Inference-Based Decisions in a Hidden State Foraging Task: Differential Contributions of Prefrontal Cortical Areas

Vertechi, Pietro; Lottem, Eran; Sarra, Dario; Godinho, Beatriz; Treves, Isaac; Quendera, Tiago; Lohuis, Matthijs N Oude; Mainen, Zachary F.

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2020.01.017

Cited by 63 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Reward delivery at a given site was probabilistic (given by P REW ) and switched stochastically to 0 after a variable number of licks, controlled by the probability of site depletion (P DPL ; STAR Methods ). 25 Mice were trained to remain still while licking at a given site and to run a set distance on a treadmill to switch between sites ( Figure 1 B). Consistent with previous reports, 1 , 26 , 27 we observed a tight relationship between PS and locomotor states ( Figure 1 C; across sessions, cross-correlation maximum r = 0.44 ± 0.13, p < 10 −7 ; Figures S1 A and S1B).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phasic Activation of Dorsal Raphe Serotonergic Neurons Increases Pupil Size

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Transient variations in pupil size (PS) under constant luminance are coupled to rapid changes in arousal state, 1 , 2 , 3 which have been interpreted as vigilance, 4 salience, 5 or a surprise signal. 6 , 7 , 8 Neural control of such fluctuations presumably involves multiple brain regions 5 , 9 , 10 , 11 and neuromodulatory systems, 3 , 12 , 13 but it is often associated with phasic activity of the noradrenergic system. 9 , 12 , 14 , 15 Serotonin (5-HT), a neuromodulator also implicated in aspects of arousal 16 such as sleep-wake transitions, 17 motivational state regulation, 18 and signaling of unexpected events, 19 seems to affect PS, 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 but these effects have not been investigated in detail. Here we show that phasic 5-HT neuron stimulation causes transient PS changes. We used optogenetic activation of 5-HT neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) of head-fixed mice performing a foraging task. 5-HT-driven modulations of PS were maintained throughout the photostimulation period and sustained for a few seconds after the end of stimulation. We found no evidence that the increase in PS with activation of 5-HT neurons resulted from interactions of photostimulation with behavioral variables, such as locomotion or licking. Furthermore, we observed that the effect of 5-HT on PS depended on the level of environmental uncertainty, consistent with the idea that 5-HT could report a surprise signal. 19 These results advance our understanding of the neuromodulatory control of PS, revealing a tight relationship between phasic activation of 5-HT neurons and changes in PS.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phasic Activation of Dorsal Raphe Serotonergic Neurons Increases Pupil Size

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although recent work has examined foraging tasks within a systems neuroscience framework [90][91][92][93], there remain many open questions related to how the brain processes key aspects of foraging decisions. For example, experiments with the "Self-control preparation," where an animal chooses between two choices, have significant behavioral differences with those that have a sequential foraging "patch preparation", even though from an economic standpoint, the setups are equivalent [94].…”

Section: Experimental Applications: Behavior and Neurosciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Normative theory of patch foraging decisions

Kilpatrick

Davidson

Hady

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Foraging is a fundamental behavior as animals' search for food is crucial for their survival. Patch leaving is a canonical foraging behavior, but classic theoretical conceptions of patch leaving decisions lack some key naturalistic details. Optimal foraging theory provides general rules for when an animal should leave a patch, but does not provide mechanistic insights about how those rules change with the structure of the environment. Such a mechanistic framework would aid in designing quantitative experiments to unravel behavioral and neural underpinnings of foraging. To address these shortcomings, we develop a normative theory of patch foraging decisions. Using a Bayesian approach, we treat patch leaving behavior as a statistical inference problem. We derive the animals' optimal decision strategies in both non-depleting and depleting environments. A majority of these cases can be analyzed explicitly using methods from stochastic processes. Our behavioral predictions are expressed in terms of the optimal patch residence time and the decision rule by which an animal departs a patch. We also extend our theory to a hierarchical model in which the forager learns the environmental food resource distribution. The quantitative framework we develop will therefore help experimenters move from analyzing trial based behavior to continuous behavior without the loss of quantitative rigor. Our theoretical framework both extends optimal foraging theory and motivates a variety of behavioral and neuroscientific experiments investigating patch foraging behavior. CONTENTS

show abstract

“…Mice had the choice to exploit either one of two resource sites ( Figure 1A). Reward delivery at a given site was probabilistic (given by P REW ) and switched stochastically to 0 after a variable number of licks, controlled by the probability of site depletion (P DPL , see STAR Methods and [25]). Mice were trained to remain still while licking at a given site and to run a set distance on a treadmill to switch between sites.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Probabilistic foraging task. The task for head-fixed mice was adapted from a version developed for freely moving animals [25]. Here, mice collected water rewards by licking at a spout from either one of two ressource sites.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changes in pupil size have been linked to uncertainty, from noise in integration processes [30] to subjective uncertainty [4] and risk prediction errors or surprise [1,13,31,32]. In the foraging task, different levels of uncertainty can be achieved by varying the statistics of the environment (i.e., P REW and P DPL ) [25]. In the easy protocol where both P REW and P DPL are high, site depletions most often happen early in the bout and a few unrewarded licks are strong evidence in favor of site depletion.…”

Section: The Effects Of Drn 5-ht Photostimulation Depend On the Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Phasic activation of dorsal raphe serotonergic neurons increases pupil-linked arousal

Cazettes

Reato

Morais

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Variations in pupil size under constant luminance are closely coupled to changes in arousal state [1][2][3][4][5]. It is assumed that such fluctuations are primarily controlled by the noradrenergic system [6][7][8][9]. Phasic activity of noradrenergic axons precedes pupil dilations associated with rapid changes in arousal [7,9], and is believed to be driven by unexpected uncertainty [1,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. However, the role of other modulatory pathways in the control of pupil-linked arousal has not been as thoroughly investigated, but evidence suggests that noradrenaline may not be alone [7,17,18]. Administration of serotonergic drugs seems to affect pupil size [19][20][21][22][23], but these effects have not been investigated in detail. Here, we show that transient serotonin (5-HT) activation, like noradrenaline, causes pupil-size changes. We used phasic optogenetic activation of 5-HT neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) in head-fixed mice locomoting in a foraging task. 5-HT-driven modulations of pupil size were maintained throughout the photostimulation period and sustained for several seconds after the end of the stimulation. The activation of 5-HT neurons increased pupil size additively with locomotor speed, suggesting that 5-HT transients affect pupil-linked arousal independently from locomotor states. We found that the effect of 5-HT on pupil size depended on the level of environmental uncertainty, consistent with the idea that 5-HT may report a salience or surprise signal [24] . Together, these results challenge the classic view of the neuromodulatory control of pupil-linked arousal, revealing a tight relationship between the activation of 5-HT neurons and changes in pupil size.

show abstract

Inference-Based Decisions in a Hidden State Foraging Task: Differential Contributions of Prefrontal Cortical Areas

Cited by 63 publications

References 38 publications

Phasic Activation of Dorsal Raphe Serotonergic Neurons Increases Pupil Size

Phasic Activation of Dorsal Raphe Serotonergic Neurons Increases Pupil Size

Normative theory of patch foraging decisions

Phasic activation of dorsal raphe serotonergic neurons increases pupil-linked arousal

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About