Psychology

The rat frontal orienting field dynamically encodes value for economic decisions under risk

C. Bao, X. Zhu, et al.

This groundbreaking study by Chaofei Bao, Xiaoyue Zhu, Joshua Möller-Mara, Jingjie Li, Sylvain Dubroqua, and Jeffrey C. Erlich reveals how the frontal orienting field influences economic decision-making in rats, showing that silencing this area increases risk aversion by altering the rats' perception of lottery values. A deeper dive into neuroscience has never been so intriguing!

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Abstract

This study investigated the causal roles of the frontal orienting field (FOF) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in economic decision-making under risk in rats. Pharmacological and optogenetic silencing of the FOF reliably reduced lottery choices, indicating increased risk aversion. Model-based analysis revealed this was due to an increased concavity of the rats' utility function. Single-neuron and population analyses confirmed that the FOF encodes lottery value, supporting a dynamical model where the FOF represents current lottery value for comparison against the remembered surebet value. PPC inactivation showed minimal effects, except for a short-lived increase in risk aversion potentially due to response biases.

Publisher

Nature Neuroscience

Published On

Oct 19, 2023

Authors

Chaofei Bao, Xiaoyue Zhu, Joshua Möller-Mara, Jingjie Li, Sylvain Dubroqua, Jeffrey C. Erlich

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