The role of the human hippocampus in decision-making under uncertainty

Bahaaeddin Attaallah (), Pierre Petitet, Rhea Zambellas, Sofia Toniolo, Maria Raquel Maio, Akke Ganse-Dumrath, Sarosh R. Irani, Sanjay G. Manohar and Masud Husain
Additional contact information
Bahaaeddin Attaallah: University of Oxford
Pierre Petitet: University of Oxford
Rhea Zambellas: University of Oxford
Sofia Toniolo: University of Oxford
Maria Raquel Maio: University of Oxford
Akke Ganse-Dumrath: University of Oxford
Sarosh R. Irani: University of Oxford
Sanjay G. Manohar: University of Oxford
Masud Husain: University of Oxford

Nature Human Behaviour, 2024, vol. 8, issue 7, 1366-1382

Abstract: Abstract The role of the hippocampus in decision-making is beginning to be more understood. Because of its prospective and inferential functions, we hypothesized that it might be required specifically when decisions involve the evaluation of uncertain values. A group of individuals with autoimmune limbic encephalitis—a condition known to focally affect the hippocampus—were tested on how they evaluate reward against uncertainty compared to reward against another key attribute: physical effort. Across four experiments requiring participants to make trade-offs between reward, uncertainty and effort, patients with acute limbic encephalitis demonstrated blunted sensitivity to reward and effort whenever uncertainty was considered, despite demonstrating intact uncertainty sensitivity. By contrast, the valuation of these two attributes (reward and effort) was intact on uncertainty-free tasks. Reduced sensitivity to changes in reward under uncertainty correlated with the severity of hippocampal damage. Together, these findings provide evidence for a context-sensitive role of the hippocampus in value-based decision-making, apparent specifically under conditions of uncertainty.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01855-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nathum:v:8:y:2024:i:7:d:10.1038_s41562-024-01855-2

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01855-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Human Behaviour is currently edited by Stavroula Kousta

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