Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33639107›Full record

ArticleCurrent biology : CB2021

Prefrontal cortex represents heuristics that shape choice bias and its integration into future behavior.

Gabriela Mochol, Roozbeh Kiani, Rubén Moreno-Bote

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Current biology : CB, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
35citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

35 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Decoupling Choice from Motor Response Reduces Choice-History Effects.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
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  7. Control of cortical population activity with patterned microstimulation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  8. Article
  9. The geometry of context-dependent biased decisions during learning.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Representation of a perceptual bias in the prefrontal cortex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  16. Dopaminergic computations for perceptual decisions.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2024
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Recurrent Neural Circuits Overcome Partial Inactivation by Compensation and Re-learning.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Gabriela MocholCenter for Brain and Cognition and Department of Information and Communications Technologies, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: gabriela@mochol.com.
Roozbeh KianiCenter for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Rubén Moreno-BoteCenter for Brain and Cognition and Department of Information and Communications Technologies, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain.

Funding

CRCNS: Neural coding and computation in large ensembles in prefrontal cortexR01MH109180 · NIMH · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · PI KIANI, ROOZBEH · 2015 to 2018
$939k
Howard Hughes Medical Institute 55008742NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH109180
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Goal-directed behavior requires integrating sensory information with prior knowledge about the environment. Behavioral biases that arise from these priors could increase positive outcomes when the priors match the true structure of the environment, but mismatches also happen frequently and could cause unfavorable outcomes. Biases that reduce gains and fail to vanish with training indicate fundamental suboptimalities arising from ingrained heuristics of the brain. Here, we report systematic, gain-reducing choice biases in highly trained monkeys performing a motion direction discrimination task where only the current stimulus is behaviorally relevant. The monkey's bias fluctuated at two distinct time scales: slow, spanning tens to hundreds of trials, and fast, arising from choices and outcomes of the most recent trials. Our findings enabled single trial prediction of biases, which influenced the choice especially on trials with weak stimuli. The pre-stimulus activity of neuronal ensembles in the monkey prearcuate gyrus represented these biases as an offset along the decision axis in the state space. This offset persisted throughout the stimulus viewing period, when sensory information was integrated, leading to a biased choice. The pre-stimulus representation of history-dependent bias was functionally indistinguishable from the neural representation of upcoming choice before stimulus onset, validating our model of single-trial biases and suggesting that pre-stimulus representation of choice could be fully defined by biases inferred from behavioral history. Our results indicate that the prearcuate gyrus reflects intrinsic heuristics that compute bias signals, as well as the mechanisms that integrate them into the oculomotor decision-making process.

Indexed as

Choice BehaviorHeuristicsPrefrontal CortexAnimalsBrainNeuronsPrimatesbehavioral biasdecision makingmacaque monkeyprefrontal cortex

Identifiers

PMID33639107
PMCPMC8095400

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.