Orbitofrontal Cortex Encodes Willingness to Pay in Everyday Economic Transactions

An essential component of every economic transaction is a willingness-to-pay (WTP) computation in which buyers calculate the maximum amount of financial resources that they are willing to give up in exchange for the object being sold. Despite its pervasiveness, little is known about how the brain makes this computation. We investigated the neural basis of the WTP computation by scanning hungry subjects' brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they placed real bids for the right to eat different foods. We found that activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex encodes subjects' WTP for the items. Our results support the hypothesis that the medial orbitofrontal cortex encodes the value of goals in decision making.

[1]  M. Degroot,et al.  Measuring utility by a single-response sequential method. , 1964, Behavioral science.

[2]  D. Pandya,et al.  Prefrontostriatal connections in relation to cortical architectonic organization in rhesus monkeys , 1991, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[3]  E. Rolls,et al.  The Orbitofrontal Cortex , 2019 .

[4]  Masataka Watanabe.  Reward expectancy in primate prefrental neurons , 1996, Nature.

[5]  G. Schoenbaum,et al.  Orbitofrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala encode expected outcomes during learning , 1998, Nature Neuroscience.

[6]  H. Duvernoy,et al.  The Human Brain: Surface, Three-Dimensional Sectional Anatomy with MRI, and Blood Supply , 1999 .

[7]  D. Pandya,et al.  Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: comparative cytoarchitectonic analysis in the human and the macaque brain and corticocortical connection patterns , 1999, The European journal of neuroscience.

[8]  W. Schultz,et al.  Relative reward preference in primate orbitofrontal cortex , 1999, Nature.

[9]  E. Rolls.  The orbitofrontal cortex and reward. , 2000, Cerebral cortex.

[10]  Brian Knutson,et al.  Anticipation of Increasing Monetary Reward Selectively Recruits Nucleus Accumbens , 2001, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[11]  Henrik Walter,et al.  Cultural objects modulate reward circuitry , 2002, Neuroreport.

[12]  R Turner,et al.  Optimized EPI for fMRI studies of the orbitofrontal cortex , 2003, NeuroImage.

[13]  E. Miller,et al.  Neuronal activity in primate dorsolateral and orbital prefrontal cortex during performance of a reward preference task , 2003, The European journal of neuroscience.

[14]  J. Parkinson,et al.  Dissociable Contributions of the Human Amygdala and Orbitofrontal Cortex to Incentive Motivation and Goal Selection , 2003, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[15]  David I. Laibson,et al.  Neuroeconomics: How Neuroscience Can Inform Economics , 2005 .

[16]  Martin P Paulus,et al.  Ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation is critical for preference judgments , 2003, Neuroreport.

[17]  M. Roesch,et al.  Neuronal Activity Related to Reward Value and Motivation in Primate Frontal Cortex , 2004, Science.

[18]  P. Glimcher,et al.  Neuroeconomics: The Consilience of Brain and Decision , 2004, Science.

[19]  M. Roesch,et al.  Orbitofrontal Cortex, Associative Learning, and Expectancies , 2005, Neuron.

[20]  J. Morton,et al.  Choosing the Lesser of Two Evils, the Better of Two Goods: Specifying the Roles of Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex and Dorsal Anterior Cingulate in Object Choice , 2006, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[21]  C. Padoa-Schioppa,et al.  Neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex encode economic value , 2006, Nature.

[22]  M. Quirk,et al.  Representation of Spatial Goals in Rat Orbitofrontal Cortex , 2006, Neuron.

[23]  M. Farah,et al.  Cerebral Cortex doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl176 The Role of Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Decision Making: Judgment under Uncertainty or Judgment Per Se? , 2007 .

[24]  G. Loewenstein,et al.  Neural Predictors of Purchases , 2007, Neuron.