Decoding mental conflict between reward and curiosity in decision-making

Event Information

Host

Consciousness Club Tokyo

Duration

70 minutes

Abstract

Humans and animals are not always rational. They not only rationally exploit rewards but also explore an environment owing to their curiosity. However, the mechanism of such curiosity-driven irrational behavior is largely unknown. Here, we developed a decision-making model for a two-choice task based on the free energy principle, which is a theory integrating recognition and action selection. The model describes irrational behaviors depending on the curiosity level. We also proposed a machine learning method to decode temporal curiosity from behavioral data. By applying it to rat behavioral data, we found that the rat had negative curiosity, reflecting conservative selection sticking to more certain options and that the level of curiosity was upregulated by the expected future information obtained from an uncertain environment. Our decoding approach can be a fundamental tool for identifying the neural basis for reward–curiosity conflicts. Furthermore, it could be effective in diagnosing mental disorders.

Topics

behavioural data curiosity decision-making free energy principle irrational behaviour machine learning neural basis reward learning uncertainty

Decoding mental conflict between reward and curiosity in decision-making

Event Information

Abstract

Topics

Related Seminars

Related Job Opportunities