Departmental Papers (Psychology)
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
11-19-2014
Publication Source
Neuron
Volume
84
Issue
4
Start Page
870
Last Page
881
DOI
10.1016/j.neuron.2014.10.013
Abstract
Maintaining accurate beliefs in a changing environment requires dynamically adapting the rate at which one learns from new experiences. Beliefs should be stable in the face of noisy data but malleable in periods of change or uncertainty. Here we used computational modeling, psychophysics, and fMRI to show that adaptive learning is not a unitary phenomenon in the brain. Rather, it can be decomposed into three computationally and neuroanatomically distinct factors that were evident in human subjects performing a spatial-prediction task: (1) surprise-driven belief updating, related to BOLD activity in visual cortex; (2) uncertainty-driven belief updating, related to anterior prefrontal and parietal activity; and (3) reward-driven belief updating, a context-inappropriate behavioral tendency related to activity in ventral striatum. These distinct factors converged in a core system governing adaptive learning. This system, which included dorsomedial frontal cortex, responded to all three factors and predicted belief updating both across trials and across individuals.
Copyright/Permission Statement
© 2014. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Recommended Citation
McGuire, J. T., Nassar, M. R., Gold, J. I., & Kable, J. W. (2014). Functionally Dissociable Influences on Learning Rate in a Dynamic Environment. Neuron, 84 (4), 870-881. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.10.013
Date Posted: 06 December 2017
This document has been peer reviewed.