Prefrontal cortex as a meta-reinforcement learning system
<i>Very</i> interesting.<p>Oversimplifying and ignoring a lot of important details, the key idea proposed by the authors is that the brain's phasic dopamine system is a model-free reinforcement-learning system that learns to train the prefrontal cortex as a more efficient model-based reinforcement-learning sytem -- a form of meta-learning which the authors accurately refer to as <i>meta-reinforcement learning</i>.<p>The "Results" section provides compelling evidence that the authors might be on to something. The authors show and discuss the outcomes of six different kinds of computer experiments in which a (relatively simple) meta-reinforcement learning software system is shown to learn and behave in qualitatively similar ways as, for example, monkeys and rats in equivalent lab experiments.<p>I'm still digesting the implications.<p>Highly recommended reading.