Anterior cingulate neurons perform parallel processing of fixated and peripheral information to guide information sampling and choice

Models of economic choice emphasise the impact of sequential fixation on valuation and choice, with prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) encoding values of fixated items. Yet whether these regions also evaluate non-fixated peripheral information to guide choice remains unknown. Here we show that in a decision-making task involving four simultaneously presented cues, rhesus macaques use peripheral information to guide information sampling and choice, and that ACC neurons encode this peripheral information.

This served two distinct purposes: subjects were more likely to fixate valuable peripheral cues, and more likely to choose valuable options whose cues were never even fixated. ACC, orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex neurons all encoded cue value as they were fixated. ACC was unique, however, in also conducting parallel processing of peripheral cues, including cues never fixated, to guide information sampling and choice.

J.L.B., T.H.M. and S.W.K. were supported by Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards (096689/Z/11/Z, 220296/Z/20/Z). S.V. was supported by Leverhulme award DS-2017-026. W.M.N.M. was supported by funding from the Astor Foundation, Rosetrees Trust and Middlesex Hospital Medical School General Charitable Trust.

L.T.H. was supported by a Henry Wellcome Fellowship (098830/Z/12/Z) and Henry Dale Fellowship (208789/Z/17/Z) from the Wellcome Trust. T.E.J.B. is supported by a Wellcome Principal Research Fellowship (219525/Z/19/Z), a Wellcome Trust Collaborator Award (214314/Z/18/Z), the Gatsby Initiative for Brain Development and Psychiatry (GAT3955), and by the Jean Francois and Marie-Laure de Clermont Tonerre Foundation. S.W.K. is supported by BBSRC Strategic Longer and Larger Grant (BB/W003392/1).

These authors contributed equally: Laurence T. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK James L. Muller, Sebastijan Veselic, Laurence T.

Kennerley Institute of Neurology, Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, University College London, London, UK James L. Muller, Sebastijan Veselic, W. Nishantha Malalasekera, Laurence T.