Competitive integration of time and reward explains value-sensitive foraging decisions and frontal cortex ramping dynamics.

ABSTRACT: The ability to make advantageous decisions is critical for animals to ensure their survival. Patch foraging is a natural decision-making process in which animals decide when to leave a patch of depleting resources to search for a new one. To study the algorithmic and neural basis of patch foraging behavior in a controlled laboratory setting, we developed a virtual foraging task for head-fixed mice. Mouse behavior could be explained by ramp-to-threshold models integrating time and rewards antagonistically. Accurate behavioral modeling required inclusion of a slowly varying "patience" variable, which modulated sensitivity to time. To investigate the neural basis of this decision-making process, we performed dense electrophysiological recordings with Neuropixels probes broadly throughout fron

SUBMITTER: Bukwich M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10508756 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature