Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions, Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon, Republic of Korea; Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions, Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon, Republic of Korea; Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science, Suwon, Republic of Korea
Hoseok Kim
Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicum, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Xinying Cai
New York University Shanghai, NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
Hyunjung Lee
Department of Anatomy, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Republic of Korea
Jung Hoon Sul
Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions, Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Sung-Hyun Lee
Neuroscience Graduate Program, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Republic of Korea
Yeonseung Chung
Department of Mathematical Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
The Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States
Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions, Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon, Republic of Korea; Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Studies in rats, monkeys, and humans have found action-value signals in multiple regions of the brain. These findings suggest that action-value signals encoded in these brain structures bias choices toward higher expected rewards. However, previous estimates of action-value signals might have been inflated by serial correlations in neural activity and also by activity related to other decision variables. Here, we applied several statistical tests based on permutation and surrogate data to analyze neural activity recorded from the striatum, frontal cortex, and hippocampus. The results show that previously identified action-value signals in these brain areas cannot be entirely accounted for by concurrent serial correlations in neural activity and action value. We also found that neural activity related to action value is intermixed with signals related to other decision variables. Our findings provide strong evidence for broadly distributed neural signals related to action value throughout the brain.