biostudies-literatureMuller THNIMH NIH HHSNINDS NIH HHSWellcome Trust403-408https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC10917656biostudies-literatureUnknown27(3)The prefrontal cortex is crucial for learning and decision-making. Classic reinforcement learning (RL) theories center on learning the expectation of potential rewarding outcomes and explain a wealth of neural data in the prefrontal cortex. Distributional RL, on the other hand, learns the full distribution of rewarding outcomes and better explains dopamine responses. In the present study, we show that distributional RL also better explains macaque anterior cingulate cortex neuronal responses, suggesting that it is a common mechanism for reward-guided learning.Nature neuroscienceDistributional reinforcement learning in prefrontal cortex.PMC10917656203139/Z/16/ZR01 MH131624219525/Z/19/Z203147/Z/16/Z220296/Z/20/ZF32 MH081521096689/Z/11/ZR01 NS116623R01 MH117763Kennerley SWMuller THKurth-Nelson ZButler JLVeselic SBehrens TEJMiranda BWallis JDDayan PfalseDistributional reinforcement learning in prefrontal cortex.The prefrontal cortex is crucial for learning and decision-making. Classic reinforcement learning (RL) theories center on learning the expectation of potential rewarding outcomes and explain a wealth of neural data in the prefrontal cortex. Distributional RL, on the other hand, learns the full distribution of rewarding outcomes and better explains dopamine responses. In the present study, we show that distributional RL also better explains macaque anterior cingulate cortex neuronal responses, suggesting that it is a common mechanism for reward-guided learning.2024-01-01T00:00:00Z2024 Mar2025-04-04T12:34:55.149Z2025-04-04T12:34:55.149ZS-EPMC109176563820018310.1038/s41593-023-01535-w