Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Reinforcement learning (RL) models describe how reward computations shape our choices, but whether the same computations also shape memory in the human brain is unclear. To address this question, we combined multi-areal intracranial recordings with computational modeling of reward and memory in neurosurgical patients. Patients played a gambling task in which decisions yielded monetary rewards tied to trial-unique images, followed immediately by a recognition test for those images. Model-derived positive reward prediction errors (RPEs) predicted later memory for each image. During feedback, multivariate high-frequency activity revealed the spatiotemporal evolution of RPE representations across distributed prefrontal cortex. During subsequent recognition, however, only anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) transiently reinstated RPE representations, and successful recognition specifically associated with hippocampal reinstatement of these ACC representations. Hippocampal-cingulate theta synchrony scaled with RPE during recognition, alongside hippocampal theta decoding of upcoming memory choices. Thus, the RL computations that guide decision-making also shape memory through hippocampal-cingulate circuit dynamics in the human brain.
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Neurocomputational mechanisms of proactive social behavior deficits in autism spectrum disorder, Computational and electrochemical substrates of social decision-making in humans, Big Omics Data Engine 2 Supercomputer, G6177305277, COVID and Translational Science supercomputer (CATS), The computational and neural mechanisms linking decision-making and memory in humans, Neural, computational and behavioral characterization of dynamic social behavior in borderline and avoidant personality disorder, Conduits: Mount Sinai Health System Translational Science Hub, Examining craving-choice interaction using computational modeling and intracranial recording
OpenAlex ID: W7212436683