title: Signatures of Value Comparison in Ventral Striatum Neurons.
abstract: The ventral striatum (VS), like its cortical afferents, is closely associated with processing of rewards, but the relative contributions of striatal and cortical reward systems remains unclear. Most theories posit distinct roles for these structures, despite their similarities. We compared responses of VS neurons to those of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) Area 14 neurons, recorded in a risky choice task. Five major response patterns observed in vmPFC were also observed in VS: (1) offer value encoding, (2) value difference encoding, (3) preferential encoding of chosen relative to unchosen value, (4) a correlation between residual variance in responses and choices, and (5) prominent encoding of outcomes. We did observe some differences as well; in particular, preferential encoding of the chosen option was stronger and started earlier in VS than in vmPFC. Nonetheless, the close match between vmPFC and VS suggests that cortex and its striatal targets make overlapping contributions to economic choice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Caleb E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Strait
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States of America; Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Brianna J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Sleezer
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Benjamin Y
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Hayden
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D066328:Ventral Striatum / Q000502:physiology*