Neurobiological fundamentals of strategy change — A core competence of a companion system

Companion systems interact with users via flexible and goal-directed dialogs. During dialogs both user and companion system identify and communicate their goals iteratively. In that sense, user and companion system can be conceptualized as communication partners, equipped with a processing scheme producing actions as outputs in consequence of (1) inputs from the other communication partner and (2) internally represented goals. A quite general core competence of communication partners is the capability for strategy change, defined as the modification of action planning under the boundary condition of maintaining a constant goal. Interestingly, the biological mechanism for this capability are largely unknown. Here we describe a serial reversal behavioral task with negative reinforcement that employs an animal model for strategy change. Animals did not develop an optimal solution but behavioral strategies to minimize negative reinforcement regardless of changing environment. This form of flexible strategy adaptation is of potential importance for companion systems.