1
|
Perkins AQ, Gillis ZS, Rich EL. Multi-attribute decision-making in macaques relies on direct attribute comparisons. bioRxiv 2023:2023.10.22.563329. [PMID: 37961522 PMCID: PMC10634707 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.22.563329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
In value-based decisions, there are frequently multiple attributes, such as cost, quality, or quantity, that contribute to the overall goodness of an option. Since one option may not be better in all attributes at once, the decision process should include a means of weighing relevant attributes. Most decision-making models solve this problem by computing an integrated value, or utility, for each option from a weighted combination of attributes. However, behavioral anomalies in decision-making, such as context effects, indicate that other attribute-specific computations might be taking place. Here, we tested whether rhesus macaques show evidence of attribute-specific processing in a value-based decision-making task. Monkeys made a series of decisions involving choice options comprising a sweetness and probability attribute. Each attribute was represented by a separate bar with one of two mappings between bar size and the magnitude of the attribute (i.e., bigger=better or bigger=worse). We found that translating across different mappings produced selective impairments in decision-making. When like attributes differed, monkeys were prevented from easily making direct attribute comparisons, and choices were less accurate and preferences were more variable. This was not the case when mappings of unalike attributes within the same option were different. Likewise, gaze patterns favored transitions between like attributes over transitions between unalike attributes of the same option, so that like attributes were sampled sequentially to support within-attribute comparisons. Together, these data demonstrate that value-based decisions rely, at least in part, on directly comparing like attributes of multi-attribute options. Significance Statement Value-based decision-making is a cognitive function impacted by a number of clinical conditions, including substance use disorder and mood disorders. Understanding the neural mechanisms, including online processing steps involved in decision formation, will provide critical insights into decision-making deficits characteristic of human psychiatric disorders. Using rhesus monkeys as a model species capable of complex decision-making, this study shows that decisions involve a process of comparing like features, or attributes, of multi-attribute options. This is contrary to popular models of decision-making in which attributes are first combined into an overall value, or utility, to make a choice. Therefore, these results serve as an important foundation for establishing a more complete understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in forming complex decisions.
Collapse
|
2
|
Law CK, Kolling N, Chan CCH, Chau BKH. Frontopolar cortex represents complex features and decision value during choice between environments. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112555. [PMID: 37224014 PMCID: PMC10320831 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 11/23/2022] [Accepted: 05/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Important decisions often involve choosing between complex environments that define future item encounters. Despite its importance for adaptive behavior and distinct computational challenges, decision-making research primarily focuses on item choice, ignoring environment choice altogether. Here we contrast previously studied item choice in ventromedial prefrontal cortex with lateral frontopolar cortex (FPl) linked to environment choice. Furthermore, we propose a mechanism for how FPl decomposes and represents complex environments during decision making. Specifically, we trained a choice-optimized, brain-naive convolutional neural network (CNN) and compared predicted CNN activation with actual FPl activity. We showed that the high-dimensional FPl activity decomposes environment features to represent the complexity of an environment to make such choice possible. Moreover, FPl functionally connects with posterior cingulate cortex for guiding environment choice. Further probing FPl's computation revealed a parallel processing mechanism in extracting multiple environment features.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Chun-Kit Law
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
| | - Nils Kolling
- Université Lyon 1, INSERM, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute U1208, 18 Avenue Doyen Lepine, 69500 Bron, France; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
| | - Chetwyn C H Chan
- Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Bolton K H Chau
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong; University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Wittmann MK, Scheuplein M, Gibbons SG, Noonan MP. Local and global reward learning in the lateral frontal cortex show differential development during human adolescence. PLoS Biol 2023; 21:e3002010. [PMID: 36862726 PMCID: PMC10013901 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Reward-guided choice is fundamental for adaptive behaviour and depends on several component processes supported by prefrontal cortex. Here, across three studies, we show that two such component processes, linking reward to specific choices and estimating the global reward state, develop during human adolescence and are linked to the lateral portions of the prefrontal cortex. These processes reflect the assignment of rewards contingently to local choices, or noncontingently, to choices that make up the global reward history. Using matched experimental tasks and analysis platforms, we show the influence of both mechanisms increase during adolescence (study 1) and that lesions to lateral frontal cortex (that included and/or disconnected both orbitofrontal and insula cortex) in human adult patients (study 2) and macaque monkeys (study 3) impair both local and global reward learning. Developmental effects were distinguishable from the influence of a decision bias on choice behaviour, known to depend on medial prefrontal cortex. Differences in local and global assignments of reward to choices across adolescence, in the context of delayed grey matter maturation of the lateral orbitofrontal and anterior insula cortex, may underlie changes in adaptive behaviour.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marco K. Wittmann
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Maximilian Scheuplein
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Sophie G. Gibbons
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, United Kingdom
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - MaryAnn P. Noonan
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Kohl C, Wong MXM, Wong JJ, Rushworth MFS, Chau BKH. Intraparietal stimulation disrupts negative distractor effects in human multi-alternative decision-making. eLife 2023; 12:e75007. [PMID: 36811348 PMCID: PMC9946441 DOI: 10.7554/elife.75007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2022] [Indexed: 02/24/2023] Open
Abstract
There has been debate about whether addition of an irrelevant distractor option to an otherwise binary decision influences which of the two choices is taken. We show that disparate views on this question are reconciled if distractors exert two opposing but not mutually exclusive effects. Each effect predominates in a different part of decision space: (1) a positive distractor effect predicts high-value distractors improve decision-making; (2) a negative distractor effect, of the type associated with divisive normalisation models, entails decreased accuracy with increased distractor values. Here, we demonstrate both distractor effects coexist in human decision making but in different parts of a decision space defined by the choice values. We show disruption of the medial intraparietal area (MIP) by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) increases positive distractor effects at the expense of negative distractor effects. Furthermore, individuals with larger MIP volumes are also less susceptible to the disruption induced by TMS. These findings also demonstrate a causal link between MIP and the impact of distractors on decision-making via divisive normalisation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Carmen Kohl
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong KongChina
- Department Neuroscience, Carney Institute for Brain Sciences, Brown UniversityProvidenceUnited States
| | - Michelle XM Wong
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong KongChina
| | - Jing Jun Wong
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong KongChina
| | | | - Bolton KH Chau
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong KongChina
- University Research Facility in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong KongChina
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Otto AR, Devine S, Schulz E, Bornstein AM, Louie K. Context-dependent choice and evaluation in real-world consumer behavior. Sci Rep 2022; 12:17744. [PMID: 36273073 PMCID: PMC9588046 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22416-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
A body of work spanning neuroscience, economics, and psychology indicates that decision-making is context-dependent, which means that the value of an option depends not only on the option in question, but also on the other options in the choice set-or the 'context'. While context effects have been observed primarily in small-scale laboratory studies with tightly constrained, artificially constructed choice sets, it remains to be determined whether these context effects take hold in real-world choice problems, where choice sets are large and decisions driven by rich histories of direct experience. Here, we investigate whether valuations are context-dependent in real-world choice by analyzing a massive restaurant rating dataset as well as two independent replication datasets which provide complementary operationalizations of restaurant choice. We find that users make fewer ratings-maximizing choices in choice sets with higher-rated options-a hallmark of context-dependent choice-and that post-choice restaurant ratings also varied systematically with the ratings of unchosen restaurants. Furthermore, in a follow-up laboratory experiment using hypothetical choice sets matched to the real-world data, we find further support for the idea that subjective valuations of restaurants are scaled in accordance with the choice context, providing corroborating evidence for a general mechanistic-level account of these effects. Taken together, our results provide a potent demonstration of context-dependent choice in real-world choice settings, manifesting both in decisions and subjective valuation of options.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- A. Ross Otto
- grid.14709.3b0000 0004 1936 8649Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Sean Devine
- grid.14709.3b0000 0004 1936 8649Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Eric Schulz
- grid.419501.80000 0001 2183 0052Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Aaron M. Bornstein
- grid.266093.80000 0001 0668 7243Department of Cognitive Sciences and Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, University of California, Irvine, USA
| | - Kenway Louie
- grid.137628.90000 0004 1936 8753Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, USA ,grid.137628.90000 0004 1936 8753Neuroscience Institute, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Bucher SF, Brandenburger AM. Divisive normalization is an efficient code for multivariate Pareto-distributed environments. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2120581119. [PMID: 36161961 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2120581119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Divisive normalization is a canonical computation in the brain, observed across neural systems, that is often considered to be an implementation of the efficient coding principle. We provide a theoretical result that makes the conditions under which divisive normalization is an efficient code analytically precise: We show that, in a low-noise regime, encoding an n-dimensional stimulus via divisive normalization is efficient if and only if its prevalence in the environment is described by a multivariate Pareto distribution. We generalize this multivariate analog of histogram equalization to allow for arbitrary metabolic costs of the representation, and show how different assumptions on costs are associated with different shapes of the distributions that divisive normalization efficiently encodes. Our result suggests that divisive normalization may have evolved to efficiently represent stimuli with Pareto distributions. We demonstrate that this efficiently encoded distribution is consistent with stylized features of naturalistic stimulus distributions such as their characteristic conditional variance dependence, and we provide empirical evidence suggesting that it may capture the statistics of filter responses to naturalistic images. Our theoretical finding also yields empirically testable predictions across sensory domains on how the divisive normalization parameters should be tuned to features of the input distribution.
Collapse
|
7
|
Klein-Flügge MC, Bongioanni A, Rushworth MFS. Medial and orbital frontal cortex in decision-making and flexible behavior. Neuron 2022; 110:2743-2770. [PMID: 35705077 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.05.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2022] [Revised: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
The medial frontal cortex and adjacent orbitofrontal cortex have been the focus of investigations of decision-making, behavioral flexibility, and social behavior. We review studies conducted in humans, macaques, and rodents and argue that several regions with different functional roles can be identified in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, anterior medial frontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and medial and lateral parts of the orbitofrontal cortex. There is increasing evidence that the manner in which these areas represent the value of the environment and specific choices is different from subcortical brain regions and more complex than previously thought. Although activity in some regions reflects distributions of reward and opportunities across the environment, in other cases, activity reflects the structural relationships between features of the environment that animals can use to infer what decision to take even if they have not encountered identical opportunities in the past.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Miriam C Klein-Flügge
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Tinsley Building, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Level 6, West Wing, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Lane, Headington, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK.
| | - Alessandro Bongioanni
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Tinsley Building, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK
| | - Matthew F S Rushworth
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Tinsley Building, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Level 6, West Wing, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Dennison JB, Sazhin D, Smith DV. Decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics: Recent progress and ongoing challenges. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci 2022; 13:e1589. [PMID: 35137549 PMCID: PMC9124684 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2020] [Revised: 11/28/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
In the past decade, decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics have developed many new insights in the study of decision making. This review provides an overarching update on how the field has advanced in this time period. Although our initial review a decade ago outlined several theoretical, conceptual, methodological, empirical, and practical challenges, there has only been limited progress in resolving these challenges. We summarize significant trends in decision neuroscience through the lens of the challenges outlined for the field and review examples where the field has had significant, direct, and applicable impacts across economics and psychology. First, we review progress on topics including reward learning, explore-exploit decisions, risk and ambiguity, intertemporal choice, and valuation. Next, we assess the impacts of emotion, social rewards, and social context on decision making. Then, we follow up with how individual differences impact choices and new exciting developments in the prediction and neuroforecasting of future decisions. Finally, we consider how trends in decision-neuroscience research reflect progress toward resolving past challenges, discuss new and exciting applications of recent research, and identify new challenges for the field. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Reasoning and Decision Making Psychology > Emotion and Motivation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey B Dennison
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Daniel Sazhin
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - David V Smith
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Perkins AQ, Rich EL. Identifying identity and attributing value to attributes: reconsidering mechanisms of preference decisions. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2021; 41:98-105. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.04.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
|
10
|
Spektor MS, Bhatia S, Gluth S. The elusiveness of context effects in decision making. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:843-854. [PMID: 34426050 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.07.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Contextual features influence human and non-human decision making, giving rise to preference reversals. Decades of research have documented the species and situations in which these effects are observed. More recently, however, researchers have focused on boundary conditions, that is, settings in which established effects disappear or reverse. This work is scattered across academic disciplines and some results appear to contradict each other. We synthesize recent findings and resolve apparent contradictions by considering them in terms of three core categories of decision context: spatial arrangement, attribute concreteness, and deliberation time. We suggest that these categories could be understood using theories of choice representation, which specify how context shapes the information over which deliberation processes operate.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mikhail S Spektor
- Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Sudeep Bhatia
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3720 Walnut Street, 19104 Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Sebastian Gluth
- Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 11, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Bongioanni A, Folloni D, Verhagen L, Sallet J, Klein-Flügge MC, Rushworth MFS. Activation and disruption of a neural mechanism for novel choice in monkeys. Nature 2021; 591:270-4. [PMID: 33408410 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03115-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Neural mechanisms that mediate the ability to make value-guided decisions have received substantial attention in humans and animals1-6. Experiments in animals typically involve long training periods. By contrast, choices in the real world often need to be made between new options spontaneously. It is therefore possible that the neural mechanisms targeted in animal studies differ from those required for new decisions, which are typical of human imaging studies. Here we show that the primate medial frontal cortex (MFC)7 is involved in making new inferential choices when the options have not been previously experienced. Macaques spontaneously inferred the values of new options via similarities with the component parts of previously encountered options. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) suggested that this ability was mediated by the MFC, which is rarely investigated in monkeys3; MFC activity reflected different processes of comparison for unfamiliar and familiar options. Multidimensional representations of options in the MFC used a coding scheme resembling that of grid cells, which is well known in spatial navigation8,9, to integrate dimensions in this non-physical space10 during novel decision-making. By contrast, the orbitofrontal cortex held specific object-based value representations1,11. In addition, minimally invasive ultrasonic disruption12 of MFC, but not adjacent tissue, altered the estimation of novel choice values.
Collapse
|