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| Research article summary (published 6 Apr 2009): |
Activity in the superior temporal sulcus highlights learning competence in an interaction game.
Full Abstract
During behavioral adaptation through interaction with human and nonhuman agents, marked individual differences are seen in both real-life situations and games. However, the underlying neural mechanism is not well understood. We conducted a neuroimaging experiment in which subjects maximized monetary rewards by learning in a prisoner's dilemma game with two computer agents: agent A, a tit-for-tat player who repeats the subject's previous action, and agent B, a simple stochastic cooperator oblivious to the subject's action. Approximately 1/3 of the subjects (group I) learned optimally in relation to both A and B, while another 1/3 (group II) did so only for B. Post-experiment interviews indicated that group I exploited the agent strategies more often than group II. Significant differences in learning-related brain activity between the two groups were only found in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) for both A and B. Furthermore, the learning performance of each group I subject was predictable based on this STS activity, but not in the group II subjects. This differential activity could not be attributed to a behavioral difference since it persisted in relation to agent B for which the two groups behaved similarly. In sharp contrast, the brain structures for reward processing were recruited similarly by both groups. These results suggest that STS provides knowledge of the other agent's strategies for association between action and reward and highlights learning competence during interactive reinforcement learning.
Author information
Author/s: Haruno, Masahiko (M); Kawato, Mitsuo (M);
Affiliation: ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, Japan. mharuno(-atsign-)atr.jp
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2009-Apr; vol 29 (issue 14) : pp 4542-7
Dates: Created 2009/04/09; Completed 2009/05/06;
PMID: 19357279, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 5/6/2009, IMS Date: )
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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