{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T06:14:25Z","timestamp":1772172865180,"version":"3.50.1"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1009012","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,5]],"date-time":"2021-10-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1633392000000}}],"reference-count":57,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,23]],"date-time":"2021-09-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1632355200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the BRAIN Initiative","award":["NS104818"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NS104818"]}]},{"name":"National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the BRAIN Initiative","award":["NS104818"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NS104818"]}]},{"name":"Swartz Foundation","award":["2020-13"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020-13"]}]},{"name":"Brandeis HPCC"},{"name":"Brandeis Center for Bioinspired Soft Materials"},{"name":"National Science Foundation","award":["DMR-2011846"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DMR-2011846"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.ploscompbiol.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Comput Biol"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Decisions as to whether to continue with an ongoing activity or to switch to an alternative are a constant in an animal\u2019s natural world, and in particular underlie foraging behavior and performance in food preference tests. Stimuli experienced by the animal both impact the choice and are themselves impacted by the choice, in a dynamic back and forth. Here, we present model neural circuits, based on spiking neurons, in which the choice to switch away from ongoing behavior instantiates this back and forth, arising as a state transition in neural activity. We analyze two classes of circuit, which differ in whether state transitions result from a loss of hedonic input from the stimulus (an \u201centice to stay\u201d model) or from aversive stimulus-input (a \u201crepel to leave\u201d model). In both classes of model, we find that the mean time spent sampling a stimulus decreases with increasing value of the alternative stimulus, a fact that we linked to the inclusion of depressing synapses in our model. The competitive interaction is much greater in \u201centice to stay\u201d model networks, which has qualitative features of the marginal value theorem, and thereby provides a framework for optimal foraging behavior. We offer suggestions as to how our models could be discriminatively tested through the analysis of electrophysiological and behavioral data.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1009012","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,24]],"date-time":"2021-09-24T10:29:45Z","timestamp":1632479385000},"page":"e1009012","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pcbi.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["A model of naturalistic decision making in preference tests"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5051-0664","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"John","family":"Ksander","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8444-6063","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Donald B.","family":"Katz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9280-000X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Paul","family":"Miller","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,23]]},"reference":[{"issue":"5","key":"pcbi.1009012.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"950","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuron.2014.04.037","article-title":"Decision making: the neuroethological turn","volume":"82","author":"JM Pearson","year":"2014","journal-title":"Neuron"},{"issue":"2","key":"pcbi.1009012.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1016\/0040-5809(76)90040-X","article-title":"Optimal Foraging, the Marginal Value Theorem","volume":"9","author":"EL Charnov","year":"1976","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Population Biology"},{"key":"pcbi.1009012.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"137","DOI":"10.1038\/268137a0","article-title":"Optimal foraging in great tits (Parsus major)","volume":"268","author":"RJ Cowie","year":"1977","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"7","key":"pcbi.1009012.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"933","DOI":"10.1038\/nn.2856","article-title":"Neuronal basis of sequential foraging decisions in a patchy environment","volume":"14","author":"BY Hayden","year":"2011","journal-title":"Nat Neurosci"},{"key":"pcbi.1009012.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.1016\/j.conb.2016.05.005","article-title":"Itinerancy between attractor states in neural systems","volume":"40","author":"P Miller","year":"2016","journal-title":"Curr Opin Neurobiol"},{"issue":"3","key":"pcbi.1009012.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1125","DOI":"10.1152\/jn.00116.2007","article-title":"Noise-induced alternations in an attractor network model of perceptual bistability","volume":"98","author":"R Moreno-Bote","year":"2007","journal-title":"J Neurophysiol"},{"issue":"7","key":"pcbi.1009012.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"803","DOI":"10.1068\/p5245","article-title":"Perceptual alternation induced by visual transients","volume":"34","author":"R Kanai","year":"2005","journal-title":"Perception"},{"issue":"47","key":"pcbi.1009012.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"18772","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0705546104","article-title":"Natural stimuli evoke dynamic sequences of states in sensory cortical ensembles","volume":"104","author":"LM Jones","year":"2007","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A"},{"issue":"6244","key":"pcbi.1009012.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"184","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aaa4056","article-title":"NEURONAL MODELING. 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