Tracking the emergence of conceptual knowledge during human decision making.

Full Abstract

Concepts lie at the very heart of intelligence, providing organizing principles with which to comprehend the world. Surprisingly little, however, is understood about how we acquire and deploy concepts. Here, we show that a functionally coupled circuit involving the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) underpins the emergence of conceptual knowledge and its effect on choice behavior. Critically, the hippocampus alone supported the efficient transfer of knowledge to a perceptually novel setting. These findings provide compelling evidence that the hippocampus supports conceptual learning through the networking of discrete memories and reveal the nature of its interaction with downstream valuation modules such as the vMPFC. Our study offers neurobiological insights into the remarkable capacity of humans to discover the conceptual structure of related experiences and use this knowledge to solve exacting decision problems.

Author information

Author/s: Kumaran, Dharshan (D); Summerfield, Jennifer J (JJ); Hassabis, Demis (D); Maguire, Eleanor A (EA);

Affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. d.kumaran(-atsign-)fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

Grants: (Agency:Wellcome Trust)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuron (Neuron), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 63 (issue 6) : pp 889-901

Dates: Created 2009/09/25; Completed 2009/10/09;

PMID: 19778516, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/9/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Neuron. 2009 Sep 24;63(6):721-3. (PMID: 19778501)

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