Context-dependent decision-making in the primate hippocampal-prefrontal circuit

What is good in one scenario might be bad in another. Despite the ubiquity of such contextual reasoning in everyday choice, how the brain flexibly utilizes different valuation schemes across contexts remains unknown. We addressed this question by monitoring neural activity from the hippocampus (HPC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of two monkeys performing a state-dependent choice task. We found that HPC neurons encoded state information as it became available and then, at the time of choice, relayed this information to OFC via theta synchronization. During choice, OFC represented value in a state-dependent manner: many OFC neurons uniquely coded for value in only one state but not the other. This suggests a functional dissociation whereby HPC encodes contextual information that is broadcast to OFC via theta synchronization to select a state-appropriate value subcircuit, thus allowing for contextual reasoning in value-based choice.