From Learning to Choosing: How Decision-Making Evolves with Experience in Rats

Visual abstract of the experimental design and findings by White et al. (2024), separating reward value learning from the decision-making process. During the value learning phase, rats were introduced to single-offer rewards. They initiated trials by nose-poking in the central nose port, which presented a visual stimulus through LEDs on either the left or right side. The visual stimuli were equally split between high luminance (high reward, 16% sucrose) and low luminance (low reward, 4% sucrose). In the subsequent choice learning phase, trials were divided equally among high-reward, low-reward, or dual-offer trials, where male rats had to choose between stimuli of high and low luminance. The results indicated that rats responded faster to high-luminance stimuli than low-luminance stimuli in single-offer trials. Response times were slower in dual-offer trials compared with single-offer trials, suggesting a deliberation process affecting decision-making. Response times decreased with experience, demonstrating the effect of initial learning on subsequent decision-making [adapted from White et al. (2024)].