# Elucidating the neural substrate for value-based decision.

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2020 · $38,395

## Abstract

Project Summary
In order to make an optimal value-based decision, an animal must effectively encode and
compare the value ascribed to each choice. Wide swaths of cortex are implicated in integrating
and representing the variables used to make a decision. However, the specificity and necessity
of these areas to decision-making is an open area of study. Evidence suggests distinct,
constituent elements of decision-making are encoded differentially across multiple brain areas.
Reinforcement learning theory provides a framework to dissect these measurable decision
variables from behavioral choice. Given both these decision variables and mesoscopic
techniques to record the activity of individual neurons and their populations, the research
proposed here aims to characterize the encoding of decision across multiple cortical areas.
Using cutting-edge imaging and optogenetic tools, this proposed work will elucidate how
ensembles of neurons in the brain compute value from recent experience during a probabilistic
reward behavior paradigm. The encoding of value and other decision variables will then be
tested with perturbation, interrupting normal activity to test causal function. The results of this
work will provide insight to how the brain integrates information across cortical regions in order
to reach a decision.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9998744
- **Project number:** 5F31MH116613-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Bethanny Danskin
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $38,395
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-05 → 2021-09-04

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9998744

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9998744, Elucidating the neural substrate for value-based decision. (5F31MH116613-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9998744. Licensed CC0.

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