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Neural evidence for the successor representation in choice evaluation

Evan M. Russek, Ida Momennejad, Matthew M. Botvinick, Samuel J. Gershman, Nathaniel D. Daw
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.29.458114
Evan M. Russek
1Max Planck University College London Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, London, UK
2Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
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  • For correspondence: e.russek@ucl.ac.uk
Ida Momennejad
3Microsoft Research, New York, NY, USA
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Matthew M. Botvinick
4DeepMind, London, UK
5Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London, London, UK
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Samuel J. Gershman
6Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Nathaniel D. Daw
7Princeton Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
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Abstract

Evaluating choices in multi-step tasks is thought to involve mentally simulating trajectories. Recent theories propose that the brain simplifies these laborious computations using temporal abstraction: storing actions’ consequences, collapsed over multiple timesteps (the Successor Representation; SR). Although predictive neural representations and, separately, behavioral errors (“slips of action”) consistent with this mechanism have been reported, it is unknown whether these neural representations support choices in a manner consistent with the SR. We addressed this question by using fMRI to measure predictive representations in a setting where the SR implies specific errors in multi-step expectancies and corresponding behavioral errors. By decoding measures of state predictions from sensory cortex during choice evaluation, we identified evidence that behavioral errors predicted by the SR are accompanied by predictive representations of upcoming task states reflecting SR predicted erroneous multi-step expectancies. These results provide neural evidence for the SR in choice evaluation and contribute toward a mechanistic understanding of flexible and inflexible decision making.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted August 31, 2021.
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Neural evidence for the successor representation in choice evaluation
Evan M. Russek, Ida Momennejad, Matthew M. Botvinick, Samuel J. Gershman, Nathaniel D. Daw
bioRxiv 2021.08.29.458114; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.29.458114
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Neural evidence for the successor representation in choice evaluation
Evan M. Russek, Ida Momennejad, Matthew M. Botvinick, Samuel J. Gershman, Nathaniel D. Daw
bioRxiv 2021.08.29.458114; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.29.458114

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