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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Jul 21.
Published in final edited form as: Neuron. 2021 Jun 11;109(14):2339–2352.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.05.013

Figure 1. Investigating information seeking to resolve uncertainty about rewards and punishments.

Figure 1.

(A) Timeline of events in the reward and punishment information task. (B) In the informative block, 10 Cue1s yield 10 different chances of reward and punishment (air puffs), and are followed by informative Cue2s that indicate the outcome. In the non-informative block 10 other Cue1s yield the same outcome probabilities, but are followed by non-informative Cue2s that do not predict the outcome, so uncertainty is not resolved until outcome delivery. (C) Choice version of the task. After choosing a Cue1, the same sequence of events occurred as in the non-choice task (including Cue2, the pre-outcome timing cue, and the outcome). Plotted are the weights from a logistic GLM fit to each monkey’s choices based on the attributes of each Cue1, including outcome probability, uncertainty (operationalized as standard deviation), information-predictiveness, and key interactions. Both monkeys were fit with similar patterns of weights, including positive weights of Info × Reward Uncertainty, with one exception: Monkey 1 had a positive weight of Info × Punishment Uncertainty, while Monkey 2 had a negative weight (black arrows). Error bars are +/− 1 SE, **, *** indicate p < 0.01, 0.001. Right: % choice of informative versus non-informative Cue1 for trials where both options had reward uncertainty only (left bar) or punishment uncertainty only (right bar). (D) Top-left, 150 ul injection of manganese chloride anterograde tracer into the ACC region of Monkey 1 that was enriched in information anticipating neurons (White et al., 2019). Bottom-left, % increase of voxel intensity (MEMRI labeling) shown in a coronal plane 24 hours after injection in the vlPFC. Color axis: greater or equal to 20% change is shown as white; while black represents 5%. Top-right, MRI with an electrode in Monkey 1 targeting the MEMRI-identified region of vlPFC. (E). Schematic chartings of the distribution of retrogradely labeled cells (red dots) in the ACC - areas 32 and 24 - after LY injection in the vlPFC – area 12/47. Top-left: the vlPFC tracer injection was placed in a similar location to the vlPFC electrode in D. A cluster of labeled cells is observed over the same subregion injected with Mn2+ in the ACC.