Curiosity, information demand and attentional priority

To make adaptive decisions in multi-dimensional environments, animals must infer the relevant features and afford them priority for the control of learning and actions. Prioritizing sources of information is the role of executive control and attention, but very little is known about the mechanisms by which the brain computes relevance or priority. We present a new decision-theoretic view of priority as a cognitive state that implements information gathering policies. This response is distinct from representations of information utility and it is recruited when the information serves instrumental and non-instrumental motives, suggesting that curiosity and instrumental information demand are more closely related than is traditionally assumed. We discuss the broader relevance of these findings for decision making in realistic, complex situations.