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Neural signatures of model-free learning when avoiding harm to self and other

View ORCID ProfilePatricia L. Lockwood, View ORCID ProfileMiriam Klein-Flügge, Ayat Abdurahman, View ORCID ProfileMolly J. Crockett
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/718106
Patricia L. Lockwood
aDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PH, United Kingdom
bWellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
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  • ORCID record for Patricia L. Lockwood
  • For correspondence: patricia.lockwood@psy.ox.ac.uk miriam.klein-flugge@psy.ox.ac.uk molly.crockett@yale.edu
Miriam Klein-Flügge
aDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PH, United Kingdom
bWellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
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  • For correspondence: patricia.lockwood@psy.ox.ac.uk miriam.klein-flugge@psy.ox.ac.uk molly.crockett@yale.edu
Ayat Abdurahman
aDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PH, United Kingdom
bWellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
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Molly J. Crockett
aDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PH, United Kingdom
cDepartment of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
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  • For correspondence: patricia.lockwood@psy.ox.ac.uk miriam.klein-flugge@psy.ox.ac.uk molly.crockett@yale.edu
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Abstract

Moral behaviour requires learning how our actions help or harm others. Theoretical accounts of learning propose a key division between ‘model-free’ algorithms that efficiently cache outcome values in actions and ‘model-based’ algorithms that prospectively map actions to outcomes, a distinction that may be critical for moral learning. Here, we tested the engagement of these learning mechanisms and their neural basis as participants learned to avoid painful electric shocks for themselves and a stranger. We found that model-free learning was prioritized when avoiding harm to others compared to oneself. Model-free prediction errors for others relative to self were tracked in the thalamus/caudate at the time of the outcome. At the time of choice, a signature of model-free moral learning was associated with responses in subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), and resisting this model-free influence was predicted by stronger connectivity between sgACC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Finally, multiple behavioural and neural correlates of model-free moral learning varied with individual differences in moral judgment. Our findings suggest moral learning favours efficiency over flexibility and is underpinned by specific neural mechanisms.

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Posted July 29, 2019.
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Neural signatures of model-free learning when avoiding harm to self and other
Patricia L. Lockwood, Miriam Klein-Flügge, Ayat Abdurahman, Molly J. Crockett
bioRxiv 718106; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/718106
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Neural signatures of model-free learning when avoiding harm to self and other
Patricia L. Lockwood, Miriam Klein-Flügge, Ayat Abdurahman, Molly J. Crockett
bioRxiv 718106; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/718106

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