Persistent Decision-Making in Mice, Monkeys, and Humans

Abstract

AbstractHumans have the capacity to persist in behavioural policies, even in challenging environments that lack immediate reward. Our persistence is the scaffold on which many higher executive functions are built. However, it remains unclear whether humans are uniquely persistent or, instead, if this capacity is widely conserved across species. To address this question, we compared humans with mice and monkeys in harmonised versions of an uncertain decision-making task. The task encouraged all species to strike a balance between persistently exploiting one policy and exploring alternative policies that could become better at any moment. Although all three species had similar strategies, we found that both primate species—humans and monkeys—were able to persist in exploitation for much longer than the mice. We speculate that the similarities in persistence patterns in humans and monkeys, as opposed to mice, may be linked to ecological, neurobiological, or cognitive factors that differ systematically between these species.TeaserHumans, monkeys and mice use similar decision-making strategies, but exploit valuable options for different lengths of time.