ArticleBrain structure & function2022
To learn or to gain: neural signatures of exploration in human decision-making.
Article in Brain structure & function, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Competing value signals impair reward-learning via dopaminergic mechanisms and increase exploration.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Meta-Analysis Reveals That Explore-Exploit Decisions are Dissociable by Activation in the Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex, Anterior Insula, and the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A causal role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in random exploration.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- An fMRI-Based Brain Marker of Individual Differences in Delay Discounting.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Individuals not only take actions to obtain immediate rewards but also to gain more information to guide future choices. An ideal exploration-exploitation balance is crucial for maximizing reward over the long run. However, the neural signatures of exploration in humans remain unclear. Using quantitative meta-analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments on exploratory behaviors, we sought to identify the concordant activity pertaining to exploration over a range of experiments. The results revealed that exploration activates concordant brain activity associated with risk (e.g., dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and anterior insula), cognitive control (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus), and motor processing (e.g., premotor cortex). These stereotaxic maps of exploration may indicate that exploration is highly linked to risk processing, but is also specifically associated with regions involved in executive control processes. Although this explanation should be treated as exploratory, these findings support theories positing an important role for the prefrontal-insular-motor cortical network in exploration.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.