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Neural basis of compositional control

Nature Computational Neuroscience Assia Chericoni, Justin M. Fine, Taha S. Ismail, Gabriela Delgado Salazar, Melissa C. Franch, Elizabeth Mickiewicz, Ana G. Chavez, Eleonora Bartoli, Danika L. Paulo, Vaishnav Krishnan, Mohamed Hegazy, Alica M. Goldman, Lu Lin, Garrett P. Banks, Nisha Giridharan, Mohammed Hasen, Nicole R. Provenza, Andrew Watrous, Seng Bum Michael Yoo, Sameer A. Sheth, Benjamin Y. Hayden 2026-08-12

TL;DR - A human prey-pursuit study finds that compositional control dynamically blends goal-specific policies. Distinct brain regions appear to divide latent-state estimation, policy switching, and value-based contextualization.

  • The hippocampus estimates latent states during pursuit.
  • The anterior cingulate cortex coordinates switches between control policies.
  • The orbitofrontal cortex provides value-based context rather than continuously updating policies.
  • Human behavior reflects dynamic policy blending instead of reliance on a single control strategy.

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