Evidence for model-based encoding of Pavlovian contingencies in the human brain

Wolfgang M. Pauli (), Giovanni Gentile, Sven Collette, Julian M. Tyszka and John P. O’Doherty
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Wolfgang M. Pauli: California Institute of Technology
Giovanni Gentile: California Institute of Technology
Sven Collette: California Institute of Technology
Julian M. Tyszka: California Institute of Technology
John P. O’Doherty: California Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Prominent accounts of Pavlovian conditioning successfully approximate the frequency and intensity of conditioned responses under the assumption that learning is exclusively model-free; that animals do not develop a cognitive map of events. However, these model-free approximations fall short of comprehensively capturing learning and behavior in Pavlovian conditioning. We therefore performed multivoxel pattern analysis of high-resolution functional MRI data in human participants to test for the encoding of stimulus-stimulus associations that could support model-based computations during Pavlovian conditioning. We found that dissociable sub-regions of the striatum encode predictions of stimulus-stimulus associations and predictive value, in a manner that is directly related to learning performance. Activity patterns in the orbitofrontal cortex were also found to be related to stimulus-stimulus as well as value encoding. These results suggest that the brain encodes model-based representations during Pavlovian conditioning, and that these representations are utilized in the service of behavior.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08922-7

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