Topic: exploration-exploitation dilemma

Flexibility in a dynamic and uncertain world is critical for individuals to survive and thrive. An appropriately flexible agent should know when to exploit a known resource or explore for a potentially better one. Previous research indicates that prefrontal brain regions including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), as well as the anterior insula are critical for value computation and decision-making. However, how these brain regions encode and transfer computed values to resolve the exploration-exploitation dilemma still remains unknown. We studied human cogni

Across species, survival depends on harvesting essential rewards such as food in the face of potential, occasionally catastrophic, dangers (such as serious injuries). This presents the challenge as to how to remain as efficient as possible when it comes to reward acquisition, whilst avoiding accrual of damage, especially during early exploration of new environments. This safety-efficiency dilemma is a special case of the exploration-exploitation dilemma, which typically collapses punishment and reward into a single scalar signal, whereby early losses can be overcome by later gains. However, th