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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Syst. Neurosci.
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2024.1481585

A role for the midbrain reticular formation in delay-based decision making

Provisionally accepted
Yong Sang Jo Yong Sang Jo 1*Gyeong Hee Pyeon Gyeong Hee Pyeon 1Sheri J.Y. Mizumori Sheri J.Y. Mizumori 2*
  • 1 School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In many real-life situations, decisions involve temporal delays between actions and their outcomes. During these intervals, waiting is an active process that requires maintaining motivation and anticipating future rewards. This study aimed to explore the role of the midbrain reticular formation (MRF) in delay-based decision-making. We recorded neural activity in the MRF while rats performed delay discounting and reward discrimination tasks, choosing between a smaller, sooner reward and a larger, later reward. Our findings reveal that MRF neurons are integral to maintaining motivation during waiting periods by encoding both the anticipated size and the discounted value of delayed rewards. Furthermore, the inactivation of the MRF led to a significant reduction in the rats' willingness to wait for delayed rewards. These results demonstrate the MRF's function in balancing the trade-offs between reward magnitude and timing, providing insight into the neural mechanisms that support sustained motivation and decision-making over time.

    Keywords: Recitular Formation, Midbrain area, delay discounting, Decision Making, delay-based cedision making, impulsivity, T-Maze

    Received: 16 Aug 2024; Accepted: 22 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Jo, Pyeon and Mizumori. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yong Sang Jo, School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
    Sheri J.Y. Mizumori, Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.