A Multi-task Platform for Profiling Cognitive and Motivational Constructs in Humans and Nonhuman Primates

Watson, Marcus R.; Traczewski, Nathan; Dunghana, Seema; Boroujeni, Kianoush Banaie; Neumann, Adam; Wen, Xuan; Womelsdorf, Thilo

doi:10.1101/2023.11.09.566422

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Two adult male macaque monkeys performed the experiments (monkey F, 13 years of age, 11.3 kg, and monkey I, 11 years of age, 11.0 kg). Behavior and electrical stimulation triggers were controlled using the Multi-Task Unified Suite for Experiments (M-USE) 45 . The animals were trained on the feature-reward rule learning task in cage-based touchscreen Kiosk Testing Station 46 and stimulation experiments proceeded in sound attenuating experimental booths with subject’s head position fixed, facing a 21’’ LCD screen at a distance of 63 cm from their eyes to the screen center.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anterior Cingulate Cortex Causally Supports Meta-Learning

Treuting,

Boroujeni,

Gerrity

et al. 2024

Preprint

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In dynamic environments with volatile rewards the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is believed to determine whether a visual object is relevant and should be chosen. The ACC may achieve this by integrating reward information over time to estimate which objects are worth to explore and which objects should be avoided. Such a higher-order meta-awareness about which objects should be explored predicts that the ACC causally contributes to choices when the reward values of objects are unknown and must be inferred from ongoing exploration. We tested this suggestion in nonhuman primates using a learning task that varied the number of object features that could be relevant, and by controlling the motivational value of choosing objects. During learning the ACC was transiently micro-stimulated when subjects foveated the to-be-chosen stimulus. We found that stimulation selectively impaired learning when feature uncertainty and motivational value of choices were high, which was linked to a deficit in using reward outcomes for feature-specific credit assignment. Application of an adaptive reinforcement learning model confirmed a primary deficit in weighting prediction errors that led to a meta-learning impairment to adaptively increase exploration during learning and to an impaired use of working memory to support learning. These findings provide causal evidence that the reward history traces in ACC are essential for meta-adjusting the exploration-exploitation balance and the strength of working memory of object values during adaptive behavior.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anterior Cingulate Cortex Causally Supports Meta-Learning

Treuting,

Boroujeni,

Gerrity

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Flexible Learning and Re-ordering of Context-dependent Object Sequences in Nonhuman Primates

Wen,

Neumann,

Dhungana

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Intelligent behavior involves mentally arranging learned information in novel ways and is particularly well developed in humans. While nonhuman primates (NHP) will learn to arrange new items in complex serial order and re-arrange neighboring items within that order, it has remained contentious whether they are capable to re-assign items more flexibly to non-adjacent positions. Such mental re-indexing is facilitated by inferring the latent temporal structure of experiences as opposed to learning serial chains of item-item associations. Here, we tested the ability for flexible mental re-indexing in rhesus macaques. Subjects learned to serially order five objects. A change of the background context indicated when the object order changed, probing the subjects to mentally re-arrange objects to non-adjacent positions of the learned serial structure. Subjects successfully used the context cue to pro-actively re-index items to new, non-adjacent positions. Mental re-indexing was more likely when the initial order had been learned at a higher level, improved with more experience of the re-indexing rule and correlated with working memory performance in a delayed match-to-sample task. These findings suggest that NHPs inferred the latent serial structure of experiences beyond a chaining of item-item associations and mentally re-arrange items within that structure. The pattern of results indicates that NHPs form non-spatial cognitive maps of their experiences, which is a hallmark for flexible mental operations in many serially ordered behaviors including communication, counting or foraging.

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