title: Behavioral variability through stochastic choice and its gating by anterior cingulate cortex.
abstract: Behavioral choices that ignore prior experience promote exploration and unpredictability but are seemingly at odds with the brain's tendency to use experience to optimize behavioral choice. Indeed, when faced with virtual competitors, primates resort to strategic counter prediction rather than to stochastic choice. Here, we show that rats also use history- and model-based strategies when faced with similar competitors but can switch to a "stochastic" mode when challenged with a competitor that they cannot defeat by counter prediction. In this mode, outcomes associated with an animal's actions are ignored, and normal engagement of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is suppressed. Using circuit perturbations in transgenic rats, we demonstrate that switching between strategic and stochastic behavioral modes is controlled by locus coeruleus input into ACC. Our findings suggest that, under conditions of uncertainty about environmental rules, changes in noradrenergic input alter ACC output and prevent erroneous beliefs from guiding decisions, thus enabling behavioral variation. PAPERCLIP:
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
authors.forename: Dougal G R
authors.initials: DGR
authors.lastname: Tervo
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Proskurin
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
authors.forename: Maxim
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manakov
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
authors.forename: Mayank
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kabra
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vollmer
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Branson
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA. Electronic address: alla@janelia.hhmi.org.
authors.forename: Alla Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Karpova
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D008125:Locus Coeruleus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D055647:Rats, Transgenic; D013269:Stochastic Processes