Neural basis of decision-making guided by emotional outcomes

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2007

Human decisions cannot be explained solely by rational imperatives but are strongly influenced by emotion. Theoretical and behavioral studies provide a sound empirical basis to the impact of the emotion of regret in guiding choice behavior. Recent neuropsychological and neuroimaging data have stressed the fundamental role of the orbitofrontal cortex in mediating the experience of regret. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data indicate that reactivation of activity within the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala occurring during the phase of choice, when the brain is anticipating possible future consequences of decisions, characterizes the anticipation of regret. In turn, these patterns reflect learning based on cumulative emotional experience. Moreover, affective consequences can induce specific mechanisms of cognitive control of the choice processes, involving reinforcement or avoidance of the experienced behavior.

Cognitive Systems Research, 2008

We present a theory and neurocomputational model of how specific brain operations produce complex decision and preference phenomena, including those explored in prospect theory and decision affect theory. We propose that valuation and decision making are emotional processes, involving interacting brain areas that include two expectation-discrepancy subsystems: a dopamine-encoded system for positive events and a serotonin-encoded system for negative ones. The model provides a rigorous account of loss aversion and the shape of the value function from prospect theory. It also suggests multiple distinct neurological mechanisms by which information framing may affect choices, including ones involving anticipated pleasure. It further offers a neural basis for the interactions among affect, prior expectations and counterfactual comparisons explored in decision affect theory. Along with predicting the effects of particular brain disturbances and damage, the model suggests specific neurological explanations for individual differences observed in choice and valuation behaviors.

European Journal of Neuroscience, 2008

Representing the affective value of a reward on a continuous scale may occur separately from making a binary, for example yes vs no, decision about whether to choose the reward. To investigate whether these are separable processes, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure activations produced by pleasant warm, unpleasant cold, and affectively complex combinations of these stimuli applied to the hand. On some trials the affective value was rated on a continuous scale, and on different trials a yes-no decision was made about whether the stimulus should be repeated in future. Decision-making contrasted with just rating the affective stimuli revealed activations in the medial prefrontal cortex area 10, implicating this area in binary decision-making. Activations related to the pleasantness ratings and which were not influenced when a binary decision was made were found in the pregenual cingulate and parts of the orbitofrontal cortex, implicating these regions in the continuous representation of affective value. When a decision was yes vs. no, effects were found in the dorsal cingulate cortex, agranular (anterior) insula and ventral tegmental area, implicating these areas in initiating actions to obtain goals.

2010

Making the right choice depends crucially on the accurate valuation of the available options in the light of current needs and goals of an individual. Thus, the valuation of identical options can vary considerably with motivational context. The present study investigated the neural structures underlying context dependent evaluation. We instructed participants to choose from food menu items based on different criteria: on their anticipated taste or on ease of preparation. The aim of the manipulation was to assess which neural sites were activated during choice guided by incentive value, and which during choice based on a value-irrelevant criterion. To assess the impact of increased motivation, affect-guided choice and cognition-guided choice was compared during the sated and hungry states. During affective choice, we identified increased activity in structures representing primarily valuation and taste (medial prefrontal cortex, insula). During cognitive choice, structures showing increased activity included those implicated in suppression and conflict monitoring (lateral orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate). Hunger influenced choice-related activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Our results show that choice is associated with the use of distinct neural structures for the pursuit of different goals.

Nature Neuroscience, 2005

Human decisions can be shaped by predictions of emotions that ensue after choosing advantageously or disadvantageously. Indeed, anticipating regret is a powerful predictor of future choices. We measured brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects selected between two gambles wherein regret was induced by providing information about the outcome of the unchosen gamble. Increasing regret enhanced activity in the medial orbitofrontal region, the anterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus. Notably, across the experiment, subjects became increasingly regret-aversive, a cumulative effect reflected in enhanced activity within medial orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. This pattern of activity reoccurred just before making a choice, suggesting that the same neural circuitry mediates direct experience of regret and its anticipation. These results demonstrate that medial orbitofrontal cortex modulates the gain of adaptive emotions in a manner that may provide a substrate for the influence of high-level emotions on decision making.

Emotion regulation strategies provide a means by which to modulate our social behavior. In this study, we investigated the effect of using reappraisal to both up-and downregulate social decision making. After being instructed on how to use reappraisal, participants played the Ultimatum Game while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging and applied the strategies of upregulation (reapprais-ing the proposer's intentions as more negative), down-regulation (reappraising the proposer's intentions as less negative), as well as a baseline ''look'' condition. As hypothesized, when reappraising, decision acceptance rates were altered, with a greater number of unfair offers accepted while down-regulating and a greater number of unfair offers rejected while upregulating, both relative to the baseline condition. At the neural level, during reappraisal, significant activations were observed in the inferior and middle frontal gyrus (MFG), in addition to the medial prefrontal cortex and cingulate gyrus for unfair offers only. Regulated decisions involved left inferior frontal gyrus for upregulation and MFG for down-regulation strategies, respectively. Importantly, the effects of emotion modulation were evident in posterior insula, with less activation for down-regulation and more activation for upregulation in these areas. Notably, we show for the first time that top-down strategies such as reappraisal strongly affect our socioeconomic decisions.

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2010

Contributions to decision neuroscience Scanning methodologies such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), electroencelography (EEG) and others have allowed neuroscientists to focus on brain activations during complex real life behaviours. Researchers have now moved beyond the clinical setting to study a wide range of basic processes in healthy subjects. This emerging discipline is broadly referred to as cognitive neuroscience. Within this field several groups have focussed on the study of decision-making, giving rise to the field of decision neuroscience. Decision neuroscience encompasses the behaviours of the individual in society in a wide range of decision-making contexts from economic decisions to health issues, communication and purchasing of goods; whether to purchase a product or not is a basic unit of economic and consumption behaviour. Decision neuroscience has thus initiated a multidisciplinary research agenda for economics, psychology and consumer behaviour. Within the nascent field of decision neuroscience several special interest groups have formed that focus for example on economic and public policy questions (referred to as neuroeconomics) or on marketing questions (referred to as consumer neuroscience).

Journal of Cognitive …

■ Real-world decision-making often involves social considerations. Consequently, the social value of stimuli can induce preferences in choice behavior. However, it is unknown how financial and social values are integrated in the brain. Here, we investigated how smiling and angry face stimuli interacted with financial reward feedback in a stochastically rewarded decision-making task. Subjects reliably preferred the smiling faces despite equivalent reward feedback, demonstrating a socially driven bias. We fit a Bayesian reinforcement learning model to factor the effects of financial rewards and emotion preferences in individual subjects, and regressed model predictions on the trial-by-trial fMRI signal. Activity in the subcallosal cingulate and the ventral striatum, both involved in reward learning, correlated with financial reward feedback, whereas the differential contribution of social value activated dorsal temporo-parietal junction and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, previously proposed as components of a mentalizing network. We conclude that the impact of social stimuli on value-based decision processes is mediated by effects in brain regions partially separable from classical reward circuitry. ■

Neuropsychologia, 2004

We examined neural activations during decision-making using fMRI paired with the wheel of fortune task, a newly developed two-choice decision-making task with probabilistic monetary gains. In particular, we assessed the impact of high-reward/risk events relative to low-reward/risk events on neural activations during choice selection and during reward anticipation. Seventeen healthy adults completed the study. We found, in line with predictions, that (i) the selection phase predominantly recruited regions involved in visuo-spatial attention (occipito-parietal pathway), conflict (anterior cingulate), manipulation of quantities (parietal cortex), and preparation for action (premotor area), whereas the anticipation phase prominently recruited regions engaged in reward processes (ventral striatum); and (ii) high-reward/risk conditions relative to low-reward/risk conditions were associated with a greater neural response in ventral striatum during selection, though not during anticipation. Following an a priori ROI analysis focused on orbitofrontal cortex, we observed orbitofrontal cortex activation (BA 11 and 47) during selection (particularly to high-risk/reward options), and to a more limited degree, during anticipation. These findings support the notion that (1) distinct, although overlapping, pathways subserve the processes of selection and anticipation in a two-choice task of probabilistic monetary reward; (2) taking a risk and awaiting the consequence of a risky decision seem to affect neural activity differently in selection and anticipation; and thus (3) common structures, including the ventral striatum, are modulated differently by risk/reward during selection and anticipation. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Annual Review of Neuroscience, 2007

The study of decision making spans such varied fields as neuroscience, psychology, economics, statistics, political science, and computer science. Despite this diversity of applications, most decisions share common elements including deliberation and commitment. Here we evaluate recent progress in understanding how these basic elements of decision formation are implemented in the brain. We focus on simple decisions that can be studied in the laboratory but emphasize general principles likely to extend to other settings.