A neural circuit framework for economic choice: from building blocks of valuation to compositionality in multitasking

Value-guided decisions are a cornerstone of cognition, yet the underlying circuit-level mechanisms remain elusive. We used reinforcement learning to train recurrent neural network models endowed with Dales law on a battery of economic choice tasks, which revealed a two-stage computational framework. First, value estimation occurs at input level where learned weights store subjective preferences and approximate the nonlinear multiplication of reward magnitude and probability to yield expected values. This feedforward mechanism enables generalization to novel choice options. Second, option values are compared within the recurrent network, where specific connectivity patterns mediate robust winner-take-all decisions, with both excitatory and inhibitory neurons exhibiting value and choice selectivity. By training a single network on multiple tasks, we show compositional representations combining a shared computational schema with specialized neural modules. Reproducing key neurophysiological findings from the primate orbitofrontal cortex, our model unifies value computation, comparison, and generalization into a coherent framework with testable predictions. IN BRIEFBattista et al. use biologically plausible RNNs to uncover circuit mechanisms of economic choice. They propose a two-stage framework where feedforward inputs compute offer values and recurrent inhibition drives comparison. This architecture explains how the brain generalizes preferences and multitasks using compositional neural codes, offering a unified theory of decisionmaking. HIGHLIGHTSO_LIBiologically plausible RNN reveals a two-stage economic choice framework C_LIO_LIInput weights store preferences and multiply features to compute offer value C_LIO_LICompetitive recurrent inhibition mediates winner-take-all comparison C_LIO_LIMultitasking relies on compositional shared and specialized neural modules C_LI