Ventromedial prefrontal cortex compression during concept learning

Abstract

Prefrontal cortex (PFC) is thought to support the ability to focus on goal-relevant information by filtering out irrelevant information, a process akin to dimensionality reduction. Here, we test this dimensionality reduction hypothesis by combining a data-driven approach to characterizing the complexity of neural representation with a theoretically-supported computational model of learning. We find strong evidence of goal-directed dimensionality reduction within human ventromedial PFC during learning. Importantly, by using model predictions of each participants attentional strategies during learning, we find that that the degree of neural compression predicts an individuals ability to selectively attend to concept-specific information. These findings suggest a domain-general mechanism of learning through compression in ventromedial PFC.