The ventral striatum dissociates information expectation, reward anticipation, and reward receipt

Filimon, Flavia, Nelson, Jonathan D., Sejnowski, Terrence J., Sereno, Martin I. and Cottrell, Garrison W. (2020) The ventral striatum dissociates information expectation, reward anticipation, and reward receipt Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117 (26). pp. 15200-15208.

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Abstract

Do dopaminergic reward structures represent the expected utility of information similarly to a reward? Optimal experimental design models from Bayesian decision theory and statistics have proposed a theoretical framework for quantifying the expected value of information that might result from a query. In particular, this formulation quantifies the value of information before the answer to that query is known, in situations where payoffs are unknown and the goal is purely epistemic: That is, to increase knowledge about the state of the world. Whether and how such a theoretical quantity is represented in the brain is unknown. Here we use an event-related functional MRI (fMRI) task design to disentangle information expectation, information revelation and categorization outcome anticipation, and response-contingent reward processing in a visual probabilistic categorization task. We identify a neural signature corresponding to the expectation of information, involving the left lateral ventral striatum. Moreover, we show a temporal dissociation in the activation of different reward-related regions, including the nucleus accumbens, medial prefrontal cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex, during information expectation versus reward-related processing.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions :	Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences > School of Psychology
Authors :	Name Email ORCID Filimon, Flavia Nelson, Jonathan D. j.d.nelson@surrey.ac.uk Sejnowski, Terrence J. Sereno, Martin I. Cottrell, Garrison W.
Date :	30 June 2020
DOI :	10.1073/pnas.1911778117
Copyright Disclaimer :	Copyright 2020 The Author(s). Published under the PNAS license.
Uncontrolled Keywords :	Ventral striatum; Reward; Expected value of information; fMRI; Bayesian optimal experimental design (OED)
Additional Information :	Significance: Whether the reward system represents the expected utility of information distinctly from reward remains unclear. Optimal experimental design models from statistics quantify the expected value of information that might result from a query before the answer is known, independent of payoffs, when the goal is purely to increase knowledge and reduce uncertainty. We disentangle information expectation, information revelation and categorization outcome anticipation, and reward processing in visual probabilistic categorization with event-related fMRI. We show dissociation between expectation of information, expectation of response-contingent reward, and reward receipt, involving different temporal and spatial signatures of reward regions, including lateral ventral striatum, nucleus accumbens, medial prefrontal cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex. These results suggest expected information and immediate reward are distinct in the brain.
Depositing User :	Clive Harris
Date Deposited :	07 Oct 2020 15:27
Last Modified :	12 Dec 2020 02:08
URI:	http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/id/eprint/858706

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