Anterior Cingulate Cortex Directs Exploration of Alternative Strategies

Summary The ability to adjust one’s behavioral strategy in complex environments is at the core of cognition. Doing so efficiently requires monitoring the reliability of the ongoing strategy and switching away from it to evaluate alternatives when appropriate. Studies in humans and non-human primates have uncovered signals in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that track the pressure to switch away from the ongoing strategy, and others that relate to the pursuit of alternatives. However, whether these signals underlie computations that actually underpin strategy switching, or merely reflect tracking of related variables remains unclear. Here we provide causal evidence that rodent ACC actively arbitrates between persisting with ongoing behavioral choice and switching away temporarily to re-evaluate alternatives. Furthermore, by individually perturbing distinct output pathways, we establish that the two associated computations – whether to switch away from the current choice, and the pursuit of alternatives – are segregated within ACC micro-circuitry.