Specialized neuronal modules for economic and single-attribute choice in the orbitofrontal cortex

An important component of biological intelligence lies in the capacity to learn and execute various cognitive tasks. This ability may be facilitated by a neural system comprising functionally dissociable neuronal modules. Within the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) lies a neural circuit that supports economic decision-making across diverse contexts. To investigate the functional specialization of this circuit, we compared the neural activity of OFC neurons in rhesus monkeys during multi-attribute choice (MC) and single-attribute choice (SC) tasks. In MC, the monkeys made subjective tradeoffs between competing attributes, whereas in SC, choices were deterministic based on a single attributes value. Neuronally, in MC, OFC neurons primarily encoded offer value, chosen value, and choice in goods space. Upon transitioning from MC to SC, a significant portion of MC-modulated neurons disengaged, while a separate set of neurons emerged to encode SC-related variables in a spatial reference frame. Notably, we observed the clustering of value-encoding neurons in MC but not SC. In essence, our findings suggest that choice tasks involving different mental processes are represented by dissociable neuronal modules within the OFC.