Nature Study Maps 3 Brain Regions Driving Continuous Choice in Human Prey-Pursuit Task
Updated
Updated · Nature.com · Aug 12
Nature Study Maps 3 Brain Regions Driving Continuous Choice in Human Prey-Pursuit Task
1 articles · Updated · Nature.com · Aug 12
Summary
Human brain recordings during a continuous prey-pursuit task identified a three-part division of labor for ongoing decision-making rather than a single choice center.
ACC neurons tracked major shifts in the blend of pursuit policies, supporting a meta-controller role, while hippocampal neurons encoded and updated the latent policy state used for early planning.
Orbitofrontal cortex activity instead matched the task’s current value structure, suggesting it provides context about payoff rather than triggering policy switches.
The team used a new control-theoretic model to decompose behavior into mixtures of lower-level controllers, arguing that continuous choice works through reweighting goals as conditions change.
The findings extend decision research beyond discrete yes-or-no choices toward naturalistic behavior, with data and code released publicly through Figshare and GitHub.