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

Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 7;10(1):1099. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08922-7.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping
  • Conditioning, Classical / physiology*
  • Corpus Striatum / diagnostic imaging
  • Corpus Striatum / physiology
  • Female
  • Functional Neuroimaging
  • Healthy Volunteers
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Models, Neurological
  • Models, Psychological
  • Prefrontal Cortex / diagnostic imaging
  • Prefrontal Cortex / physiology
  • Young Adult