Independent and interacting value systems for reward and information in the human brain
Abstract
Theories of Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) as optimizing reward value have been widely deployed to explain its activity in a diverse range of contexts, with substantial empirical support in neuroeconomics and decision neuroscience. Similar neural circuits, however, have also been associated with information processing. By using computational modeling, model-based fMRI analysis, and a novel experimental paradigm, we aim at establishing whether a dedicated and independent value system for information exists in the human PFC. We identify two regions in the human PFC which independently encode reward and information. Our results provide empirical evidence for PFC as an optimizer of independent information and reward signals during decision-making under realistic scenarios, with potential implications for the interpretation of PFC activity in both healthy and clinical populations.
Data availability
Behavioral data is available on OSF, https://osf.io/e3rp6/.
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Indipendent and interacting value system for reward and information in the human brainOSF, DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/E3RP6.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
FWO-Flanders Odysseus 2 (G.OC44.13N)
- William H Alexander
F.R.S.-fNRS
- Irene Cogliati Dezza
FWO
- Irene Cogliati Dezza
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: The experiment was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Ghent University Hospital and conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to the experiment.
Copyright
© 2022, Cogliati Dezza et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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