Contingency degradation in humans: the effect of outcome identity
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1
University of Sydney, Brain & Mind Research Institute, Australia
Learning the causal effects of our actions is essential for goal-directed behaviour. Distinguishing outcomes which are contingent on our actions from non-contingent outcomes is critical for this causal learning and depends on functionally segregated cortico-striatal loops in rodents and humans. In models of reinforcement learning, non-contingent outcomes decrease the value of the action as a function of their reward value. When non-contingent outcomes are equally rewarding as contingent outcomes then the action is redundant. In two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments, we examine this prediction when contingent and non-contingent outcomes have the same reward value but the identity of the outcomes are similar or different. When only one action was available, fMRI activity in a thalamo-caudate-midbrain network was associated with contingent outcomes, and actions and causal learning were reduced by non-contingent outcomes regardless of their identity. However, when a choice between two action-outcome contingencies was provided, non-contingent outcomes reduced actions and causal learning in a selective manner and this was associated with fMRI activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. This outcome-specific degradation effect is similar in rodents and humans, but inconsistent with model-based and model-free reinforcement learning. The common assumption in reinforcement learning that action selection occurs on the basis of reward value is not sufficient to explain human or rodent decision-making in these circumstances.
Keywords:
Basal Ganglia,
instrumental conditioning,
causal learning,
appetitive,
action value
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Cognition and Executive Processes
Citation:
Morris
R,
Dezfouli
A,
Griffiths
K and
Balleine
B
(2015). Contingency degradation in humans: the effect of outcome identity.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00298
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Richard Morris, University of Sydney, Brain & Mind Research Institute, Camperdown, Australia, richard.morris@sydney.edu.au