Patients with basal ganglia damage show preserved learning in an economic game

Abstract

Both basal ganglia (BG) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) have been widely implicated in social and non-social decision-making. However, unlike OFC damage, BG pathology is not typically associated with disturbances in social functioning. Here we studied the behavior of patients with focal lesions to either BG or OFC in a multi-strategy competitive game known to engage these regions. We find that whereas OFC patients are significantly impaired, BG patients show intact learning in the economic game. By contrast, when information about the strategic context is absent, both cohorts are significantly impaired. Computational modeling further shows a preserved ability in BG patients to learn by anticipating and responding to the behavior of others using the strategic context. These results suggest that apparently divergent findings on BG contribution to social decision-making may instead reflect a model where higher-order learning processes are dissociable from trial-and-error learning, and can be preserved despite BG damage.

Human moral decision-making through the lens of Parkinson’s disease

“…In addition, PD patients with STN deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) implants overrate their own performance relative to other participants', indicating selfoverestimation and increased willingness to compete 46 . Consistent with this, a recent study showed that the capacity for strategic learning in the presence of competitive opponents seems to be preserved in patients with BG damage 47 . Dysfunctional social behavior may also be linked to alterations in social reward processing: this might be the case for PD ICD + patients who show reckless generosity 48 , e.g., compulsions to give away money and gifts.…”

Theory of mind and decision science: Towards a typology of tasks and computational models

“…It is one of the key insights of EWA (detailed in Camerer & Ho, 1999) that this weighted updating of unchosen action approximates belief-based learning. EWA has been successfully used in several behavioral economics experiments (see Camerer et al, 2004) and in a decision neuroscience context for modeling choice behavior in patent race games (Zhu et al, 2019(Zhu et al, , 2011. However, it is a computational model that provides only a very basic, sub-intentional, non-recursive representation of others.…”

Classification of Theory of Mind tasks and their computational models

“…The first variable 7( ) is equivalent to previous (pre-measurement) experience and updated according to the following: Ho, 1999) that this weighted updating of unchosen action is approximating belief-based learning. EWA has been successfully used in several behavioral economics experiments (see Camerer et al, 2004) and in a decision neuroscience context for modeling choice behavior in patent race games (Zhu, Jiang, Scabini, Knight, & Hsu, 2019;Zhu, Mathewson, & Hsu, 2011).…”