Fig. 1. Experimental paradigm and behavioral results.

a Cartoon of the virtual pursuit task. Subject uses a joystick to control an avatar (circle) to pursue prey (square) and avoid predators (triangle). b Agent trajectories on example trial. c Illustration of typical session indicating subject’s path (black lines) and points of capture (orange dots). d Illustration of example session showing subjects’ path (gray lines) and points of spiking (red dots). e Average time to capture for each subject as a function of value of prey. No significant relationships are observed despite large datasets. This lack of correlation suggests that subjects generally traded-off effort to maintain roughly constant pursuit duration. f The proportion of trials on which subjects chose the larger value prey item despite it being faster was >50% for each prey difference (other than matched). Error bars indicate the standard error of the mean. The total number of trials in each subject was 5002 across 19 experimental sessions for subject K, and 3094 across 5 experimental sessions for subject H. g Schematic of the macaque brain showing medial surface and coronal sections. We record primarily from the dorsal bank of the anterior cingulate sulcus at roughly the rostrocaudal position of the genu; we call this region area 24.