Hernádi István, Grabenhorst Fabian, Schultz Wolfram
Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Nat Neurosci. 2015 Mar;18(3):461-9. doi: 10.1038/nn.3925. Epub 2015 Jan 26.
The best rewards are often distant and can only be achieved by planning and decision-making over several steps. We designed a multi-step choice task in which monkeys followed internal plans to save rewards toward self-defined goals. During this self-controlled behavior, amygdala neurons showed future-oriented activity that reflected the animal's plan to obtain specific rewards several trials ahead. This prospective activity encoded crucial components of the animal's plan, including value and length of the planned choice sequence. It began on initial trials when a plan would be formed, reappeared step by step until reward receipt, and readily updated with a new sequence. It predicted performance, including errors, and typically disappeared during instructed behavior. Such prospective activity could underlie the formation and pursuit of internal plans characteristic of goal-directed behavior. The existence of neuronal planning activity in the amygdala suggests that this structure is important in guiding behavior toward internally generated, distant goals.
最好的奖励往往遥不可及，只有通过多步骤的规划和决策才能实现。我们设计了一个多步骤选择任务，其中猴子遵循内部计划来为自我定义的目标节省奖励。在这种自我控制行为过程中，杏仁核神经元表现出面向未来的活动，这种活动反映了动物提前几个试验获得特定奖励的计划。这种前瞻性活动编码了动物计划的关键组成部分，包括计划选择序列的价值和长度。它在形成计划的初始试验中开始，一步一步地重新出现，直到获得奖励，并能随着新序列轻松更新。它预测了包括错误在内的表现，并且通常在指令行为期间消失。这种前瞻性活动可能是目标导向行为所特有的内部计划形成和追求的基础。杏仁核中存在神经元规划活动表明，这种结构在引导行为朝着内部产生的、遥远的目标发展方面很重要。
