Mixed selectivity for visual features and economic value in the primate orbitofrontal cortex

Abstract

Primates use their acute sense of vision not only to identify objects, but also to assess their value, that is, their potential for benefit or harm. How the brain transforms visual information into value information is still poorly understood, but recent findings suggest a key role for the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). The OFC includes several cytoarchitectonic areas within the ventral frontal lobe, and has a long-recognized role in representing object value and organizing value-driven behavior. One of the OFC’s most striking anatomical features is the massive, direct input it receives from the inferotemporal cortex, a ventral temporal region implicated in object identification. A natural hypothesis, therefore, is that in addition to well-documented value coding properties, OFC neurons may also represent visual features in a manner similar to neurons in the ventral visual stream. To test this hypothesis, we recorded OFC neurons in macaque monkeys performing behavioral tasks in which the value of visible objects was manipulated independently from their visual features. Preliminary findings include a subset of OFC cells that were modulated by object value, but only in response to objects that shared a particular visual feature (e.g. the color red). This form of ‘mixed’ selectivity suggests that the OFC may be an intermediate computational stage between visual identification and value retrieval. Moreover, recent work showing similar mixed value-feature selectivity in inferotemporal cortex neurons suggests that neural mechanisms of object valuation may be distributed over a continuum of cortical regions, rather than compartmentalized in a strict hierarchy.