The Role of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Spatial Margin of Safety Calculations

• Published in: The Journal of neuroscience Vol. 44; no. 34; p. e1162222024
• Main Authors: Qi, Song, Cross, Logan, Wise, Toby, Sui, Xin, O’Doherty, John, Mobbs, Dean
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Society for Neuroscience 21.08.2024
• Subjects: Adult; Amygdala; Avoidance Learning - physiology; Brain Mapping; Coupling; Data analysis; Decision making; Decision Making - physiology; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Mental task performance; Multivariate analysis; Neostriatum; Outliers (statistics); Pattern analysis; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Safety; Space Perception - physiology; Threat evaluation; Young Adult; margin of safety; avoidance; predictability; ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Naturalistic observations show that animals pre-empt danger by moving to locations that increase their success in avoiding future threats. To test this in humans, we created a spatial margin of safety (MOS) decision task that quantifies pre-emptive avoidance by measuring the distance subjects place...