Rats adopt the optimal timescale for evidence integration in a dynamic environment
Open accessAbstract
Decision making in dynamic environments requires discounting old evidence that may no longer inform the current state of the world. Previous work found that humans discount old evidence in a dynamic environment, but do not discount at the optimal rate. Here we investigated whether rats can optimally discount evidence in a dynamic environment by adapting the timescale over which they accumulate evidence. Using discrete evidence pulses, we exactly compute the optimal inference process. We show that the optimal timescale for evidence discounting depends on both the stimulus statistics and noise in sensory processing. When both of these components are taken into account, rats accumulate and discount evidence with the optimal timescale. Finally, by changing the volatility of the environment, we demonstrate experimental control over the rats’ accumulation timescale. The mechanisms supporting integration are a subject of extensive study, and experimental control over these timescales may open new avenues of investigation.
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By employing Pontryagin's minimum principle on the probability density function space, the solution satisfying the optimality condition δJ/δu = 0 is given by Eq. (S4).
“By employing Pontryagin's minimum principle on the probability density function space [1-9], the solution that satisfies the optimality condition δ ˜ J/δ ˜ u = 0 is given by”
From Theoretical Analysis of Resource-Induced Phase Transitions in Estimation Strategies (2026) · cites this paper as [9]
The Results section, “Optimal inference in a dynamic environment” (page unavailable), derives an evidence-integration equation from posterior probabilities. The Methods section, “Behavioral model” (page unavailable), describes numerical optimization, but neither it nor the passages returned for searches on Pontryagin’s principle, the variational optimality condition, and Eq. S4 addresses the claimed solution. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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- Authors
- Piet, A. T., El Hady, A., & Brody, C. D.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brody, Carlos D.
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2018-10-15
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 4265-4265
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6189050
- OpenAlex
- W2896298553
- Cited by
- 76
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 13
- FWCI
- 4.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (5-R01-MH108358)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- evidence integration, dynamic environments, decision-making, rats, evidence accumulation, stimulus statistics, sensory noise, environmental volatility, optimal inference
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Decision Making, Task Performance and Analysis, Time Factors, Rats
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