Causal Inference Gates Corticostriatal Learning
Name
6892.full.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.74 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
ae6f20f28655e140f08b8e8026d98758
Author(s)
Dorfman, Hayley M
Tomov, Momchil S
Cheung, Bernice
Clarke, Dennis
Gershman, Samuel J
Hughes, Brent L
Date Issued
August 11, 2021
Journal
The Journal of Neuroscience
Publisher
Society for Neuroscience
Citation
Hayley M. Dorfman, Momchil S. Tomov, Bernice Cheung, Dennis Clarke, Samuel J. Gershman, Brent L. Hughes, Journal of Neuroscience 11 August 2021, 41 (32) 6892-6904.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Attributing outcomes to your own actions or to external causes is essential for appropriately learning which actions lead to reward and which actions do not. Our previous work showed that this type of credit assignment is best explained by a Bayesian reinforcement learning model which posits that beliefs about the causal structure of the environment modulate reward prediction errors (RPEs) during action value updating. In this study, we investigated the brain networks underlying reinforcement learning that are influenced by causal beliefs using functional magnetic resonance imaging while human participants (n = 31; 13 males, 18 females) completed a behavioral task that manipulated beliefs about causal structure. We found evidence that RPEs modulated by causal beliefs are represented in dorsal striatum, while standard (unmodulated) RPEs are represented in ventral striatum. Further analyses revealed that beliefs about causal structure are represented in anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus. Finally, structural equation modeling revealed effective connectivity from anterior insula to dorsal striatum. Together, these results are consistent with a possible neural architecture in which causal beliefs in anterior insula are integrated with prediction error signals in dorsal striatum to update action values.
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2796-20.2021
