Lateral orbitofrontal cortex promotes trial-by-trial learning of risky, but not spatial, biases.

ABSTRACT: Individual choices are not made in isolation but are embedded in a series of past experiences, decisions, and outcomes. The effects of past experiences on choices, often called sequential biases, are ubiquitous in perceptual and value-based decision-making, but their neural substrates are unclear. We trained rats to choose between cued guaranteed and probabilistic rewards in a task in which outcomes on each trial were independent. Behavioral variability often reflected sequential effects, including increased willingness to take risks following risky wins, and spatial 'win-stay/lose-shift' biases. Recordings from lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) revealed encoding of reward history and receipt, and optogenetic inhibition of lOFC eliminated rats' increased preference for risk following ris

SUBMITTER: Constantinople CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6834367 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature