Neural Mechanisms Underlying Contextual Dependency of Subjective Values: Converging Evidence from Monkeys and Humans

Abitbol, Raphaëlle; Lebreton, Maël; Hollard, Guillaume; Richmond, Barry J.; Bouret, Sébastien; Pessiglione, Mathias

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1878-14.2015

Cited by 53 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…A striking parallel was found at the neural level, with the prior preference being reflected in the baseline activity of valuation regions including the vmPFC, ventral striatum and posterior cingulate cortex. This is in line with a previous study showing that baseline vmPFC activity is sensitive to contextual factors, both in humans and monkeys, and provide a bias in subsequent valuation processes (Abitbol et al, 2015). Other contextual manipulations were found to modulate vmPFC activity and subsequent valuation, for instance mood induction has been shown to affect reward-related vmPFC activity (Young and Nusslock, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…(Chib et al, 2009; Hare et al, 2010; Lebreton et al, 2009; Plassmann et al, 2007). Such value coding was observed not only during choice but also in the absence of choice, during passive viewing of items presented in the attentional focus or when performing a distractive task on these items (Lebreton et al, 2009; Levy et al, 2011; Abitbol et al, 2015). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

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How prior preferences determine decision-making frames and biases in the human brain

Lopez-Persem

Domenech

Pessiglione

2016

eLife

103

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Understanding how option values are compared when making a choice is a key objective for decision neuroscience. In natural situations, agents may have a priori on their preferences that create default policies and shape the neural comparison process. We asked participants to make choices between items belonging to different categories (e.g., jazz vs. rock music). Behavioral data confirmed that the items taken from the preferred category were chosen more often and more rapidly, which qualified them as default options. FMRI data showed that baseline activity in classical brain valuation regions, such as the ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC), reflected the strength of prior preferences. In addition, evoked activity in the same regions scaled with the default option value, irrespective of the eventual choice. We therefore suggest that in the brain valuation system, choices are framed as comparisons between default and alternative options, which might save some resource but induce a decision bias.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20317.001

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

How prior preferences determine decision-making frames and biases in the human brain

Lopez-Persem

Domenech

Pessiglione

2016

eLife

103

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“…Besides, HERs modulated value encoding in a multiplicative manner. Our results thus differ from a previously reported vmPFC baseline-shift additive effect in pleasantness ratings (Abitbol et al, 2015;Lopez-Persem et al, 2020). Altogether, our results indicate that part of the unspecified 'neural noise' driving fluctuations in choice consistency (Padoa-Schioppa, 2013;Kurtz-David et al, 2019;Webb et al, 2019) comes from the interaction between interoceptive self-related processes, indexed by neural monitoring of cardiac signals, and the neural encoding of subjective value.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Responses to heartbeats in ventromedial prefrontal cortex contribute to subjective preference-based decisions

Azzalini

Buot

Palminteri

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Forrest Gump or Matrix? Choosing which movie you prefer is a subjective decision that entails self-reflection. While the neural underpinnings of valuation and choice have been extensively investigated, the contribution of self-related processes to subjective decisions has been largely overlooked. Self-related processes have been linked to a basic interoceptive biological mechanism, the neural monitoring of heartbeats, in particular in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a region also involved in value encoding. We thus hypothesized a functional coupling between interoceptive self-related processes and the precision of value encoding in vmPFC. Human participants were presented with pairs of movie titles. They indicated either which movie they preferred, or performed a control objective visual discrimination that did not require self-reflection. Using magnetoencephalography, we measured heartbeat-evoked responses (HERs) before option presentation, and confirmed that HERs in vmPFC were larger when preparing to the subjective, self-related task. We retrieved the expected cortical value network during choice with time-resolved statistical modeling, and show that HERs before option presentation interacted in a multiplicative manner with value encoding during choice in vmPFC. The interaction was absent in the objective discrimination task, and could not be trivially explained neither by changes in cardiac activity nor by arousal fluctuations. The neural interaction between HERs and value encoding predicted preference-based choice consistency over time, accounting for both inter-individual differences and trial-to-trial fluctuations within individuals. Our results thus reveal a functional coupling in vmPFC between self-related interoceptive processes and subjective value encoding, which stabilizes the behavioral expression of long-term preferences.Significance statementDeciding whether you prefer Forrest Gump or Matrix is based on subjective values, which only you, the decision-maker, can estimate and compare, by asking yourself. Yet, how self-related processes influence subjective valuation is not known. We show that in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an interoceptive self-related process, the neural response to heartbeats, influences the cortical representation of subjective value. The neural interaction between interoceptive self-related process and value encoding predicts choice consistency, i.e. whether you consistently prefer Forrest Gump over Matrix over time, thus contributing to the stable expression of long-lasting preferences that define, at least in part, our identity.

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“…We tested this hypothesis in anatomical masks of the vmPFC and dlPFC based on the HarvardOxford Cortical Atlas (Desikan et al, 2006). The vmPFC mask comprised the bilateral vmPFC that is part of the brain's valuation system (Bartra et al, 2013;Clithero and Rangel, 2014;Abitbol et al, 2015;Pessiglione and Delgado, 2015) and has been shown to integrate taste and health values in the dietary selfcontrol paradigm (Hare et al, 2009(Hare et al, , 2011(Hare et al, , 2014Foerde et al, 2015;Maier et al, 2015) as well as the separate characteristics of multiattribute choices in other, nonfood domains (Kahnt et al, 2011;Rudorf and Hare, 2014). Our second anatomical mask included the region of the left dlPFC that has been presumed to modulate activity in the vmPFC during self-control choices (Hare et al, 2009(Hare et al, , 2011(Hare et al, , 2014.…”

Section: Hrv and Bold Activity During Self-controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher Heart-Rate Variability Is Associated with Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Increased Resistance to Temptation in Dietary Self-Control Challenges

Maier¹,

Hare²

2017

J. Neurosci.

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Higher levels of self-control in decision making have been linked to better psychosocial and physical health. A similar link to health outcomes has been reported for heart-rate variability (HRV), a marker of physiological flexibility. Here, we sought to link these two, largely separate, research domains by testing the hypothesis that greater HRV would be associated with better dietary self-control in humans. Specifically, we examined whether total HRV at sedentary rest (measured as the SD of normal-to-normal intervals) can serve as a biomarker for the neurophysiological adaptability that putatively underlies self-controlled behavior. We found that HRV explained a significant portion of the individual variability in dietary self-control, with individuals having higher HRV being better able to downregulate their cravings in the face of taste temptations. Furthermore, HRV was associated with activity patterns in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a key node in the brain's valuation and decision circuitry. Specifically, individuals with higher HRV showed both higher overall vmPFC blood-oxygen-level-dependent activity and attenuated taste representations when presented with a dietary self-control challenge. Last, the behavioral and neural associations with HRV were consistent across both our stress induction and control experimental conditions. The stability of this association across experimental conditions suggests that HRV may serve as both a readily obtainable and robust biomarker for self-control ability across environmental contexts.

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Neural Mechanisms Underlying Contextual Dependency of Subjective Values: Converging Evidence from Monkeys and Humans

Cited by 53 publications

References 44 publications

How prior preferences determine decision-making frames and biases in the human brain

How prior preferences determine decision-making frames and biases in the human brain

Responses to heartbeats in ventromedial prefrontal cortex contribute to subjective preference-based decisions

Higher Heart-Rate Variability Is Associated with Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Increased Resistance to Temptation in Dietary Self-Control Challenges

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