The orbitofrontal oracle: cortical mechanisms for the prediction and evaluation of specific behavioral outcomes

By Peter H. Rudebeck, Elisabeth A. Murray. 2014

383 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has long been associated with the flexible control of behavior and concepts such as behavioral inhibition, self-control and emotional regulation. These ideas emphasize the suppression of behaviors and emotions, but OFC’s affirmative functions have remained enigmatic. Here we review recent work that has advanced our understanding of this prefrontal area and how its functions are shaped through interaction with subcortical structures such as the amygdala. Recent findings have overturned theories emphasizing behavioral inhibition as OFC’s fundamental function. Instead, new findings indicate that OFC provides predictions about specific outcomes associated with stimuli, choices and actions, especially their moment-to-moment value based on current internal states. OFC function thereby encompasses a broad representation or model of an individual’s sensory milieu and potential actions, along with their relationship to likely behavioral outcomes.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

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Citations in the corpus

A modeling framework for adaptive lifelong learning with transfer and savings through gating in the prefrontal cortex (2020, background): “For example, value tracking functions attributed to OFC—medial OFC in particular (66)—may correspond to the value units in both the gating and expert networks (67).”
Emotion and the Prefrontal Cortex: An Integrative Review (2017, background): “…has been variably referred to as stimulus-reinforcement learning, evaluating the subjective value of stimuli, or signaling outcome expectancies (Padoa-Schioppa, 2011; Padoa-Schioppa & Assad, 2006; Rolls, 2004; Rudebeck & Murray, 2014; Schoenbaum & Esber, 2010; Wallis, 2007; Walton et al., 2010).”
Model-based predictions for dopamine (2017, positive): “Information about outcome identity may reﬂect inputs from the orbitofrontal cortex [51] which track multiple speciﬁc features of outcomes beyond reward amount [52,53].”
The neurobiology of aggression and violence (2015, background): “Generally speaking, the OFC and ACC are both involved in the integration of affective, sensory, and cognitive processes, for the purpose of generating state representations that are coherent, nuanced, and textured, as well as behavioral, cognitive, and affective responses that are modulated, context”