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Transformation of Time-Discounted Rewards in Orbitofrontal Cortex and Associated Brain Circuits
a Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA b Program in Neuroscience, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA c Department of Psychology, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Key Words: reward • orbitofrontal cortex • delay • time discounting • value
Address for correspondence: Matthew Roesch, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 20 Penn Street HSF-2, Rm S251 Baltimore, MD 21201. Voice: 410-706-8910; fax: 410-706-2512. mroes001{at}umaryland.edu
Animals prefer a small, immediate reward over a larger delayed reward (time discounting). Lesions of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) can either increase or decrease the breakpoint at which animals abandon the large delayed reward for the more immediate reward as the delay becomes longer. Here we argue that the varied effects of OFC lesions on delayed discounting reflect two different patterns of activity in OFC; one that bridges the gap between a response and an outcome and another that discounts delayed reward. These signals appear to reflect the spatial location of the reward and/or the action taken to obtain it, and are encoded independently from representations of absolute value. We suggest a dual role for output from OFC in both discounting delayed reward, while at the same time supporting new learning for them.
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