Uncertainty modulates visual maps during noninstrumental information demand

• Published in: Nature communications 2022-10, Vol.13 (1), p.5911-12, Article 5911
• Main Authors: Li, Yvonne, Daddaoua, Nabil, Horan, Mattias, Foley, Nicholas C., Gottlieb, Jacqueline
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/378; 64; 692/308; Animals; Attention; Attention - physiology; Behavior; Humanities and Social Sciences; Incentives; Motivation; multidisciplinary; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Reinforcement; Reward; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Uncertainty
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33585-2

Animals are intrinsically motivated to obtain information independently of instrumental incentives. This motivation depends on two factors: a desire to resolve uncertainty by gathering accurate information and a desire to obtain positively-valenced observations, which predict favorable rather than unfavorable outcomes. To understand the neural mechanisms, we recorded parietal cortical activity implicated in prioritizing stimuli for spatial attention and gaze, in a task in which monkeys were free (but not trained) to obtain information about probabilistic non-contingent rewards. We show that valence and uncertainty independently modulated parietal neuronal activity, and uncertainty but not reward-related enhancement consistently correlated with behavioral sensitivity. The findings suggest uncertainty-driven and valence-driven information demand depend on partially distinct pathways, with the former being consistently related to parietal responses and the latter depending on additional mechanisms implemented in downstream structures. Curiosity is motivated by uncertainty and valence, but how uncertainty and valence are encoded in the brain remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that parietal neurons are enhanced by both factors, but that they specifically predict visual information seeking based on uncertainty.