A causal role for right frontopolar cortex in directed, but not random, exploration

Abstract
Data availability
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Abstract

The explore-exploit dilemma occurs anytime we must choose between exploring unknown options for information and exploiting known resources for reward. Previous work suggests that people use two different strategies to solve the explore-exploit dilemma: directed exploration, driven by information seeking, and random exploration, driven by decision noise. Here, we show that these two strategies rely on different neural systems. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation to inhibit the right frontopolar cortex, we were able to selectively inhibit directed exploration while leaving random exploration intact. This suggests a causal role for right frontopolar cortex in directed, but not random, exploration and that directed and random exploration rely on (at least partially) dissociable neural systems.

Data availability

The following data sets were generated

1. Zajkowski
2. W
3. Kossut
4. M
5. Wilson
6. RC
(2017) A causal role for right frontopolar cortex in directed, but not random, exploration
Publicly accessible via the Harvard Dataverse website (https://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/CZT6EE).

https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/CZT6EE

Article and author information

Author details

Wojciech K Zajkowski

University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warszawa, Poland

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Malgorzata Kossut

Departament of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Robert C Wilson

Nencki Institute, Warsaw, Poland

For correspondence
bob@arizona.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2963-2971

Funding

No external funding was received for this work.

Ethics

Human subjects: All participants were informed about potential risks connected to TMS and signed a written consent. The study was approved by University of Social Sciences and Humanities ethics committee.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.