ArticleNature communications2023
Human thalamic low-frequency oscillations correlate with expected value and outcomes during reinforcement learning.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reduced mediodorsal thalamus activity underlies aberrant belief dynamics in a genetic mouse model of schizophrenia.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Interpersonal brain synchronization at frontopolar cortices underlies better advice-taking in groups.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Thalamic regulation of reinforcement learning strategies across prefrontal-striatal networks.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Optimal level of human intracranial theta activity for behavioral switching in the subthalamo-medio-prefrontal circuit.Nature communications · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Reinforcement-based adaptive decision-making is believed to recruit fronto-striatal circuits. A critical node of the fronto-striatal circuit is the thalamus. However, direct evidence of its involvement in human reinforcement learning is lacking. We address this gap by analyzing intra-thalamic electrophysiological recordings from eight participants while they performed a reinforcement learning task. We found that in both the anterior thalamus (ATN) and dorsomedial thalamus (DMTN), low frequency oscillations (LFO, 4-12 Hz) correlated positively with expected value estimated from computational modeling during reward-based learning (after outcome delivery) or punishment-based learning (during the choice process). Furthermore, LFO recorded from ATN/DMTN were also negatively correlated with outcomes so that both components of reward prediction errors were signaled in the human thalamus. The observed differences in the prediction signals between rewarding and punishing conditions shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying action inhibition in punishment avoidance learning. Our results provide insight into the role of thalamus in reinforcement-based decision-making in humans.
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