A neural basis of rational inattention models: consistency of cognitive cost with the mutual information criterion

The rational inattention model has recently attracted much attention as a promising candidate to model bounded rationality in the research field of decision-making and game theory. However, in contrast to this energetic promotion of the theoretical works, empirical verification of the validity of the RI model has not progressed much. Furthermore, to our knowledge, the central assumption of the RI model, that the amount of mutual information obtained from signals adequately represents the cognitive cost of information, has not been tested from a neuroscientific perspective. The purpose of the present study was to test whether the amount of mutual information adequately represents the cognitive cost of information from a neuroscientific perspective. We proposed a sequential investment task, in which the two main models of RI can be treated simultaneously in a more realistic experimental environment. We used a model-fitting approach to analyze the subjective information cost, and compared the model parameters representing the information cost with the concentration of oxidized hemoglobin in the brain blood. Our results showed that the cost parameter λ of the stochastic choice type model, which fits the behavioral data of the present experiment better than the Kalman filter type model, was significantly positively correlated with the activation status of the rostral prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The cognitive cost represented by the amount of mutual information employed in the RI model is consistent with the activation of brain regions associated with cognitive cost, and, thus, indirectly supports the assumption of the RI model.