie Chambaron
- Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRA, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
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11
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Lezkan A, Metzger A, Drewing K. Active Haptic Exploration of Softness: Indentation Force Is Systematically Related to Prediction, Sensation and Motivation. Front Integr Neurosci 2018; 12:59. [PMID: 30555306 PMCID: PMC6281961 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2018.00059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2018] [Accepted: 11/16/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Active finger movements play a crucial role in natural haptic perception. For the perception of different haptic properties people use different well-chosen movement schemes (Lederman and Klatzky, 1987). The haptic property of softness is stereotypically judged by repeatedly pressing one’s finger against an objects’ surface, actively indenting the object. It has been shown that people adjust the peak indentation forces of their pressing movements to the expected stimulus’ softness in order to improve perception (Kaim and Drewing, 2011). Here, we aim to clarify the mechanisms underlying such adjustments. We disentangle how people modulate executed peak indentation forces depending on predictive vs. sensory signals to softness, and investigate the influence of the participants’ motivational state on movement adjustments. In Experiment 1, participants performed a two alternative forced-choice (2AFC) softness discrimination task for stimulus pairs from one of four softness categories. We manipulated the predictability of the softness category. Either all stimuli of the same category were presented in a blocked fashion, which allowed predicting the softness category of the upcoming pair (predictive signals high), or stimuli from different categories were randomly intermixed, which made prediction impossible (predictive signals low). Sensory signals to softness category of the two stimuli in a pair are gathered during exploration. We contrasted the first indentation (sensory signals low) and last indentation (sensory signals high) in order to examine the effect of sensory signals. The results demonstrate that participants systematically apply lower forces when softer objects (as compared to harder objects) are indicated by predictive signals. Notably, sensory signals seemed to be not as relevant as predictive signals. However, in Experiment 2, we manipulated participant motivation by introducing rewards for good performance, and showed that the use of sensory information for movement adjustments can be fostered by high motivation. Overall, the present study demonstrates that exploratory movements are adjusted to the actual perceptual situation and that in the process of fine-tuning, closed- and open-loop mechanisms interact, with varying contributions depending on the observer’s motivation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Lezkan
- Department of General Psychology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Anna Metzger
- Department of General Psychology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Knut Drewing
- Department of General Psychology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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12
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13
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Alamia A, Solopchuk O, Zénon A. Strong Conscious Cues Suppress Preferential Gaze Allocation to Unconscious Cues. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:427. [PMID: 30459582 PMCID: PMC6232777 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2018] [Accepted: 10/01/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual attention allows relevant information to be selected for further processing. Both conscious and unconscious visual stimuli can bias attentional allocation, but how these two types of visual information interact to guide attention remains unclear. In this study, we explored attentional allocation during a motion discrimination task with varied motion strength and unconscious associations between stimuli and cues. Participants were instructed to report the motion direction of two colored patches of dots. Unbeknown to participants, dot colors were sometimes informative of the correct response. We found that subjects learnt the associations between colors and motion direction but failed to report this association using the questionnaire filled at the end of the experiment, confirming that learning remained unconscious. The eye movement analyses revealed that allocation of attention to unconscious sources of information occurred mostly when motion coherence was low, indicating that unconscious cues influence attentional allocation only in the absence of strong conscious cues. All in all, our results reveal that conscious and unconscious sources of information interact with each other to influence attentional allocation and suggest a selection process that weights cues in proportion to their reliability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Alamia
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Oleg Solopchuk
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Alexandre Zénon
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
- UMR5287 Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine (INCIA), CNRS, Bordeaux, France
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14
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Colas JT, Lu J. Learning Where to Look for High Value Improves Decision Making Asymmetrically. Front Psychol 2017; 8:2000. [PMID: 29187831 PMCID: PMC5695242 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02000] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2017] [Accepted: 10/31/2017] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Decision making in any brain is imperfect and costly in terms of time and energy. Operating under such constraints, an organism could be in a position to improve performance if an opportunity arose to exploit informative patterns in the environment being searched. Such an improvement of performance could entail both faster and more accurate (i.e., reward-maximizing) decisions. The present study investigated the extent to which human participants could learn to take advantage of immediate patterns in the spatial arrangement of serially presented foods such that a region of space would consistently be associated with greater subjective value. Eye movements leading up to choices demonstrated rapidly induced biases in the selective allocation of visual fixation and attention that were accompanied by both faster and more accurate choices of desired goods as implicit learning occurred. However, for the control condition with its spatially balanced reward environment, these subjects exhibited preexisting lateralized biases for eye and hand movements (i.e., leftward and rightward, respectively) that could act in opposition not only to each other but also to the orienting biases elicited by the experimental manipulation, producing an asymmetry between the left and right hemifields with respect to performance. Potentially owing at least in part to learned cultural conventions (e.g., reading from left to right), the findings herein particularly revealed an intrinsic leftward bias underlying initial saccades in the midst of more immediate feedback-directed processes for which spatial biases can be learned flexibly to optimize oculomotor and manual control in value-based decision making. The present study thus replicates general findings of learned attentional biases in a novel context with inherently rewarding stimuli and goes on to further elucidate the interactions between endogenous and exogenous biases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaron T. Colas
- Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
| | - Joy Lu
- Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States
- The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
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15
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Colas JT. Value-based decision making via sequential sampling with hierarchical competition and attentional modulation. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0186822. [PMID: 29077746 PMCID: PMC5659783 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186822] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2017] [Accepted: 10/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
In principle, formal dynamical models of decision making hold the potential to represent fundamental computations underpinning value-based (i.e., preferential) decisions in addition to perceptual decisions. Sequential-sampling models such as the race model and the drift-diffusion model that are grounded in simplicity, analytical tractability, and optimality remain popular, but some of their more recent counterparts have instead been designed with an aim for more feasibility as architectures to be implemented by actual neural systems. Connectionist models are proposed herein at an intermediate level of analysis that bridges mental phenomena and underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. Several such models drawing elements from the established race, drift-diffusion, feedforward-inhibition, divisive-normalization, and competing-accumulator models were tested with respect to fitting empirical data from human participants making choices between foods on the basis of hedonic value rather than a traditional perceptual attribute. Even when considering performance at emulating behavior alone, more neurally plausible models were set apart from more normative race or drift-diffusion models both quantitatively and qualitatively despite remaining parsimonious. To best capture the paradigm, a novel six-parameter computational model was formulated with features including hierarchical levels of competition via mutual inhibition as well as a static approximation of attentional modulation, which promotes "winner-take-all" processing. Moreover, a meta-analysis encompassing several related experiments validated the robustness of model-predicted trends in humans' value-based choices and concomitant reaction times. These findings have yet further implications for analysis of neurophysiological data in accordance with computational modeling, which is also discussed in this new light.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaron T. Colas
- Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States of America
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16
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Abstract
Humans move their eyes to gather information about the visual world. However, saccadic sampling has largely been explored in paradigms that involve searching for a lone target in a cluttered array or natural scene. Here, we investigated the policy that humans use to overtly sample information in a perceptual decision task that required information from across multiple spatial locations to be combined. Participants viewed a spatial array of numbers and judged whether the average was greater or smaller than a reference value. Participants preferentially sampled items that were less diagnostic of the correct answer ("inlying" elements; that is, elements closer to the reference value). This preference to sample inlying items was linked to decisions, enhancing the tendency to give more weight to inlying elements in the final choice ("robust averaging"). These findings contrast with a large body of evidence indicating that gaze is directed preferentially to deviant information during natural scene viewing and visual search, and suggest that humans may sample information "robustly" with their eyes during perceptual decision-making.
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17
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Braz BY, Galiñanes GL, Taravini IRE, Belforte JE, Murer MG. Altered Corticostriatal Connectivity and Exploration/Exploitation Imbalance Emerge as Intermediate Phenotypes for a Neonatal Dopamine Dysfunction. Neuropsychopharmacology 2015; 40:2576-87. [PMID: 25872916 PMCID: PMC4569947 DOI: 10.1038/npp.2015.104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2014] [Revised: 03/13/2015] [Accepted: 03/27/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Findings showing that neonatal lesions of the forebrain dopaminergic system in rodents lead to juvenile locomotor hyperactivity and learning deficits have been taken as evidence of face validity for the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, the core cognitive and physiological intermediate phenotypes underlying this rodent syndrome remain unknown. Here we show that early postnatal dopaminergic lesions cause long-lasting deficits in exploitation of shelter, social and nutritional resources, and an imbalanced exploratory behavior, where nondirected local exploration is exacerbated, whereas sophisticated search behaviors involving sequences of goal directed actions are degraded. Importantly, some behavioral deficits do not diminish after adolescence but instead worsen or mutate, particularly those related to the exploration of wide and spatially complex environments. The in vivo electrophysiological recordings and morphological reconstructions of striatal medium spiny neurons reveal corticostriatal alterations associated to the behavioral phenotype. More specifically, an attenuation of corticostriatal functional connectivity, affecting medial prefrontal inputs more markedly than cingulate and motor inputs, is accompanied by a contraction of the dendritic arbor of striatal projection neurons in this animal model. Thus, dopaminergic neurons are essential during postnatal development for the functional and structural maturation of corticostriatal connections. From a bottom-up viewpoint, our findings suggest that neuropsychiatric conditions presumably linked to developmental alterations of the dopaminergic system should be evaluated for deficits in foraging decision making, alterations in the recruitment of corticostriatal circuits during foraging tasks, and structural disorganization of the frontostriatal connections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Y Braz
- Systems Neuroscience Group, Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, IFIBIO ‘Houssay', CONICET and University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina,Systems Neuroscience Group, Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, IFIBIO ‘Houssay', CONICET and University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, 2155 Paraguay Street, 1121 Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tel/Fax: 54(11)5950-9500 (ext 2137), E-mail: or
| | - Gregorio L Galiñanes
- Systems Neuroscience Group, Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, IFIBIO ‘Houssay', CONICET and University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Irene RE Taravini
- Experimental Parkinsonism Lab, Institute of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Juan E Belforte
- Systems Neuroscience Group, Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, IFIBIO ‘Houssay', CONICET and University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - M Gustavo Murer
- Systems Neuroscience Group, Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, IFIBIO ‘Houssay', CONICET and University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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