Dissociable neuronal modules in the orbitofrontal cortex representing single and multi-attribute choice tasks

Abstract

An important aspect of biological intelligence is the ability of quick task switching. Such ability may be realized through a neural system equipped with functionally specialized modules subserving each task. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) harbors a persistent circuit supporting economic decisions under different contexts. To examine the specialization of this circuit, we contrasted the coding of the same neurons in the OFC of rhesus monkeys under economic choice (EC) and single-attribute choice (SC). In EC, OFC neurons largely encoded offer value, chosen value and choice outcome in goods space. Strikingly, these neurons were tuned out in SC while a complementary set of neurons encoded SC-related variables in a spatial reference frame. Moreover, in EC, neurons encoding the same value-related variable are anatomically clustered and the noise correlation among these neurons dropped significantly when the animal switched from EC to SC, suggesting altered functional organization. Thus, dedicated modules in the OFC may support cognitive flexibility in choice.