The neural correlates of subjective value during intertemporal choice

Neuroimaging studies of decision-making have generally related neural activity to objective measures (such as reward magnitude, probability or delay), despite choice preferences being subjective. However, economic theories posit that decision-makers behave as though different options have different subjective values. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that neural activity in several brain regions—particularly the ventral striatum, medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex—tracks the revealed subjective value of delayed monetary rewards. This similarity provides unambiguous evidence that the subjective value of potential rewards is explicitly represented in the human brain.

[1]  Ernst Heinrich Weber,et al.  De pulsu, resorptione, auditu et tactu. Annotationes anatomicae et physiologicae , 1834 .

[2]  J. Neumann,et al.  Theory of games and economic behavior , 1945, 100 Years of Math Milestones.

[3]  J. Neumann,et al.  The Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour , 1944 .

[4]  E. Rowland.  Theory of Games and Economic Behavior , 1946, Nature.

[5]  P. Samuelson,et al.  Foundations of Economic Analysis. , 1948 .

[6]  P. Samuelson,et al.  Foundations of Economic Analysis. , 1948 .

[7]  S. S. Stevens.  Neural events and the psychophysical law. , 1970, Science.

[8]  J. E. Mazur.  An adjusting procedure for studying delayed reinforcement. , 1987 .

[9]  K. H. Britten,et al.  Neuronal correlates of a perceptual decision , 1989, Nature.

[10]  B. Richmond,et al.  Neural signals in the monkey ventral striatum related to motivation for juice and cocaine rewards. , 1996, Journal of neurophysiology.

[11]  M N Shadlen,et al.  Motion perception: seeing and deciding. , 1996, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[12]  David I. Laibson,et al.  Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting , 1997 .

[13]  G. Fechner.  Elemente der Psychophysik , 1998 .

[14]  A. Parker,et al.  Sense and the single neuron: probing the physiology of perception. , 1998, Annual review of neuroscience.

[15]  Commentary on “The Effects of Financial Incentives in Experiments: A Review and Capital-Labor-Production Framework” , 1999 .

[16]  Colin Camerer,et al.  The Effects of Financial Incentives in Experiments: A Review and Capital-Labor-Production Framework , 1999 .

[17]  M. Coller,et al.  Eliciting Individual Discount Rates , 1999 .

[18]  Michael L. Platt,et al.  Neural correlates of decision variables in parietal cortex , 1999, Nature.

[19]  V. Smith,et al.  Monetary rewards and decision cost in experimental economics , 2000 .

[20]  L. Nystrom,et al.  Tracking the hemodynamic responses to reward and punishment in the striatum. , 2000, Journal of neurophysiology.

[21]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Functional Imaging of Neural Responses to Expectancy and Experience of Monetary Gains and Losses tasks with monetary payoffs , 2001 .

[22]  M. Raichle,et al.  Searching for a baseline: Functional imaging and the resting human brain , 2001, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[23]  Evelyn C. Ferstl,et al.  The Anterior Frontomedian Cortex and Evaluative Judgment: An fMRI Study , 2002, NeuroImage.

[24]  Kenneth O. Johnson,et al.  Review: Neural Coding and the Basic Law of Psychophysics , 2002, The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry.

[25]  J. O'Doherty,et al.  Encoding Predictive Reward Value in Human Amygdala and Orbitofrontal Cortex , 2003, Science.

[26]  Wolfram Schultz,et al.  Effects of expectations for different reward magnitudes on neuronal activity in primate striatum. , 2003, Journal of neurophysiology.

[27]  J. C. Crowley,et al.  Saccade Reward Signals in Posterior Cingulate Cortex , 2003, Neuron.

[28]  J. O'Doherty,et al.  Dissociating Valence of Outcome from Behavioral Control in Human Orbital and Ventral Prefrontal Cortices , 2003, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[29]  Saori C. Tanaka,et al.  Prediction of immediate and future rewards differentially recruits cortico-basal ganglia loops , 2004, Nature Neuroscience.

[30]  P. Glimcher,et al.  Activity in Posterior Parietal Cortex Is Correlated with the Relative Subjective Desirability of Action , 2004, Neuron.

[31]  W. Newsome,et al.  Matching Behavior and the Representation of Value in the Parietal Cortex , 2004, Science.

[32]  N. Ramnani,et al.  Distinct portions of anterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex are activated by reward processing in separable phases of decision-making cognition , 2004, Biological Psychiatry.

[33]  Samuel M. McClure,et al.  Neural Correlates of Behavioral Preference for Culturally Familiar Drinks , 2004, Neuron.

[34]  Samuel M. McClure,et al.  Separate Neural Systems Value Immediate and Delayed Monetary Rewards , 2004, Science.

[35]  L. Green,et al.  A discounting framework for choice with delayed and probabilistic rewards. , 2004, Psychological bulletin.

[36]  M. Platt,et al.  Risk-sensitive neurons in macaque posterior cingulate cortex , 2005, Nature Neuroscience.

[37]  Matthew T. Kaufman,et al.  Distributed Neural Representation of Expected Value , 2005, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[38]  Camelia M. Kuhnen,et al.  The Neural Basis of Financial Risk Taking , 2005, Neuron.

[39]  Colin Camerer,et al.  Neural Systems Responding to Degrees of Uncertainty in Human Decision-Making , 2005, Science.

[40]  Faruk Gul,et al.  The Case for Mindless Economics , 2005 .

[41]  Dirk J. Heslenfeld,et al.  Activity in human reward-sensitive brain areas is strongly context dependent , 2005, NeuroImage.

[42]  Wolfram Schultz,et al.  Relative reward processing in primate striatum , 2005, Experimental Brain Research.

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

[44]  J. O'Doherty,et al.  Predictive Neural Coding of Reward Preference Involves Dissociable Responses in Human Ventral Midbrain and Ventral Striatum , 2006, Neuron.

[45]  J. Avery.  Critical review. , 2006, The Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society.

[46]  P. Dayan,et al.  Cortical substrates for exploratory decisions in humans , 2006, Nature.

[47]  Lawrence R. Frank,et al.  Anterior cingulate activity modulates nonlinear decision weight function of uncertain prospects , 2006, NeuroImage.

[48]  Henrik Walter,et al.  Prediction error as a linear function of reward probability is coded in human nucleus accumbens , 2006, NeuroImage.

[49]  Sabrina M. Tom,et al.  The Neural Basis of Loss Aversion in Decision-Making Under Risk , 2007, Science.

[50]  R. K. Simpson.  Nature Neuroscience , 2022 .

[51]  Shanefrederick,et al.  Time Discounting and Time Preference : A Critical Review , 2022 .