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Neural Correlates of Strategic Decision-Making in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex

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The Prefrontal Cortex as an Executive, Emotional, and Social Brain

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Abstract

The prefrontal cortex of primates is well poised for carrying out multiple types of functions related to strategic decision-making. For example, outcomes of many strategic decisions can be observed only after substantial delays. The prefrontal cortex might play a key role in incorporating such delays into decision-making by representing the subjective value of delayed outcomes. In addition, the prefrontal cortex is likely to make multiple contributions to improving the strategies of decision-makers through experience. For trial-and-error learning, signals related to the decision-maker’s previous choices and their outcomes must be combined properly, and this might be implemented flexibly in different regions of the prefrontal cortex according to the demands of specific tasks. How the brain predicts the outcomes of hypothetical actions based on its internal model of the environment is less well understood, but the arbitration and switching between different learning algorithms might also rely on specific regions of the prefrontal cortex, including the frontopolar cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA

    Hyojung Seo & Daeyeol Lee

  2. Center for Functional Connectomics, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, 136-791, Republic of Korea

    Soyoun Kim

  3. NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China

    Xinying Cai

  4. RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, Japan

    Hiroshi Abe

  5. The Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA

    Christopher H. Donahue

  6. Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA

    Daeyeol Lee

  7. Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Daeyeol Lee

Authors
  1. Hyojung Seo
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  2. Soyoun Kim
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  3. Xinying Cai
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  4. Hiroshi Abe
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  5. Christopher H. Donahue
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  6. Daeyeol Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daeyeol Lee .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiological Psychology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo, Japan

    Masataka Watanabe

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Seo, H., Kim, S., Cai, X., Abe, H., Donahue, C.H., Lee, D. (2017). Neural Correlates of Strategic Decision-Making in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex. In: Watanabe, M. (eds) The Prefrontal Cortex as an Executive, Emotional, and Social Brain. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56508-6_1

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