Activity in the superior temporal sulcus highlights learning competence in an interaction game
Open accessAbstract
During behavioral adaptation through interaction with human and nonhuman agents, marked individual differences are seen in both real-life situations and games. However, the underlying neural mechanism is not well understood. We conducted a neuroimaging experiment in which subjects maximized monetary rewards by learning in a prisoner's dilemma game with two computer agents: agent A, a tit-for-tat player who repeats the subject's previous action, and agent B, a simple stochastic cooperator oblivious to the subject's action. Approximately 1/3 of the subjects (group I) learned optimally in relation to both A and B, while another 1/3 (group II) did so only for B. Post-experiment interviews indicated that group I exploited the agent strategies more often than group II. Significant differences in learning-related brain activity between the two groups were only found in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) for both A and B. Furthermore, the learning performance of each group I subject was predictable based on this STS activity, but not in the group II subjects. This differential activity could not be attributed to a behavioral difference since it persisted in relation to agent B for which the two groups behaved similarly. In sharp contrast, the brain structures for reward processing were recruited similarly by both groups. These results suggest that STS provides knowledge of the other agent's strategies for association between action and reward and highlights learning competence during interactive reinforcement learning.
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Posterior divisions of the right STG are implicated in perception of intentional movements such as eye gaze, salience of acoustic cues, prediction of reward based on other agents' strategies, and live face-to-face interactions.
“Posterior divisions of the right STG (pSTG) have been implicated in perception of intentional movements such as eye gaze (81), salience of acoustic cues (82;83), prediction of reward based on other agents’ strategies (84), and live face-to-face interactions (85).”
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- Authors
- Haruno, M., & Kawato, M.
- Affiliations
- Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (JP)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2009-04-08
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 14
- Pages
- 4542-4547
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6665723
- OpenAlex
- W2079050225
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Keywords
- superior temporal sulcus, learning competencies, prisoner's dilemma game, interactive reinforcement learning, human-agent interaction, tit-for-tat, individual differences in learning, reward processing, computational agents
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Game Theory, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Learning, Male, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Temporal Lobe, Mental Competency, Young Adult
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