Assessing value representation in animals

Abstract

Among all factors modulating our motivation to perform a given action, the ability to represent its outcome is clearly the most determining. Representation of outcomes, rewards in particular, and how they guide behavior, have sparked much research. Both practically and theoretically, understanding the relationship between the representation of outcome value and the organization of goal directed behavior implies that these two processes can be assessed independently. Most of animal studies essentially used instrumental actions as a proxy for the expected goal-value. The purpose of this article is to consider alternative measures of expected outcome value in animals, which are critical to understand the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms relating the representation of the expected outcome to the organization of the behavior oriented towards its obtention. This would be critical in the field of decision making or social interactions, where the value of multiple items must often be compared and/or shared among individuals to determine the course of actions.