Goal-directed learning in adolescence: neurocognitive development and contextual influences

Wilbrecht, Linda; Davidow, Juliet Y.

doi:10.1038/s41583-023-00783-w

Nat. Rev. Neurosci.

2024

DOI: 10.1038/s41583-023-00783-w

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Goal-directed learning in adolescence: neurocognitive development and contextual influences

Linda Wilbrecht,

Juliet Y. Davidow

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2024

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Cited by 4 publications

References 194 publications

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Adolescent and adult mice use both incremental reinforcement learning and short term memory when learning concurrent stimulus-action associations

Chase,

Xia,

Tai

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Computational modeling has revealed that human research participants use both rapid working memory (WM) and incremental reinforcement learning (RL) (RL+WM) to solve a simple instrumental learning task, relying on WM when the number of stimuli is small and supplementing with RL when the number of stimuli exceeds WM capacity. Inspired by this work, we examined which learning systems and strategies are used by adolescent and adult mice when they first acquire a conditional associative learning task. In a version of the human RL+WM task translated for rodents, mice were required to associate odor stimuli (from a set of 2 or 4 odors) with a left or right port to receive reward. Using logistic regression and computational models to analyze the first 200 trials per odor, we determined that mice used both incremental RL and stimulus-insensitive, one-back strategies to solve the task. While these one-back strategies may be a simple form of short-term or working memory, they did not approximate the boost to learning performance that has been observed in human participants using WM in a comparable task. Adolescent and adult mice also showed comparable performance, with no change in learning rate or softmax beta parameters with adolescent development and task experience. However, reliance on a one-back perseverative, win-stay strategy increased with development in males in both odor set sizes. Our findings advance a simple conditional associative learning task and new models to enable the isolation and quantification of reinforcement learning alongside other strategies mice use while learning to associate stimuli with rewards within a single behavioral session. These data and methods can inform and aid comparative study of reinforcement learning across species.

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Adolescent and adult mice use both incremental reinforcement learning and short term memory when learning concurrent stimulus-action associations

Chase,

Xia,

Tai

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Adaptive Safety Coding in the Prefrontal Cortex

Tashjian,

Cussen,

Deng

et al. 2024

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Pivotal to self-preservation is the ability to identify when we are safe and when we are in danger. Previous studies have focused on safety estimations based on the features of external threats and do not consider how the brain integrates other key factors, including estimates about our ability to protect ourselves. Here we examine the neural systems underlying the online dynamic encoding of safety. The current preregistered study used two novel tasks to test four facets of safety estimation: Safety Prediction, Meta-representation, Recognition, and Value Updating. We experimentally manipulated safety estimation changing both levels of external threats and self-protection. Data were collected in two independent samples (behavioral N=100; fMRI N=30). We found consistent evidence of subjective changes in the sensitivity to safety conferred through protection. Neural responses in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) tracked increases in safety during all safety estimation facets, with specific tuning to protection. Further, informational connectivity analyses revealed distinct hubs of safety coding in the posterior and anterior vmPFC for external threats and protection, respectively. These findings reveal a central role of the vmPFC for coding safety.

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The preference for surprise in reinforcement learning underlies the differences in developmental changes in risk preference between autistic and neurotypical youth

Sumiya,

Katahira,

Akechi

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Risk preference changes nonlinearly across development. Although extensive developmental research on the neurotypical population has shown that risk preference is highest during adolescence, developmental changes in risk preference in autistic people, who tend to prefer predictable behaviors, have not been investigated. Here, we aimed to investigate these changes and underlying computational mechanisms. Using a game-like risk-sensitive reinforcement learning task, we found a significant difference in nonlinear developmental changes in risk preference between the autistic and neurotypical groups (N = 75; age range, 6-30 years). The computational modeling approach with reinforcement learning models revealed that individual preferences for surprise modulated such preferences. These findings indicate that for neurotypical people, adolescence is a developmental period involving risk preference, possibly due to lower surprise aversion. Conversely, for autistic people, who show opposite developmental trajectories of risk preference, adolescence could be a developmental period involving risk avoidance because of low surprise preference.

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Goal-directed learning in adolescence: neurocognitive development and contextual influences

Cited by 4 publications

References 194 publications

Adolescent and adult mice use both incremental reinforcement learning and short term memory when learning concurrent stimulus-action associations

Adolescent and adult mice use both incremental reinforcement learning and short term memory when learning concurrent stimulus-action associations

Adaptive Safety Coding in the Prefrontal Cortex

The preference for surprise in reinforcement learning underlies the differences in developmental changes in risk preference between autistic and neurotypical youth

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