ANCCR

Victor Navarro

The mathematics behind ANCCR

The ANCCR (Jeong et al., 2022) model, which stands for adjusted net contingency for causal relations, proposes that mesolimbic dopaminergic conveys an adjusted net contingency for causal relationships (to biologically meaningful targets). The mathematics (and logic) behind the model go well beyond what I can cover here, but for now, it will suffice to say that the model:

• Uses a “Hebbian” mechanism to learn retrospective associations after experiencing a meaningful causal target.
• Derives prospective associations using Bayes’s rule.
• Combines those associations into contingency terms that represent dopaminergic activity.
• Uses the sign of dopaminergic activity to strengthen or weaken causal weights.
• Responds as a function of prospective associations and causal links.

1 - Maintaining stimulus representations

The degree to which a stimulus $i$ at time $t$ is “active” in memory is denoted by:

$$\tag{Eq.1} E_i(t) = \Sigma_{t_i \leq t}e^{-(\frac{t-t_i}{t\_constant})}$$

where $t_i$ are all the time steps up to time $t$, and $t\_constant$ is a time constant (usually meant to be the inter-reward rate)¹

2 - Learning stimulus associations:

The model learns retrospective associations after meaningful causal targets occur. Whether event $j$ is a meaningful causal target is given by:

$$\tag{Eq.2} \Phi_j = \begin{cases} 1,& \text{if } \Phi_j(t) = 1\\ 1,& \text{if }DA_j + \beta_j > \theta\\ 0,& \text{otherwise} \end{cases}$$

where $\Phi$ plays the role of an indicator function, $DA_j$ is the total dopamine activity at the time of event $j$, $\beta_j$ is the unconditioned value of event $j$ and $\theta$ is a global threshold parameter.² Note that the indicator function is self-preserving: once a stimulus becomes a meaningful causal target, it does not stop being so.

After stimulus $j$ is observed, the predecessor representation contingency, or PRC, for each stimulus $i$ is updated via:

$$\tag{Eq.3} PRC_{i \leftarrow j} = M_{i \leftarrow j} - M_{i}$$

where $M_{i \leftarrow j}$ is the predecessor representation of $i$ given $j$ has occurred, and $M_{i}$ is the base rate with which $i$ occurs. Both of these quantities are given by:

$$\tag{Eq.4a} M_{i \leftarrow j} = M_{i \leftarrow j}' + \Phi_j\alpha(E_{i \leftarrow j} - M_{i \leftarrow j}')$$

and

$$\tag{Eq.4b} M_{i} = M_{i}' + k\alpha(E_{i} - M_{i}')$$

where $M_{i \leftarrow j}'$ and $M_{i}'$ are the quantities before $j$ was observed, $k$ and $\alpha$ are learning rate parameters, and $E_{i \leftarrow j}$ is the eligibility trace of stimulus $i$ at the time $j$ occurs (see Eq. 1).

Then, the PRC can be used to derive the prospective association, aptly named the successor representation contingency, or SRC via Bayes rule:

$$\tag{Eq.5} SRC_{i \rightarrow j} = PRC_{i \leftarrow j} \frac{M_j}{M_i}$$

The base rate for $j$, $M_j$ is calculated via Eq.4b.

3 - Releasing Dopamine

The model postulates that dopaminergic signaling encodes the adjusted net contingencies for causal relations between stimuli, or ANCCRs. The total dopaminergic activity at the time of event $i$ is equal to:

$$\tag{Eq.6} DA_i = \Sigma_j (ANCCR_{i \rightarrow j}\Phi_j)$$

And the ANCCR from stimulus $i$ to stimulus $j$ is given by:

$$\tag{Eq.7} ANCCR_{i \rightarrow j} = NC_{i \leftrightarrow j} CW_{i \rightarrow j} - \sum_{k \neq i}(ANCCR_{k \leftrightarrow j}\Delta_{k \leftarrow i}\Phi_{k \leftrightarrow i})$$

where $NC_{i \leftrightarrow j}$ is the net contingency between stimuli $i$ and $j$, $CW_{i \rightarrow j}$ is the causal weight that $i$ has with $j$, $\Delta_{k \leftarrow i}$ is the recency of stimulus $k$ with respect to stimulus $i$, and $\Phi_{k \leftrightarrow i}$ is an indicator function denoting whether $k$ and $i$ have a putative causal relationship with each other.

The net contingency between stimuli $i$ and $j$, $NC_{i \leftrightarrow j}$, is given by:

$$\tag{Eq.8} NC_{i \leftrightarrow j} = wSRC_{i \rightarrow j} + (1-w)PRC_{i \leftarrow j}$$

or a weighted sum of successor and predecessor representation contingencies.

The net contingency is used to calculate the indicator function above, as:

$$\tag{Eq.9} \Phi_{k \leftrightarrow i} = \begin{cases} 1,& \text{if } NC_{i \leftrightarrow j} > \theta\\ 0,& \text{otherwise} \end{cases}$$

where $\theta$ is the same threshold parameter used in Eq.2³, and the indicator function for a stimulus and itself, $\Phi_{i \leftrightarrow i}$, is 0.

The recency term, $\Delta_{k \leftarrow i}$, is given by:

$$\tag{Eq.10} \Delta_{k \leftarrow i} = e^{-(\frac{t_j-t_i}{t\_constant})}$$

where $t\_constant$ is the same parameter used in Eq.1. Note however that Eq.9 does not include the sum term in Eq. 1. Finally, the causal weight from stimulus $i$ to stimulus $j$ is given by:

$$\tag{Eq.11} CW_{i \rightarrow j} = CW_{i \rightarrow j}' + \alpha_{reward}\delta_{i \rightarrow j}$$

where $CW_{i \rightarrow j}'$ is the previous causal weight, $\alpha_{reward}$ is a learning rate parameter exclusive for causal weights, and $\delta_{i \rightarrow j}$ is a delta term depending on the sign of the total dopaminergic activity, given by:

$$\tag{Eq.12} \delta_{i \rightarrow j} = \begin{cases} CW_{j \rightarrow j} - CW_{i \rightarrow j}, & \text{if } DA_j \ge 0\\ (0-CW_{i \rightarrow j})\frac{n_i^{-1}\Delta{i \leftarrow j} \Phi_{i \leftrightarrow j}}{\Sigma_{k \neq j}(n_k^{-1}\Delta_{k \leftarrow j} \Phi_{k \leftrightarrow j})},& \text{otherwise} \end{cases}$$

where $CW_{j \rightarrow j}$ above is the reward magnitude of stimulus $j$. In plain words, when dopaminergic activity is positive, causal weights (from all present and absent stimuli) strengthen. Conversely, when dopaminergic activity is negative, causal weights (from all present and absent stimuli) weaken, proportional to their normalized frequency and recency (as long as they have putative causal relations with $j$).

4 - Generating responses

Responding in ANCCR is lightly specified. The value of responding upon presentation of stimulus $i$ is given by:

$$\tag{Eq.13} Q_i = \Sigma_k(SRC_{i \rightarrow k} CW_{i \rightarrow k})$$

which can then be mapped onto probabilities via a softmax function⁴.

A diagram

The diagram below shows the dependencies in the model. I am excluding the indicator functions and parameters for simplicity.⁵

Note

The implementation of this model is a port from the MATLAB code that Jeong et al. shared in the GitHub repository associated with their paper. The output of the R model was checked against the outputs of the MATLAB model, using training routines (“eventlogs” in their parlance) generated using their MATLAB code. The training routines generated in calmr differ somewhat, to accommodate generality. For example, as of version 0.6.1, it is not possible to specify probabilistic relations between cues and rewards. Instead, it is left to the user to specify an exact probability via trial numbers (e.g., an 80% reward probability can be specified as “80A>(US)/20A”). The naming of parameters also differs between codebases.

References

Jeong, H., Taylor, A., Floeder, J. R., Lohmann, M., Mihalas, S., Wu, B., Zhou, M., Burke, D. A., & Namboodiri, V. M. K. (2022). Mesolimbic dopamine release conveys causal associations. Science (New York, N.Y.), 378, eabq6740. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq6740