Learning-Induced Plasticity in Medial Prefrontal Cortex Predicts Preference Malleability

• Published in: Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 85; no. 2; pp. 418 - 428
• Main Authors: Garvert, Mona M., Moutoussis, Michael, Kurth-Nelson, Zeb, Behrens, Timothy E.J., Dolan, Raymond J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Limited 21.01.2015; Cell Press
• Subjects: Adult; Biomedical research; Brain - physiology; Choice Behavior - physiology; Concept Formation; Discount rates; Feedback; Female; Functional Neuroimaging; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Learning - physiology; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Neostriatum - physiology; Neuronal Plasticity - physiology; Neurons; Preferences; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Scholarships & fellowships; Social Identification; Social Perception; Social Values; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0896-6273; 1097-4199; 1097-4199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.12.033

Learning induces plasticity in neuronal networks. As neuronal populations contribute to multiple representations, we reasoned plasticity in one representation might influence others. We used human fMRI repetition suppression to show that plasticity induced by learning another individual's values impacts upon a value representation for oneself in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a plasticity also evident behaviorally in a preference shift. We show this plasticity is driven by a striatal "prediction error," signaling the discrepancy between the other's choice and a subject's own preferences. Thus, our data highlight that mPFC encodes agent-independent representations of subjective value, such that prediction errors simultaneously update multiple agents' value representations. As the resulting change in representational similarity predicts interindividual differences in the malleability of subjective preferences, our findings shed mechanistic light on complex human processes such as the powerful influence of social interaction on beliefs and preferences.