Orbitofrontal Cortex Supports Behavior and Learning Using Inferred But Not Cached Values

Abstract

Experience Versus Models There is an ongoing debate over what the orbitofrontal cortex contributes to behavior, learning, and decision-making. Jones et al. (p. 953 ) found that the orbitofrontal cortex was important for value-based computations when value must be inferred from an associative model of the task but not when value estimates based on previous experience are sufficient. This result calls into question the assumption that this region simply signals economic value. However, it would be consistent with a concept of the orbitofrontal cortex as being important for constructing model-based representations of the world that are orthogonal to value.