title: Orbitofrontal cortex supports behavior and learning using inferred but not cached values.
abstract: Computational and learning theory models propose that behavioral control reflects value that is both cached (computed and stored during previous experience) and inferred (estimated on the fly on the basis of knowledge of the causal structure of the environment). The latter is thought to depend on the orbitofrontal cortex. Yet some accounts propose that the orbitofrontal cortex contributes to behavior by signaling "economic" value, regardless of the associative basis of the information. We found that the orbitofrontal cortex is critical for both value-based behavior and learning when value must be inferred but not when a cached value is sufficient. The orbitofrontal cortex is thus fundamental for accessing model-based representations of the environment to compute value rather than for signaling value per se.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. josh.jones@nih.gov
authors.forename: Joshua L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Guillem R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Esber
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: McDannald
authors.forename: Aaron J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gruber
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirenzi
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schoenbaum
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D003463:Cues; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020332:Rats, Inbred LEC