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Prefrontal scaling of reward prediction error readout gates reinforcement-derived adaptive behavior in primates
Tian Sang, Yichun Huang, Fangwei Zhong, Miao Wang, Shiqi Yu, Jiahui Li, Yuanjing Feng, Yizhou Wang, Kwok Sze Chai, Ravi S. Menon, Meiyun Wang, Fang Fang, Zheng Wang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09761 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.09761 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.09761
arXiv:2512.09761v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Reinforcement learning (RL) enables adaptive behavior across species via reward prediction errors (RPEs), but the neural origins of species-specific adaptability remain unknown. Integrating RL modeling, transcriptomics, and neuroimaging during reversal learning, we discovered convergent RPE signatures - shared monoaminergic/synaptic gene upregulation and neuroanatomical representations, yet humans outperformed macaques behaviorally. Single-trial decoding showed RPEs guided choices similarly in both species, but humans disproportionately recruited dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Cross-species alignment uncovered that macaque prefrontal circuits encode human-like optimal RPEs yet fail to translate them into action. Adaptability scaled not with RPE encoding fidelity, but with the areal extent of dACC/dlPFC recruitment governing RPE-to-action transformation. These findings resolve an evolutionary puzzle: behavioral performance gaps arise from executive cortical readout efficiency, not encoding capacity.
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