Deep reinforcement learning and its neuroscientific implications
Open accessAbstract
The emergence of powerful artificial intelligence (AI) is defining new research directions in neuroscience. To date, this research has focused largely on deep neural networks trained using supervised learning in tasks such as image classification. However, there is another area of recent AI work that has so far received less attention from neuroscientists but that may have profound neuroscientific implications: deep reinforcement learning (RL). Deep RL offers a comprehensive framework for studying the interplay among learning, representation, and decision making, offering to the brain sciences a new set of research tools and a wide range of novel hypotheses. In the present review, we provide a high-level introduction to deep RL, discuss some of its initial applications to neuroscience, and survey its wider implications for research on brain and behavior, concluding with a list of opportunities for next-stage research.
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Exploration, novelty, surprise, and free energy minimization
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Adaptive integration of habits into depth-limited planning defines a habitual-goal–directed spectrum
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Stabilizing Transformers for Reinforcement Learning
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Self-citationA Pallidus-Habenula-Dopamine Pathway Signals Inferred Stimulus Values
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Never Give Up: Learning Directed Exploration Strategies
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Reward-based training of recurrent neural networks for cognitive and value-based tasks
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Habitual control of goal selection in humans
Cushman, F. A., & Morris, A. (2015) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1506367112 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Blundell, C., Uria, B., Pritzel, A., Li, Y., Ruderman, A., Leibo, J. Z., Rae, J., Wierstra, D., & Hassabis, D. (2016) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1606.04460 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Reinstated episodic context guides sampling-based decisions for reward
Bornstein, A. M., & Norman, K. A. (2017) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn.4573 · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Learning structures: Predictive representations, replay, and generalization
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Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning in Sequential Social DilemmasPreprint
Leibo, J. Z., Zambaldi, V., Lanctot, M., Marecki, J., & Graepel, T. (2017) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.5555/3091125.3091194 · Cited by 151 · see citing works
Programming robots using reinforcement learning and teaching
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Deep Successor Reinforcement LearningPreprint
Kulkarni, T. D., Saeedi, A., Gautam, S., & Gershman, S. J. (2016) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1606.02396 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Unsupervised Predictive Memory in a Goal-Directed AgentPreprint
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Self-citationDeep, Narrow Sigmoid Belief Networks Are Universal Approximators
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Subcortical Substrates of Explore-Exploit Decisions in Primates
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Distral: Robust Multitask Reinforcement Learning
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Toward an integration of deep learning and neuroscience
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Modeling the Dynamics of Human Brain Activity with Recurrent Neural Networks
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Recurrent Network Model of the Neural Mechanism of Short-Term Active Memory
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Reward revaluation biases hippocampal replay content away from the preferred outcome
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Multiple Systems for Value Learning
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Learning Reward Uncertainty in the Basal Ganglia
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A Laplacian Framework for Option Discovery in Reinforcement LearningPreprint
Machado, M. C., Bellemare, M. G., & Bowling, M. (2017) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1703.00956 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Bayesian Action Decoder for Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningPreprint
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Self-citationHierarchical visuomotor control of humanoidsPreprint
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Action and learning shape the activity of neuronal circuits in the visual cortex
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Optimizing agent behavior over long time scales by transporting value
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Causal Reasoning from Meta-reinforcement Learning
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Self-citationOn the necessity of abstraction
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Genetic Programming for Reward Function Search
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Learning to Perform Physics Experiments via Deep Reinforcement LearningPreprint
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Relational Forward Models for Multi-Agent LearningPreprint
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Self-citationReinforcement learning, efficient coding, and the statistics of natural tasks
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Self-citationA Comparative Analysis of Expected and Distributional Reinforcement Learning
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The Option Keyboard: Combining Skills in Reinforcement LearningPreprint
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An Atari Model Zoo for Analyzing, Visualizing, and Comparing Deep Reinforcement Learning Agents
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A neurally plausible model learns successor representations in partially observable environmentsPreprint
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Exploration in Reinforcement Learning with Deep Covering Options
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MEMO: A Deep Network for Flexible Combination of Episodic MemoriesPreprint
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Self-citationEmergent Systematic Generalization In a Situated AgentPreprint
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Self-citationWhen Waiting Is Not an Option: Learning Options With a Deliberation Cost
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Dopamine Gates Visual Signals in Monkey Prefrontal Cortex Neurons
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The Termination CriticPreprint
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Self-citationStructure Learning in Motor Control:A Deep Reinforcement Learning ModelPreprint
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Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The neuroconnectionist research programme
Doerig, A., Sommers, R. P., Seeliger, K., Richards, B., Ismael, J., Lindsay, G. W., Kording, K. P., Konkle, T., van Gerven, M. A. J., Kriegeskorte, N., et al. (2023) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41583-023-00705-w · Cited by 233 · see citing works
Meta-learning in natural and artificial intelligence
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Self-citationPredictive maps in rats and humans for spatial navigation
de Cothi, W., Nyberg, N., Griesbauer, E.-M., Ghanamé, C., Zisch, F., Lefort, J. M., Fletcher, L., Newton, C., Renaudineau, S., Bendor, D., et al. (2022) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.090 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Emergent behaviour and neural dynamics in artificial agents tracking odour plumes
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“There have been several recent perspectives articulating the relevance of this emerging algorithmic toolkit to neuroscience 33,34 and ethology 35 .”
BackgroundTasks and their role in visual neuroscience
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Emergence of belief-like representations through reinforcement learning
Hennig, J. A., Romero Pinto, S. A., Yamaguchi, T., Linderman, S. W., Uchida, N., & Gershman, S. J. (2023) · PLOS Computational Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011067 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Optimization of Neuroprosthetic Vision via End-to-end Deep Reinforcement Learning
Küçükoğlu, B., Rueckauer, B., Ahmad, N., de Ruyter van Steveninck, J., Güçlü, U., & van Gerven, M. (2022) · doi:10.1101/2022.02.25.482017 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Colas, J. T., O’Doherty, J. P., & Grafton, S. T. (2024) · PLOS Computational Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011950 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
A multi-agent reinforcement learning model of reputation and cooperation in human groups
McKee, K. R., Hughes, E., Zhu, T. O., Chadwick, M. J., Koster, R., Castaneda, A. G., Beattie, C., Graepel, T., Botvinick, M., & Leibo, J. Z. (2021) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2103.04982 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Botvinick, M., Wang, J. X., Dabney, W., Miller, K. J., & Kurth-Nelson, Z.
- Affiliations
- Google DeepMind (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Botvinick, Matthew
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-08
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 603-616
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3041406801
- Cited by
- 269
- References
- 151
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Reinforcement Learning in Robotics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- deep reinforcement learning, decision-making, brain-inspired models, computational neuroscience, brain-behavior relationship
- MeSH terms
- Deep Learning, Algorithms, Decision Making, Models, Neurological, Models, Psychological, Neurosciences, Reinforcement, Psychology, Neural Networks, Computer
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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