Ongoing, rational calibration of reward-driven perceptual biases

  1. Yunshu Fan
  2. Joshua I Gold
  3. Long Ding  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Pennsylvania, United States

Abstract

Decision-making is often interpreted in terms of normative computations that maximize a particular reward function for stable, average behaviors. Aberrations from the reward-maximizing solutions, either across subjects or across different sessions for the same subject, are often interpreted as reflecting poor learning or physical limitations. Here we show that such aberrations may instead reflect the involvement of additional satisficing and heuristic principles. For an asymmetric-reward perceptual decision-making task, three monkeys produced adaptive biases in response to changes in reward asymmetries and perceptual sensitivity. Their choices and response times were consistent with a normative accumulate-to-bound process. However, their context-dependent adjustments to this process deviated slightly but systematically from the reward-maximizing solutions. These adjustments were instead consistent with a rational process to find satisficing solutions based on the gradient of each monkey's reward-rate function. These results suggest new dimensions for assessing the rational and idiosyncratic aspects of flexible decision-making.

Data availability

Raw data used during this study are included as the supporting files.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Yunshu Fan

    Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-2597-5173
  2. Joshua I Gold

    Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
    Competing interests
    Joshua I Gold, Reviewing editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-6018-0483
  3. Long Ding

    Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
    For correspondence
    lding@mail.med.upenn.edu
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1716-3848

Funding

National Eye Institute (R01-EY022411)

  • Joshua I Gold
  • Long Ding

University of Pennsylvania (University Research Foundation Pilot Award)

  • Long Ding

Hearst Foundations (Graduate student fellowship)

  • Yunshu Fan

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Peter Latham, University College London, United Kingdom

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All training and experimental procedures were in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the University of Pennsylvania Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (#804726).

Version history

  1. Received: February 19, 2018
  2. Accepted: October 7, 2018
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: October 10, 2018 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: October 26, 2018 (version 2)
  5. Version of Record updated: February 5, 2024 (version 3)

Copyright

© 2018, Fan et al.

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.

Metrics

  • 2,300
    views
  • 297
    downloads
  • 42
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Yunshu Fan
  2. Joshua I Gold
  3. Long Ding
(2018)
Ongoing, rational calibration of reward-driven perceptual biases
eLife 7:e36018.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.36018

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.36018

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience
    Sandra P Cárdenas-García, Sundas Ijaz, Alberto E Pereda
    Research Article

    Most nervous systems combine both transmitter-mediated and direct cell-cell communication, known as 'chemical' and 'electrical' synapses, respectively. Chemical synapses can be identified by their multiple structural components. Electrical synapses are, on the other hand, generally defined by the presence of a 'gap junction' (a cluster of intercellular channels) between two neuronal processes. However, while gap junctions provide the communicating mechanism, it is unknown whether electrical transmission requires the contribution of additional cellular structures. We investigated this question at identifiable single synaptic contacts on the zebrafish Mauthner cells, at which gap junctions coexist with specializations for neurotransmitter release and where the contact unequivocally defines the anatomical limits of a synapse. Expansion microscopy of these single contacts revealed a detailed map of the incidence and spatial distribution of proteins pertaining to various synaptic structures. Multiple gap junctions of variable size were identified by the presence of their molecular components. Remarkably, most of the synaptic contact's surface was occupied by interleaving gap junctions and components of adherens junctions, suggesting a close functional association between these two structures. In contrast, glutamate receptors were confined to small peripheral portions of the contact, indicating that most of the synaptic area functions as an electrical synapse. Thus, our results revealed the overarching organization of an electrical synapse that operates with not one, but multiple gap junctions, in close association with structural and signaling molecules known to be components of adherens junctions. The relationship between these intercellular structures will aid in establishing the boundaries of electrical synapses found throughout animal connectomes and provide insight into the structural organization and functional diversity of electrical synapses.