The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is crucial for tracking various aspects of expected outcomes, thereby helping to guide choices and support learning. Our previous study showed that the effects of reward timing and size on the activity of single units in OFC were dissociable when these attributes were manipulated independently ( Roesch et al., 2006). However, in real-life decision-making scenarios, outcome features often change simultaneously, so here we investigated how OFC neurons in male rats integrate information about the timing and identity (flavor) of reward and respond to changes in these features, according to whether they were changed simultaneously or separately. We found that a substantial number of OFC neurons fired differentially to immediate versus delayed reward and to the different reward flavors. However, contrary to the previous study, selectivity for timing was strongly correlated with selectivity for identity. Taken together with the previous research, these results suggest that when reward features are correlated, OFC tends to "pack" them into unitary constructs, whereas when they are independent, OFC tends to "crack" them into separate constructs. Furthermore, we found that when both reward timing and flavor were changed, reward-responsive OFC neurons showed unique activity patterns preceding and during the omission of an expected reward. Interestingly, this OFC activity is similar and slightly preceded the ventral tegmental area dopamine (VTA DA) activity observed in a previous study ( Takahashi et al., 2023), consistent with the role of OFC in providing predictive information to VTA DA neurons.

眶额皮质（OFC）对于跟踪预期结果的各个方面至关重要，从而有助于指导选择和支持学习。我们之前的研究表明，当独立操纵这些属性时，奖励时间和大小对 OFC 中单个单元活动的影响是可分离的（Roesch 等，2006）。然而，在现实生活中的决策场景中，结果特征经常同时变化，因此在这里我们研究了雄性大鼠的 OFC 神经元如何整合有关奖励的时间和身份（味道）的信息，并对这些特征的变化做出反应，根据是否它们同时或单独改变。我们发现，大量 OFC 神经元对即时奖励和延迟奖励以及不同奖励风格的激发存在差异。然而，与之前的研究相反，时间选择性与身份选择性密切相关。结合之前的研究，这些结果表明，当奖励特征相关时，OFC 倾向于将它们“打包”成单一的结构，而当它们独立时，OFC 倾向于将它们“破解”成单独的结构。此外，我们发现，当奖励时间和味道都改变时，奖励反应性 OFC 神经元在预期奖励被忽略之前和期间表现出独特的活动模式。有趣的是，这种 OFC 活动与先前研究（Takahashi et al., 2023）中观察到的腹侧被盖区多巴胺 (VTA DA) 活动相似，并且稍先于腹侧被盖区多巴胺 (VTA DA) 活动，这与 OFC 在向 VTA DA 神经元提供预测信息中的作用一致。