PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lennart Luettgau
AU  - Emanuele Porcu
AU  - Claus Tempelmann
AU  - Gerhard Jocham
TI  - Reinstatement of cortical outcome representations during higher-order learning
AID  - 10.1101/2020.05.28.121558
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.05.28.121558
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/30/2020.05.28.121558.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/30/2020.05.28.121558.full
AB  - Higher-order learning mechanisms like second-order conditioning (SOC) may allow agents to infer value in environments with sparse rewards. Surprisingly little is known about the neural mechanism underlying value transfer in SOC. Here, we show that SOC may be supported by reinstatement of outcome representations in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and interactions of OFC with amygdala. Our data suggest a mechanism by which value is conferred to stimuli that were never paired with reinforcement.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.