Cited by 219Neural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorDecision-Making and Behavioral Economics

The dopaminergic midbrain encodes the expected certainty about desired outcomes

Open access
Schwartenbeck, Philipp, FitzGerald, Thomas H. B., Mathys, Christoph, Dolan, Ray, Friston, Karl·2015·Cerebral Cortex

Abstract

Dopamine plays a key role in learning; however, its exact function in decision making and choice remains unclear. Recently, we proposed a generic model based on active (Bayesian) inference wherein dopamine encodes the precision of beliefs about optimal policies. Put simply, dopamine discharges reflect the confidence that a chosen policy will lead to desired outcomes. We designed a novel task to test this hypothesis, where subjects played a "limited offer" game in a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. Subjects had to decide how long to wait for a high offer before accepting a low offer, with the risk of losing everything if they waited too long. Bayesian model comparison showed that behavior strongly supported active inference, based on surprise minimization, over classical utility maximization schemes. Furthermore, midbrain activity, encompassing dopamine projection neurons, was accurately predicted by trial-by-trial variations in model-based estimates of precision. Our findings demonstrate that human subjects infer both optimal policies and the precision of those inferences, and thus support the notion that humans perform hierarchical probabilistic Bayesian inference. In other words, subjects have to infer both what they should do as well as how confident they are in their choices, where confidence may be encoded by dopaminergic firing.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/cercor/bhu159

Cites

80 of 80 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • This approach has been used to identify links between activity in neuromodulatory nuclei and computational trajectories, such as precision-weighted prediction errors or uncertainty.

    “This approach has been used, for example, to identify links between activity in neuromodulatory nuclei and computational trajectories, such as (precision-weighted) prediction errors or uncertainty (111, 115–117).”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Schwartenbeck, P., FitzGerald, T. H. B., Mathys, C., Dolan, R., & Friston, K.
Affiliations
Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
Corresponding author
Schwartenbeck, Philipp
Venue
Cerebral Cortex
Published
2014-07-23
Volume
25
Issue
10
Pages
3434-3445
ISSN
  • 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2199
OpenAlex
W2128918015
Cited by
219
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 3
FWCI
7.81
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • SDL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • UEA Digital Repository (University of East Anglia) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Wellcome Trust (091593, 091593/Z/10/, 098362, 098362/Z/12/Z, 091593/Z/10/Z, 088130, 098362/Z/12/)
  • University College London (098362/Z/12/Z)
  • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (098362/Z/12/Z)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
Keywords
dopamine, midbrain, Bayesian inference, active inference, decision-making, surprise minimization, utility maximization, hierarchical Bayesian inference
MeSH terms
Adult, Bayes Theorem, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Choice Behavior, Conflict, Psychological, Dopamine, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Risk, Substantia Nigra, Ventral Tegmental Area, Young Adult

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.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review