Journal
ELIFE
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.68943
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Funding
- JST ERATO (Japan) [JPMJER1801]
- AMED (Japan) [JP18dm0307008]
- Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID)/Scholarship Program/DOCTORADO BECAS CHILE [2017-72180193]
- Royal Society
- Wellcome Trust [102612/A/13/Z]
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The human brain excels at constructing and using abstractions based on the valuation of sensory features, with high-value abstract representations guiding behavior and leading to better choices and higher confidence. The brain area computing value signals prioritizes latent task elements during abstraction, predicting a causal role for valuation. Neural reinforcement tagging in the sensory cortex evokes abstraction-based decisions, providing a novel interpretation of value as a key factor in forging abstract representations.
The human brain excels at constructing and using abstractions, such as rules, or concepts. Here, in two fMRI experiments, we demonstrate a mechanism of abstraction built upon the valuation of sensory features. Human volunteers learned novel association rules based on simple visual features. Reinforcement-learning algorithms revealed that, with learning, high-value abstract representations increasingly guided participant behaviour, resulting in better choices and higher subjective confidence. We also found that the brain area computing value signals - the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - prioritised and selected latent task elements during abstraction, both locally and through its connection to the visual cortex. Such a coding scheme predicts a causal role for valuation. Hence, in a second experiment, we used multivoxel neural reinforcement to test for the causality of feature valuation in the sensory cortex, as a mechanism of abstraction. Tagging the neural representation of a task feature with rewards evoked abstraction-based decisions. Together, these findings provide a novel interpretation of value as a goal-dependent, key factor in forging abstract representations.
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