title: Learning-induced plasticity in medial prefrontal cortex predicts preference malleability.
abstract: Learning induces plasticity in neuronal networks. As neuronal populations contribute to multiple representations, we reasoned plasticity in one representation might influence others. We used human fMRI repetition suppression to show that plasticity induced by learning another individual's values impacts upon a value representation for oneself in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a plasticity also evident behaviorally in a preference shift. We show this plasticity is driven by a striatal "prediction error," signaling the discrepancy between the other's choice and a subject's own preferences. Thus, our data highlight that mPFC encodes agent-independent representations of subjective value, such that prediction errors simultaneously update multiple agents' value representations. As the resulting change in representational similarity predicts interindividual differences in the malleability of subjective preferences, our findings shed mechanistic light on complex human processes such as the powerful influence of social interaction on beliefs and preferences.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Electronic address: mona.garvert.11@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mona M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Garvert
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moutoussis
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EH, UK.
authors.forename: Zeb
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kurth-Nelson
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK; Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9D, UK.
authors.forename: Timothy E J
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Behrens
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EH, UK.
authors.forename: Raymond J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dolan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception; D012945:Social Values; D055815:Young Adult