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Peer-reviewedCC BYProceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

Persistent decision-making in mice, monkeys and humans

  • Veldon-James Laurie1,2
  • Akram Shourkeshti1,2
  • Cathy S. Chen3,4,5
  • Alexander B. Herman4,5
  • Nicola M. Grissom3,5
  • R. Becket Ebitz1,2
5 affiliations
  1. 1University of Montreal 1 , ,
  2. 2University of Montreal
  3. 3University of Minnesota 2 , , ,
  4. 4University of Minnesota 3 , , ,
  5. 5University of Minnesota
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Abstract

Humans have the capacity to persist in behavioural policies, even in challenging environments that lack immediate reward. Persistence is the scaffold on which many higher executive functions are built. However, it remains unclear whether humans are uniquely persistent or, instead, if this capacity is widely conserved across species. To address this question, we compared humans with mice and monkeys in harmonized versions of a dynamic decision-making task. The task encouraged all species to strike a balance between persistently exploiting one policy and exploring alternative policies that could become better at any moment. Although all three species had similar strategies, we found that both primate species-humans and monkeys-were able to persist in exploitation for longer than the mice. The similarities in persistence patterns in humans and monkeys, as opposed to mice, may be related to the various ecological, neurobiological or cognitive factors that differ systematically between these species.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{laurie2026persistent,
  title = {{Persistent decision-making in mice, monkeys and humans}},
  author = {Veldon-James Laurie and Akram Shourkeshti and Cathy S. Chen and Alexander B. Herman and Nicola M. Grissom and R. Becket Ebitz},
  journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences},
  year = {2026},
  month = may,
  doi = {10.1098/rspb.2025.1983},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1983},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Persistent decision-making in mice, monkeys and humans
AU  - Veldon-James Laurie
AU  - Akram Shourkeshti
AU  - Cathy S. Chen
AU  - Alexander B. Herman
AU  - Nicola M. Grissom
AU  - R. Becket Ebitz
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/27
JO  - Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
DO  - 10.1098/rspb.2025.1983
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1983
AB  - Humans have the capacity to persist in behavioural policies, even in challenging environments that lack immediate reward. Persistence is the scaffold on which many higher executive functions are built. However, it remains unclear whether humans are uniquely persistent or, instead, if this capacity is widely conserved across species. To address this question, we compared humans with mice and monkeys in harmonized versions of a dynamic decision-making task. The task encouraged all species to strike a balance between persistently exploiting one policy and exploring alternative policies that could become better at any moment. Although all three species had similar strategies, we found that both primate species-humans and monkeys-were able to persist in exploitation for longer than the mice. The similarities in persistence patterns in humans and monkeys, as opposed to mice, may be related to the various ecological, neurobiological or cognitive factors that differ systematically between these species.
SN  - 0080-4649
SN  - 0962-8452
SN  - 1471-2954
SN  - 2053-9193
ER  -