Hippocampal contributions to control: The third way

Máté Lengyel*, Peter Dayan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Book/Report typesConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Recent experimental studies have focused on the specialization of different neural structures for different types of instrumental behavior. Recent theoretical work has provided normative accounts for why there should be more than one control system, and how the output of different controllers can be integrated. Two particlar controllers have been identified, one associated with a forward model and the prefrontal cortex and a second associated with computationally simpler, habitual, actor-critic methods and part of the striatum. We argue here for the normative appropriateness of an additional, but so far marginalized control system, associated with episodic memory, and involving the hippocampus and medial temporal cortices. We analyze in depth a class of simple environments to show that episodic control should be useful in a range of cases characterized by complexity and inferential noise, and most particularly at the very early stages of learning, long before habitization has set in. We interpret data on the transfer of control from the hippocampus to the striatum in the light of this hypothesis.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Neural Information Processing Systems 20 - Proceedings of the 2007 Conference
PublisherNeural Information Processing Systems
ISBN (Print)160560352X, 9781605603520
StatePublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes
Event21st Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NIPS 2007 - Vancouver, BC, Canada
Duration: 3 Dec 20076 Dec 2007

Publication series

NameAdvances in Neural Information Processing Systems 20 - Proceedings of the 2007 Conference

Conference

Conference21st Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NIPS 2007
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityVancouver, BC
Period3/12/076/12/07

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