Reposted by Andrew Bahle
Happy to have this finally out! TL;DR: The evolution of beliefs over time can be formulated as a dynamical system, and OFC neural activity appears to implement this system with its own dynamics. These emerge without explicit supervision—when animals learn to predict value in simple Pavlovian tasks
![A multipanel figure showing a cartoon of a songbird head, a cartoon diagram of a songbird brain, and three black and white images showing the cellular structure of the brain region we focused on, PrV. The following is the legend that accompanies the figure. (a) Shows in different colours the areas of the innervation in the head, beak and tongue by the three branches of the trigeminal nerve (V1-V3) and the hypoglossal nerve (XII) in a songbird and the respective areas of innervation in the principal sensory nucleus of the trigeminal nerve (PrV; based on Faunes & Wild [26]). (b–d) Microphotographs of Nissl-stained coronal sections through the principal sensory in nucleus of the trigeminal nerve (PrV) in three species of songbirds: (b) the pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator, Fringillidae); (c) the field sparrow (Spizella pusilla, Passerellidae); (d) the Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis, Parulidae).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gfvjxniv5ylppk263f44p3zs/bafkreighnpetcjup2wmdlgcpcxvdkjhk3hyamr3vukgl2zmq54jxohlfbu)
