Biology subjects

Costa, V. D.

Publications and source records attributed to Costa, V. D..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2021

The neurocomputational architecture of explore-exploit decision making

Humans and other animals often make the difficult decision to try new options (exploration) and forego immediate rewards (exploitation). Novelty-seeking is an adaptive solution to this explore-exploit dilemma, but our understanding of the neural computations supporting novelty-seeking in humans is limited. Here, we presented the same explore-exploit decision making task to monkeys and humans and found evidence that the computational basis for novelty-seeking is conserved across primate species. Critically, through computational model-based decomposition of event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans, these findings reveal a previously unidentified cortico-subcortical architecture mediating explore-exploit behavior in humans.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Novel entropy-based metrics for predicting choice behavior based on local response to reward

For decades, behavioral scientists have used the matching law to quantify how animals distribute their choices between multiple options in response to reinforcement they receive. More recently, many reinforcement learning (RL) models have been developed to explain choice by integrating reward feedback over time. Despite reasonable success of RL models in capturing choice on a trial-by-trial basis, these models cannot capture variability in matching. To address this, we developed novel metrics based on information theory and applied them to choice data from dynamic learning tasks in mice and monkeys. We found that a single entropy-based metric can explain 50% and 41% of variance in matching in mice and monkeys, respectively. We then used limitations of existing RL models in capturing entropy-based metrics to construct a more accurate model of choice. Together, our novel entropy-based metrics provide a powerful, model-free tool to predict adaptive choice behavior and reveal underlying neural mechanisms.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

A pragmatic reevaluation of the efficacy of nonhuman primate optogenetics

Translational neuroscience is committed to generating discoveries in the laboratory that ultimately can improve human lives. Optogenetics has received considerable attention because of its demonstrated promise in rodent brains to manipulate cells and circuits. In a recent report, Tremblay and colleagues (2020) introduce an open resource detailing optogenetic studies of the nonhuman primate (NHP) brain and make robust claims about the translatability of the technology. We propose that their quantitative (e.g., a 91% success rate) and theoretical claims are questionable because the data were analyzed at a level relevant to the rodent but not NHP brain, injections were clustered within a few monkeys in a few studies in a few brain regions, and their definitions of success was not clearly relevant to human neuropsychiatric disease. A reanalysis of the data with a modified definition of success that included a behavioral and biological effect revealed an 62.5% success rate that was lower when considering only strong outcomes (53.1%). This calls into question the current efficacy of optogenetic techniques in the NHP brain and suggests that we are a long way from being able to leverage them in "the service of patients with neurological or psychiatric conditions" as the Tremblay report claims.

neuroscience↗