Cortical Microstructural Variations Correlate With Individual Differences in Gamified Exploration–Exploitation Behaviours

The exploration-exploitation trade-off is ubiquitous in our everyday lives, and individuals display considerable variability in their preferred decision-making strategies. Most previous work pertaining to neural signatures of exploration is restricted to functional pathways. However, the specific contributions of cortical microarchitectures to high-level cognitive processes such as decision-making are as yet unknown. Here, we investigated the neuroanatomical foundations of inter-individual variability in decision-making strategies. To this end, 122 healthy participants completed a gamified multi-armed bandit paradigm aimed at teasing apart distinct exploration-exploitation decision strategies. We also collected whole-brain quantitative MRI maps indexing microstructural features of cortical myelination and iron content. Through computational modelling, we disentangled individual-specific exploration strategies, including value-free random exploration. Whole-brain regression analyses identified significant associations between value-free exploration and increased cortical myelination in right frontal brain areas with reported links to impulsivity. By elucidating the brain microstructural correlates of distinct exploration-exploitation strategies, we aimed to further our understanding of why individuals differ in their decision-making capabilities, and how decision-making may become aberrant in mental health conditions.