title: A functional difference in information processing between orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum during decision-making behaviour.
abstract: Both orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventral striatum (vStr) have been identified as key structures that represent information about value in decision-making tasks. However, the dynamics of how this information is processed are not yet understood. We recorded ensembles of cells from OFC and vStr in rats engaged in the spatial adjusting delay-discounting task, a decision-making task that involves a trade-off between delay to and magnitude of reward. Ventral striatal neural activity signalled information about reward before the rat's decision, whereas such reward-related signals were absent in OFC until after the animal had committed to its decision. These data support models in which vStr is directly involved in action selection, but OFC processes decision-related information afterwards that can be used to compare the predicted and actual consequences of behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Neuroscience, and.
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Stott
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA redish@umn.edu.
authors.forename: A David
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Redish
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D066328:Ventral Striatum / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: decision-making; neuroeconomics; nucleus accumbens; orbitofrontal cortex; vicarious trial and error