Optimal coding and neuronal adaptation in economic decisions

Aldo Rustichini, Katherine E. Conen, Xinying Cai and Camillo Padoa-Schioppa ()
Additional contact information
Aldo Rustichini: University of Minnesota
Katherine E. Conen: Washington University in St Louis
Xinying Cai: Washington University in St Louis
Camillo Padoa-Schioppa: Washington University in St Louis

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract During economic decisions, offer value cells in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) encode the values of offered goods. Furthermore, their tuning functions adapt to the range of values available in any given context. A fundamental and open question is whether range adaptation is behaviorally advantageous. Here we present a theory of optimal coding for economic decisions. We propose that the representation of offer values is optimal if it ensures maximal expected payoff. In this framework, we examine offer value cells in non-human primates. We show that their responses are quasi-linear even when optimal tuning functions are highly non-linear. Most importantly, we demonstrate that for linear tuning functions range adaptation maximizes the expected payoff. Thus value coding in OFC is functionally rigid (linear tuning) but parametrically plastic (range adaptation with optimal gain). Importantly, the benefit of range adaptation outweighs the cost of functional rigidity. While generally suboptimal, linear tuning may facilitate transitive choices.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01373-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01373-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01373-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().