Cortical substrates for exploratory decisions in humans

To boldly go... Humans are remarkably curious, and that is useful in helping us to learn about new environments and possibilities. But curiosity killed the cat, they say, and it also carries with it substantial potential risks and costs for us. Statisticians, engineers and economists have long considered ways of balancing the costs and benefits of exploration. Tests involving a gambling task and an fMRI brain scanner now show that humans appear to obey similar principles when considering their options. The players had to balance the desire to select the richest option based on accumulated experience against the desire to choose a less familiar option that might have a larger payoff. The frontopolar cortex, a brain area known to be involved in cognitive control, was preferentially active during exploratory decisions. The results suggest a neurobiological account of human exploration and point to a new area for behavioural and neural investigations.