The DOI matches its Crossref record; 88 of the 88 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Activity in human dorsal raphe nucleus signals changes in behavioural policy
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
The dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) is an important source of serotonin to the human forebrain, however there is little consensus about its behavioural function. We build on recent results from animal models to demonstrate that activity in human DRN implements changes in behavioural policy that reflect the distribution of rewards in the environment. We use a foraging-inspired behavioural task to show that human participants change their policy to pursue or reject reward opportunities as a function of the average value of opportunities in the environment. Activity in DRN-but no other neuromodulatory nucleus-signals such policy changes. Patterns of multivariate activity in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insular cortex (AI), meanwhile, track the relative value of reward opportunities given the average value of the environment. We therefore suggest that DRN, dACC and AI form a circuit in which dACC/AI construct representations of reward opportunities given the current context, and DRN implements changes in behavioural policy based on these representations.
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From Two prefrontal-subcortical circuits estimate controllability and reflect its impact on learning (2026) · cites this paper as [99]
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Two prefrontal-subcortical circuits estimate controllability and reflect its impact on learning
Liu, Y., Spiering, L., Luo, S., Kingston, N., Grohn, J., & Rushworth, M. F. S. (2026) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2026.07.029 · Cited by 1
Winiarski, S., Ngo, M. T., Reith, W. D., Habart, M., Schüffelgen, U., Tachrount, M., Clarke, W. T., Watts, W. W., Whitcomb, D. J., Sharp, T., et al. (2026) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.64898/2026.05.11.724324
Raphe nuclei in cognition: A network-level framework for behavioral-state control
Khalighinejad, N., & Rushworth, M. F. S. (2026) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2026.09.013 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Priestley, L., Mahmoodi, A., Reith, W. D., Khalighinejad, N., & Rushworth, M. F. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Priestley, Luke
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-02-14
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1665-1665
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC12909899
- OpenAlex
- W7128918923
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 86
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3
- FWCI
- 7.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (221794/Z/20/Z)
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/W003392/1, BB/W008947/1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- dorsal raphe nucleus, serotonin, behavioural policy, reward valuation, foraging task, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, neuromodulation, reward allocation, decision-making, human brain activity
- MeSH terms
- Insular Cortex, Adult, Female, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Reward, Young Adult, Dorsal Raphe Nucleus
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