Long- and short-range reward expectancy in the primate orbitofrontal cortex.

Abstract

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is important in motivation and emotion. We previously reported reward expectancy-related delay activities during a delayed reaction time task in primate OFC neurons. To further investigate the significance of the OFC in motivational operations, we examined pre-instruction, baseline activities of OFC neurons in relation to reward expectancy during the delayed reaction time task. In this task, an instruction cue indicated whether reward would be present or absent in the trial. Each set of four consecutive trials constituted one block within which three different kinds of rewards and one trial with no reward were given in a fixed order that differed from the monkey's reward preference. We identified two types of OFC neurons with reward expectancy-related pre-instruction activities: Step-type neurons showed stepwise changes (increase or decrease) in pre-instruction activity toward the trial with a particular outcome, which usually was the most or least attractive within a block; Pref-type neurons showed pre-instruction activity changes according to the monkey's preference for each trial's outcome. We propose that Step-type and Pref-type neurons are related to long-range and short-range reward expectancies of a particular outcome, respectively. The OFC is considered to play important roles in goal-directed behaviour by adjusting the motivational level toward a certain (current or future) outcome of a particular motivational significance based on the two kinds of reward expectancy processes. Impairments in goal-directed behaviour by OFC patients may be caused by a lack of long-range expectancy or by a deficit in compromising between short-range and long-range expectancies.