[]Title: Relative salience signaling within a thalamo-orbitofrontal circuit governs learning rate

[]Authors: Vijay Mohan K Namboodiri, Taylor Hobbs, Ivan Trujillo-Pisanty, Rhiana C. Simon, Madelyn M. Gray, and Garret D. Stuber

[]Journal/Year: Current Biology (2021)

[]DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.037

[]Key Findings: some subgroups of neurons in ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex (vmOFC) encode the learning rate (α), a parameter within the temporal difference reinforcement learning (TDRL) framework. 

[]Conclusion: vmOFC controls the learning rate, but not the reward prediction error. 

[]Comments: This paper shown us the power of a theory for constructing a story in experimental science. In figure 1, based on the TDRL framework, the authors given their predictions about the coding pattern of the learning rate parameter. And then they found that the activity pattern of vmOFC neurons exactly comply with the predicitons. To further nail down the relationship, they made two more predictions about how the learning rate parameter ('α') would be changed during learning or when the relative salience of the behavioral cue was modulated. Again, they observed that vmOFC neurons shown the corresponding changes, which were in consistent with the changes of the learning rate parameter. 

This paper is a good showcace exemplifying the usefulness of a theory for organizing experimental data, for constructing a story line and, for decorating the plain results.

[]Writing Date: 2023-04-07