The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex represents subjective value across effort-based and risky decision-making
Year: 2022
Type: preprint
Abstract: Decisions that require taking prospective effort costs into account are ubiquitous in real life. The common currency theory hypothesizes that a neural network integrates different costs and rewards into a common scale to facilitate value comparison. Although there has been a surge of interest in the computational and neural basis of effort-reward integration, it is still under debate if the common currency theory could be applied to value integration in this context. Here, we comprehensively compared effort-based and risky decision-making using computational modeling, univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses, and data from two independent studies. We found that prospective outcomes were distinctively discounted by effort and risk. Moreover, although univariate fMRI analyses showed diverse results between tasks, multivariate decoding analyses indicated that the neural patterns of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) represented subjective value information across effort-based and risky decision-making. These findings suggest that the dmPFC plays a critical role in computing subjective value in a task-independent manner and thus extend the scope of the common currency theory.
Authors: Yuan-Wei Yao, Kunru Song, Nicolas W Schuck, Xin Li, Xiao-Yi Fang, jintao zhang, Hauke Heekeren, Rasmus Bruckner
Institutions: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, University College London, Universität Hamburg
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Awards: 青少年网络游戏成瘾渴求调控的神经机制和干预研究, G7209117047
OpenAlex ID: W4293068842