The value of identity: olfactory notes on orbitofrontal cortex function

Abstract

Neuroscientific research has emphatically promoted the idea that the key function of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is to encode value. Associative learning studies indicate that OFC representations of stimulus cues reflect the predictive value of expected outcomes. Neuroeconomic studies suggest that the OFC distills abstract representations of value from discrete commodities to optimize choice. Although value-based models provide good explanatory power for many different findings, these models are typically disconnected from the very stimuli and commodities giving rise to those value representations. Little provision is made, either theoretically or empirically, for the necessary cooperative role of object identity, without which value becomes orphaned from its source. As a step toward remediating the value of identity, this review provides a focused olfactory survey of OFC research, including new work from our lab, to highlight the elemental involvement of this region in stimulus-specific predictive coding of both perceptual outcomes and expected values.

Changing views of emotion regulation and neurobiological models of the mechanism of action of psychotherapy

“…Whereas parietal and temporal association cortices surround visual, auditory, and somatosensory areas, the ventromedial/orbitofrontal cortex and the anterior insula are adjacent to primary olfactory and gustatory areas (Rolls, 2000). Neurophysiological studies in laboratory animals and functional imaging in humans show that associative memory to rewarding or aversive experiences are stored in these areas (Balleine, Leung, & Ostlund, 2011;Gottfried & Zelano, 2011;Howard, Gottfried, Tobler, & Kahnt, 2015;Liljeholm, Tricomi, O'Doherty, & Balleine, 2011;Noonan, Kolling, Walton, & Rushworth, 2012;Parkes, Bradfield, & Balleine, 2015;Rudebeck, Saunders, Prescott, Chau, & Murray, 2013;Schoenbaum, Roesch, Stalnaker, & Takahashi, 2009).…”

“…This network may belong to the semantic system because it stores experience on the affective value of encountered stimuli and situations that determine personal preferences. It has been proposed that these areas compute a Bvalue function^of stimuli or available alternative choices by integrating sensory representations in interaction with posterior association cortices in parietal and temporal areas, on the basis of which a preference is expressed (Gottfried & Zelano, 2011;Kable & Glimcher, 2009;Rangel, Camerer, & Montague, 2008). An important aspect of these representations of subjective value is that they are not static, but are modulated by internal states reflecting the drives or needs of the individual (Small, Zatorre, Dagher, Evans, & Jones-Gotman, 2001) and integrate complex information from affective memories of past states or experiences (Wilson, Takahashi, Schoenbaum, & Niv, 2014).…”

Cortical Odor Processing in Health and Disease

“…The OFC, which is actually composed of several regions (Price, 1985), receives direct input from the MDT and the anterior piriform cortex, and thus shows a strong olfactory-induced activation in both humans and nonhuman animals (Gottfried and Zelano, 2011; Rolls, 2004; Schoenbaum et al, 2009; Zatorre et al, 1992). The OFC, however, is also strongly multisensory, with single units capable of responding to gustatory, visual, and somatosensory stimuli (Rolls et al, 2003).…”

“…Beyond this basic sensory physiology, the OFC plays very important roles in a variety of higher-order functions (Gottfried and Zelano, 2011; Mainen and Kepecs, 2009; Rolls, 2004; Schoenbaum et al, 2009). In fact, although extensive work on OFC function has utilized odors as important cues in behavioral tasks, most of this work has not addressed odor coding per se , but instead has focused on other aspects of the task.…”

Differential Modifications of Synaptic Weights During Odor Rule Learning: Dynamics of Interaction Between the Piriform Cortex with Lower and Higher Brain Areas

“…Accordingly, odor responses are highly distributed, and responses are rather sparse (Illig and Haberly 2003;Rennaker et al 2007;Poo and Isaacson 2009;Stettler and Axel 2009). It has been hypothesized that the PC carries out functions that have traditionally defined association cortex-it detects and learns correlations between olfactory gestalts and a large repertoire of behavioral, cognitive, and contextual information through reciprocal connections other brain areas, such as OFC (Haberly 2001;Gottfried and Zelano 2011;Wilson and Sullivan 2011).…”