Abstract
Value-based decision making involves choosing from multiple options with different values. Despite extensive studies on value representation in various brain regions, the neural mechanism for how multiple value options are converted to motor actions remains unclear. To study this, we developed a multi-value foraging task with varying menu of items in non-human primates using eye movements that dissociates value and choice, and conducted electrophysiological recording in the midbrain superior colliculus (SC). SC neurons encoded “absolute” value, independent of available options, during late fixation. In addition, SC neurons also represent value threshold, modulated by available options, different from conventional motor threshold. Electrical stimulation of SC neurons biased choices in a manner predicted by the difference between the value representation and the value threshold. These results reveal a neural mechanism directly transforming absolute values to categorical choices within SC, supporting highly efficient value-based decision making critical for real-world economic behaviors.
Highlights
Value-based decision making involves choosing from multiple options with different values
We found that superior colliculus (SC) neurons encode both absolute value and context-dependent value threshold, suggesting a mechanism that could directly convert absolute values to categorical choice
Two male monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were trained to perform the well-established delayed saccade task followed by a saccade foraging task, which developed from the optimal foraging theory (OFT)[12] (Fig. 1)
Summary
Value-based decision making involves choosing from multiple options with different values. Electrical stimulation of SC neurons biased choices in a manner predicted by the difference between the value representation and the value threshold These results reveal a neural mechanism directly transforming absolute values to categorical choices within SC, supporting highly efficient value-based decision making critical for realworld economic behaviors. Previous studies in sensorimotor regions, such as lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP), supplementary eye fields (SEF), and premotor cortex, mainly found neural correlates of normalized relative values, depending on the values of concurrently available options[8,9,10,11] It is still unclear whether sensorimotor regions encode absolute values and be able to directly convert value information to choices. We found that monkeys’ choice was biased in a manner predicted by the difference between absolute value representations and the context-dependent value threshold activity, providing a causal support for a thresholding mechanism of valuebased decision making in SC
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