Disruption of Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Decreases Model-Based in Favor of Model-free Control in Humans - ScienceDirect

• Disrupting right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impairs flexible model-based choice • This drives behavior toward simpler, model-free control • Results provide causal evidence for neural underpinnings of flexible choice Disrupting right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impairs flexible model-based choice This drives behavior toward simpler, model-free control Results provide causal evidence for neural underpinnings of flexible choice Human choice behavior often reflects a competition between inflexible computationally efficient control on the one hand and a slower more flexible system of control on the other. This distinction is well captured by model-free and model-based reinforcement learning algorithms. Here, studying human subjects, we show it is possible to shift the balance of control between these systems by disruption of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, such that participants manifest a dominance of the less optimal model-free control. In contrast, disruption of left

• Disrupting right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impairs flexible model-based choice • This drives behavior toward simpler, model-free control • Results provide causal evidence for neural underpinnings of flexible choice Disrupting right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impairs flexible model-based choice This drives behavior toward simpler, model-free control Results provide causal evidence for neural underpinnings of flexible choice Human choice behavior often reflects a competition between inflexible computationally efficient control on the one hand and a slower more flexible system of contr