The root of all value: a neural common currency for choice

By Dino J. Levy, Paul Glimcher. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 2012

1,170 citations recorded by the source corpus.

How do humans make choices between different types of rewards? Economists have long argued on theoretical grounds that humans typically make these choices as if the values of the options they consider have been mapped to a single common scale for comparison. Neuroimaging studies in humans have recently begun to suggest the existence of a small group of specific brain sites that appear to encode the subjective values of different types of rewards on a neural common scale, almost exactly as predicted by theory. We have conducted a meta analysis using data from thirteen different functional magnetic resonance imaging studies published in recent years and we show that the principle brain area associated with this common representation is a subregion of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)/orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). The data available today suggest that this common valuation path is a core system that participates in day-to-day decision making suggesting both a neurobiological foundation for standard economic theory and a tool for measuring preferences neurobiologically. Perhaps even more exciting is the possibility that our emerging understanding of the neural mechanisms for valuation and choice may provide fundamental insights into pathological choice behaviors like addiction, obesity and gambling.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, General Decision Sciences

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0621eeaa77403d688a95b7bb57d425ff94ca433b

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Citations in the corpus

The valuation system: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of BOLD fMRI experiments examining neural correlates of subjective value (2013, positive): “Qualitative reviews of this work (e.g., Delgado, 2007; Grabenhorst and Rolls, 2011; Kable and Glimcher, 2009; Knutson and Cooper, 2005; Levy and Glimcher, 2012; Montague and Berns, 2002; O'Doherty, 2004; Peters and Büchel, 2010) have concluded that: (1) BOLD signal in a small number of regions, incl”
Using EEG to Predict Consumers’ Future Choices (2015, methodology): “…but the general nature of evidence for value measurements in the prefrontal cortex using fMRI methods (e.g., Bartra, McGuire, and Kable 2013; Levy and Glimcher 2012) implies that, in principle, EEG can also be used for predicting the outcome of marketing-related strategies or campaigns, not…”
The expected value of control: An integrative theory of anterior cingulate cortex function (2013, positive): “Recent work has characterized orbitofrontal cortex as carrying a willingness-to-pay signal during economic choice (Levy and Glimcher, 2012; Padoa-Schioppa, 2011; Plassmann et al., 2007).”
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Science of Addiction (2018, background): “(2) Whether there are one or two or ten brain centers that take part in the decision process, there must be a mechanism—a reward process—by which any option that you can learn to substitute for any other option is weighed, one against the other (Shizgal & Conover 1996; Levy & Glimcher 2012).”
Emotion and the Prefrontal Cortex: An Integrative Review (2017, background): “…Schoenbaum and Esber (2010) Review lOFC Outcome expectancies Sharpe and Schoenbaum (2016) Review lOFC Comparing OFC and amygdala functions Levy and Glimcher (2012) Review/Model mOFC Value-based decision making Bartra et al. (2013) Meta-analysis mOFC, RMPFC, pgACC, sgACC Value-based decision…”
Consumer neuroscience for marketing researchers (2018, methodology): “Decision consumer neuroscience research has been conducted predominantly with fMRI research tools because of its topographical accuracy of brain activity (Levy & Glimcher, 2012; Rilling & Sanfey, 2011; Smidts et al., 2014).”
Executive control and decision-making in the prefrontal cortex (2015, positive): “The vmPFC, especially its ventral portion (often referred to as the medial orbitofrontal cortex), enables to convert distinct subjective reward scales into a ‘common currency’ scale for allowing value comparison [14–17] that drives selection.”
Valence and Value (2018, positive): “It is widely believed by affective scientists that valence is intrinsically motivating, and plays a fundamental role in affectively-based decision making (Gilbert & Wilson, 2005; Levy & Glimcher, 2012).”
The Computation of Stimulus Values in Simple Choice (2014, background): “Although this chapter has demonstrated that SVs appear to reliably be encoded in vmPFC, how precise is the localization in vmPFC? A careful look at the studies of SV highlighted in this chapter shows the area of vmPFC identified in all of these humans studies is fairly consistent (Levy and Glimcher,”
Motivation and cognitive control: from behavior to neural mechanism. (2015, result): “…(PFC): the front-most portion of the cerebral cortex that contains a number of subregions believed to play a pivotal role in supporting executive function up, in particular, if there exist measurable neural correlates of subjective value, as current data in fact do suggest (Levy & Glimcher 2012).”
Informatic parcellation of the network involved in the computation of subjective value. (2014, background): “…al., 2008; Glimcher, 2011; Grabenhorst and Rolls, 2011; Rushworth et al., 2011, Wallis, 2012), and that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) plays a critical role in the computation of value both at decision and outcome (Rangel and Hare, 2010; Padoa-Schioppa, 2011; Levy and Glimcher, 2012).”
The neuroscience of empathy (2018, background): “For example, whereas empathic responses to painful touch recruit fronto-insular cortex, responses to pleasant touch recruit medial orbitofrontal cortex, which is involved in integrating multimodal information about reward [24].”