Neuronal mechanisms for social information processing.

不确定性会影响奖励的感知价值，并影响我们的决策策略。我们通过个人经验和观察他人的行为和结果来了解不确定性。该研究旨在探讨从自身和社会经验中学习不确定性的大脑过程，眶额皮质（OFC）和杏仁核在基于价值的决策中起着至关重要的作用，这些大脑结构之间的相互作用被认为是学习的关键。然而，目前还不清楚它们如何不同地有助于了解选择选项的不确定性。此外，目前还不知道他们是否差异编码的不确定性，通过个人经验的学习相比，通过observation.To解决这些问题，我们训练猴子的行为任务，涉及决策和观察的选择伙伴猴子。我们同时记录了眶额皮层和杏仁核的单神经元活动。我们使用经济学原理量化和表征不确定性，将这种严格的不确定性度量与神经元活动联系起来。我们探索了记录的大脑区域中不确定性的神经相关性。此外，我们采用超声波刺激来研究学习过程中这些大脑区域之间的特定作用和相互作用，我们的主要目标是识别编码与受试者自己的选择或从他人那里观察到的不确定性相关的神经元。其次，我们的目标是比较的时间激活和不确定性编码之间的眶额皮层和杏仁核神经元推断的方向，在学习的不确定性信息流。第三，我们利用超声波刺激来扰乱每个大脑区域的活动，试图辨别每个区域在学习过程中的具体贡献及其相互作用，我们希望特定的神经元群体能够稳健地编码OFC和杏仁核中的不确定性。其中一些神经元可能会表现出不同的反应模式，这取决于不确定性是来自自己的经验还是来自观察学习。我们预计这两个区域之间的激活和编码时间的差异，这意味着在不确定性学习过程中信息的定向流动。利用超声波刺激，我们期望深入了解OFC和杏仁核在不确定性信息学习过程中所扮演的确切角色及其相互作用，这项研究将通过阐明OFC和杏仁核在社会背景下如何专门编码和更新不确定性信息来促进我们对大脑中社会信息处理的理解。这些结果将为不确定性处理的基本机制提供见解，这些机制在焦虑和成瘾等情况下也可能功能失调。

Uncertainty influences the perceived value of rewards and affects our decision strategies. We learn about uncertainty through personal experience and by observing the actions and outcomes of others. This proposal investigates the brain processes underlying the learning of uncertainty from own and social experience.The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the amygdala have been shown to play crucial roles in value-based decision making, and interaction between these brain structures is thought to be critical for learning. However, it is unclear how they differentially contribute to learning about the uncertainty of choice options. Furthermore, it is not known whether they differentially encode the uncertainty learned through personal experiences compared to that learned through observation.To address these questions, we train monkeys in a behavioural task involving decision-making and observation of choices made by a partner monkey. We perform simultaneous recording of single-neuron activity in the OFC and amygdala. We quantify and characterize uncertainty using economic principles, relating this rigorous uncertainty measure to the neuronal activity. We explore the neural correlates of uncertainty across the recorded brain regions. Furthermore, we employ ultrasound stimulation to investigate the specific roles and interactions between these brain regions during the learning process.Our primary objective is to identify neurons that encode uncertainty associated with either the subject's own choices or those observed from others. Second, we aim to compare the timing of activation and uncertainty-coding between the OFC and amygdala neurons to infer the direction of information flow during the learning of uncertainty. Third, using ultrasound stimulation to disrupt activity in each brain region, we seek to discern the specific contribution of each area and their interactions during the learning process.We expect specific neuronal populations to robustly encode uncertainty within both OFC and amygdala. Some of these neurons may exhibit distinct response patterns based on whether uncertainty arises from own experiences or from observational learning. We expect differences in activation and coding times between the two areas, implying a directional flow of information during the uncertainty learning process. Using ultrasound stimulation, we anticipate gaining insights into the precise roles played by the OFC and amygdala and their interplay during the learning of uncertainty information.This study will advance our understanding of social information processing in the brain, by elucidating how the OFC and amygdala specifically code and update uncertainty information in a social context. These results will provide insights into the fundamental mechanisms underlying uncertainty processing, which may also be dysfunctional in conditions such as anxiety and addiction.