Humans and animals navigate uncertain environments by seeking information about the future. Remarkably, we often seek information even when it has no instrumental value for aiding our decisions — as if the information is a source of value in its own right. In recent years, there has been a flourishing of research into these non-instrumental information preferences and their implementation in the brain. Individuals value information about uncertain future rewards, and do so for multiple reasons, including valuing resolution of uncertainty and overweighting desirable information. The brain motivates this information seeking by tapping into some of the same circuitry as primary rewards like food and water. However, it also employs cortex and basal ganglia circuitry that predicts and values information distinctly from primary reward. Uncovering how these circuits cooperate will be fundamental to understanding information seeking and motivated behavior as a whole, in our increasingly complex and information-rich world.

人类和动物通过寻找有关未来的信息来驾驭不确定的环境。值得注意的是，我们经常寻找信息，即使它对帮助我们的决定没有任何工具价值——就好像信息本身就是价值的来源。近年来，对这些非工具性信息偏好及其在大脑中的实施的研究蓬勃发展。个人重视有关不确定的未来奖励的信息，这样做有多种原因，包括重视不确定性的解决方案和过分重视所需的信息。大脑通过利用一些与食物和水等主要奖励相同的回路来激发这种信息寻求。然而，它也使用了皮层和基底神经节电路，可以从主要奖励中明显地预测和评估信息。