Polarity of uncertainty representation during exploration and exploitation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Open accessAbstract
Environments furnish multiple information sources for making predictions about future events. Here we use behavioural modelling and functional magnetic resonance imaging to describe how humans select predictors that might be most relevant. First, during early encounters with potential predictors, participants' selections were explorative and directed towards subjectively uncertain predictors (positive uncertainty effect). This was particularly the case when many future opportunities remained to exploit knowledge gained. Then, preferences for accurate predictors increased over time, while uncertain predictors were avoided (negative uncertainty effect). The behavioural transition from positive to negative uncertainty-driven selections was accompanied by changes in the representations of belief uncertainty in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The polarity of uncertainty representations (positive or negative encoding of uncertainty) changed between exploration and exploitation periods. Moreover, the two periods were separated by a third transitional period in which beliefs about predictors' accuracy predominated. The vmPFC signals a multiplicity of decision variables, the strength and polarity of which vary with behavioural context.
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Activity in ACC has been linked to information seeking and initiation of behavioral change.
“Activity in ACC has also been linked to information seeking and initiation of behavioral change14,17,22,62–66”
From Interpretable abstractions of artificial neural networks predict behavior and neural activity during human information gathering (2026) · cites this paper as [14]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Trudel, N., Scholl, J., Klein-Flügge, M. C., Fouragnan, E., Tankelevitch, L., Wittmann, M. K., & Rushworth, M. F. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Trudel, Nadescha
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Human Behaviour
- Published
- 2020-08-31
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 83-98
- ISSN
- 2397-3374 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7116777
- OpenAlex
- W3082827657
- Cited by
- 74
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 5.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Human Behaviour (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- PEARL (University of Plymouth) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- RCUK | Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J500112/1)
- RCUK | Medical Research Council (MR/NO14448/1)
- more specifically: MRC Skills Development Fellowship
- Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship
- Wellcome Trust (WT100973AIA)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- belief uncertainty, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, exploration and exploitation, predictor selection, decision variables, behavioral modeling, belief updating
- MeSH terms
- Bayes Theorem, Brain, Choice Behavior, Exploratory Behavior, Female, Humans, Judgment, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Prefrontal Cortex, Uncertainty, Young Adult, Functional Neuroimaging
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