# Neuronal and theoretical analysis of subjective value representations

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF OREGON · 2024 · $600,150

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Dysfunctional decision making has devastating impacts on individuals and on society. Many types of
decision making are therefore under vigorous investigation. This proposal emphasizes value-based decisions,
in which choosers select among options based on their subjective assessment of value. A deeper understand-
ing of this behavior is needed to develop the best possible treatments for decision making disorders, including
many forms of addiction and cognitive deficits that accompany mental illness, brain injury, and neurodegenera-
tive disease.
 Consumer choice is one of the best studied forms of value-based decisions. Studies reveal that our
economic personalities have a significant genetic basis, but it is difficult to trace causal links between genes
and behavior in humans. In response, geneticists often turn to simpler invertebrate organisms like the nema-
tode worm C. elegans in which the functions of genes nearly identical to their human equivalents can be inves-
tigated more rapidly, completely, and at a fraction of the cost. Until now, evidence that nematodes are truly ca-
pable of value-based decision making has merely been suggestive. However, economists have developed
mathematically rigorous testing procedures for determining whether decisions are based on subjective value.
The PI's laboratory has developed microfluidic devices that enable this test to be done on nematodes deciding
between high-quality food that is relatively abundant and low-quality food that is more scarce. The results meet
all the criteria of value-based decision making.
 Previous work in the PI’s laboratory and others has delineated the neural circuits for all three of the
main foraging behaviors of C. elegans. At the same time, whole-brain neuronal imaging has come of age in
this organism, including transgenic strains in which essentially all neurons in the brain can be identified unam-
biguously. Capitalizing on these new developments, the proposed research address three broad yet interre-
lated questions: How is subjective value represented? How is subjective value translated into action? How is
subjective value learned? How is subjective value altered by drugs of abuse?
 Successful completion of the proposed research yields a biologically realistic computational model of
the neuronal mechanism of value-based decision making in a compact circuit than can, in principle, be under-
stood completely. This work provides a foundation for understanding value-based decisions in more complex
organisms. The work also lays the cornerstone for genetic analyses, at single-neuron resolution, of orthologs of
human genes identified in association studies related to decision making. The research is broadly significant
because it establishes a new biological system in which to analyze at single-neuron resolution the interaction
of genes previously associated with decision making in humans, and to discover novel genetic pathways in-
volved in this behavior.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10765379
- **Project number:** 1R35GM152169-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
- **Principal Investigator:** SHAWN R LOCKERY
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $600,150
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-01-01 → 2028-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10765379

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10765379, Neuronal and theoretical analysis of subjective value representations (1R35GM152169-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10765379. Licensed CC0.

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