title: Human cognition. Foundations of human reasoning in the prefrontal cortex.
abstract: The prefrontal cortex (PFC) subserves reasoning in the service of adaptive behavior. Little is known, however, about the architecture of reasoning processes in the PFC. Using computational modeling and neuroimaging, we show here that the human PFC has two concurrent inferential tracks: (i) one from ventromedial to dorsomedial PFC regions that makes probabilistic inferences about the reliability of the ongoing behavioral strategy and arbitrates between adjusting this strategy versus exploring new ones from long-term memory, and (ii) another from polar to lateral PFC regions that makes probabilistic inferences about the reliability of two or three alternative strategies and arbitrates between exploring new strategies versus exploiting these alternative ones. The two tracks interact and, along with the striatum, realize hypothesis testing for accepting versus rejecting newly created strategies.
authors.affiliation: INSERM, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (U960), 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France. Départment d'Etudes Cognitives (DEC), Ecole Normale Supérieure, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France. Centre de Neuro-imagerie de Recherche (CENIR), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Maël
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Donoso
authors.affiliation: Départment d'Etudes Cognitives (DEC), Ecole Normale Supérieure, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France. Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
authors.forename: Anne G E
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.affiliation: INSERM, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (U960), 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France. Départment d'Etudes Cognitives (DEC), Ecole Normale Supérieure, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France. Centre de Neuro-imagerie de Recherche (CENIR), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France. etienne.koechlin@upmc.fr.
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koechlin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000502:physiology; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001519:Behavior; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008959:Models, Neurological; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D011336:Probability; D013850:Thinking; D055815:Young Adult