The hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex jointly represent task structure during memory-guided decision making

Eda Mızrak; Nichole R Bouffard; Laura A Libby; Erie D Boorman; Charan Ranganath

doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110065

The hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex jointly represent task structure during memory-guided decision making

Cell Rep. 2021 Nov 30;37(9):110065. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110065.

Authors

Eda Mızrak¹, Nichole R Bouffard², Laura A Libby³, Erie D Boorman⁴, Charan Ranganath⁵

Affiliations

¹ Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Zürich 8006, Switzerland. Electronic address: edamizrak@gmail.com.
² Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada.
³ Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA.
⁴ Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA; Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA; Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA.
⁵ Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA; Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA. Electronic address: cranganath@ucdavis.edu.

Abstract

The hippocampus, well known for its role in episodic memory, might also be an important brain region for extracting structure from our experiences in order to guide future decisions. Recent evidence in rodents suggests that the hippocampus supports decision making by representing task structure in cooperation with the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Here, we examine how the human hippocampus and OFC represent task structure during an associative learning task that required learning of both context-determined and context-invariant probabilistic associations. We find that after learning, hippocampal and lateral OFC representations differentiated between context-determined and context-invariant task structures. The degree of this differentiation within the hippocampus and lateral OFC is highly correlated. These results advance our understanding of the hippocampus and suggest that the hippocampus and OFC support goal-directed behavior by representing information that guides the selection of appropriate decision strategies.

Keywords: cognitive map; decision making; episodic memory; hippocampus; orbitofrontal cortex; representational similarity analysis; task structure.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Adult
Decision Making*
Female
Food Preferences / psychology*
Food Supply / methods*
Hippocampus / physiology*
Humans
Male
Memory / physiology*
Prefrontal Cortex / physiology*
Task Performance and Analysis*
Young Adult

Grants and funding

R03 AG063224/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States