The balance between exploiting familiar options and exploring alternatives with potentially less favorable outcomes, represents a fundamental challenge of adaptive control ( Mehlhorn et al., 2015). Editor's evaluationįlexible adaption of choice behaviour is crucial for decision-making when facing uncertainty. We conclude that the basal ganglia’s output nucleus, the globus pallidus interna, can adaptively modify decision choice when faced with the dilemma to explore or exploit. Variation in the extent of neuromodulation induced exploration between patients was associated with functional connectivity from the stimulation electrode site to a distributed brain functional network. We estimated the functional connectivity profile between the stimulating DBS electrode and the rest of the brain using a normative functional connectome derived from heathy controls.

Enhanced exploration was explained by a reduction in the rate of evidence accumulation (drift rate) in a reinforcement learning drift diffusion model. Neuromodulation enhanced the number of exploratory choices to the lower value option in a two-armed bandit probabilistic reversal-learning task. To test this hypothesis, we examined the effects of neuromodulating the basal ganglia’s output nucleus, the globus pallidus interna, in patients who had undergone deep brain stimulation (DBS) for isolated dystonia. The sub-cortical nuclei that make up the basal ganglia have been proposed as a neural circuit that may contribute to resolving this explore-exploit ‘dilemma’. Every decision that we make involves a conflict between exploiting our current knowledge of an action’s value or exploring alternative courses of action that might lead to a better, or worse outcome.

Globus simulation 2017 year 7