PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Chang-Hao Kao
AU  - Sangil Lee
AU  - Joshua I. Gold
AU  - Joseph W. Kable
TI  - Distinct neural encoding of context-dependent error signals and context-dependent changes in behavior during adaptive learning
AID  - 10.1101/2020.05.11.089094
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.05.11.089094
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/13/2020.05.11.089094.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/13/2020.05.11.089094.full
AB  - Learning effectively from errors requires using them in a context-dependent manner, for example adjusting to errors that result from unpredicted environmental changes but ignoring errors that result from environmental stochasticity. Where and how the brain represents errors in a context-dependent manner and uses them to guide behavior are not well understood. We imaged the brains of human participants performing a predictive-inference task with two conditions that had different sources of errors. Their performance was sensitive to this difference, including more choice switches after fundamental changes versus stochastic fluctuations in reward contingencies. Using multi-voxel pattern classification, we identified context-dependent representations of error magnitude and past errors in posterior parietal cortex. These representations were distinct from representations of the resulting context-dependent behavioral adjustments in dorsomedial frontal, anterior cingulate, and orbitofrontal cortex. The results provide new insights into human brain that represent and use errors in a context-dependent manner to support adaptive behavior.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.