2024/10/31 by Antara Majumdar, Caitlin A Ashcroft, Matthias Fritsche +11 · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.1101/2024.10.30.621089
openalex publication_date 2024/10/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
Summary Economic decision-making requires evaluating information about available options, such as their expected value and economic risk. Previous studies have shown that frontal cortical neurons encode these variables, but how this encoding is structured across different frontal regions and projection pathways remains unclear. We developed a decision-making task for head-fixed mice in which we varied the expected value and risk associated with reward-predicting stimuli. Using large-scale electrophysiology and projection-specific optotagging across multiple frontal regions, we identified distinct spatial gradients for these variables, with stronger expected value coding in dorsal regions and stronger risk coding in medial regions. We then demonstrated that this encoding further depends on the neuronal projections: frontal neurons projecting to the dorsomedial striatum and claustrum differentially encoded economic variables. Our findings illustrate that frontal cortical representation of economic variables is jointly determined by spatial organization and downstream connectivity of neurons, revealing a structured, multi-scale code for economic variables.