Amygdala Contributions to Stimulus–Reward Encoding in the Macaque Medial and Orbital Frontal Cortex during Learning

Peter H. Rudebeck, Joshua A. Ripple, Andrew R. Mitz, Bruno B. Averbeck, and Elisabeth A. Murray

The Journal of Neuroscience (2017)

DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0933-16.2017

The conceptual gap or the scientific question: How the amygdala contributes to the encoding of stimulus-reward associations in OFC and MFC?

How the authors proposed the question: The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), medial frontal cortex (MFC) and amygdala were involved in reward-based learning and decision making. How they interact with each other to support reward-value based behaviors? The amygdala neurons gained the coding ability of stimulus-reward associations (S-R) faster than that of the OFC and MFC. So does the amygdala function as the source of S-R signal to OFC and MFC? The authors tried to causally test the possibility in monkeys.

Brief summary: by excitotoxic lesions of the amygdala in monkeys, they authors shown that both the reward-value based decision making behavioral performance and the coding ability of S-R associations in OFC and MFC were impaired, which support the notion that the amygdala sends reward-value related signals to OFC and MFC to facilitate reward-based learning and decision making.

The paper reminds me to analyze the performance of error+1 trials, which might be informative for deeper understanding of my experimental results.

The ongoing question(s) inspired by the current study: to where the S-R association signals were transmitted for controlling reward-value based learning and decision making?