Risk-Responsive Orbitofrontal Neurons Track Acquired Salience

SummaryDecision making is impacted by uncertainty and risk (i.e., variance). Activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, an area implicated in decision making, covaries with these quantities. However, this activity could reflect the heightened salience of situations in which multiple outcomes—reward and reward omission—are expected. To resolve these accounts, rats were trained to respond to cues predicting 100%, 67%, 33%, or 0% reward. Consistent with prior reports, some orbitofrontal neurons fired differently in anticipation of uncertain (33% and 67%) versus certain (100% and 0%) reward. However, over 90% of these neurons also fired differently prior to 100% versus 0% reward (or baseline) or prior to 33% versus 67% reward. These responses are inconsistent with risk but fit well with the representation of acquired salience linked to the sum of cue-outcome and cue-no-outcome associative strengths. These results expand our understanding of how the orbitofrontal cortex might regulate learning and behavior.Video Abstract To view the video inline, enable JavaScript on your browser. However, you can download and view the video by clicking on the icon belowHelp with MP4 filesOptionsDownload video (11628 K)

► Orbitofrontal neurons are reported to signal risk or uncertainty ► Here we show that this activity violates predictions for risk encoding ► Instead orbitofrontal activity is better explained by salience ► This has implications for neuroeconomic models and orbitofrontal function