Distributed Neural Representation of Expected Value

By Brian Knutson, Jonathan E. Taylor, Matthew T. Kaufman, Richard Peterson, Gary H. Glover. Journal of Neuroscience, 2005

978 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Anticipated reward magnitude and probability comprise dual components of expected value (EV), a cornerstone of economic and psychological theory. However, the neural mechanisms that compute EV have not been characterized. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined neural activation as subjects anticipated monetary gains and losses that varied in magnitude and probability. Group analyses indicated that, although the subcortical nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activated proportional to anticipated gain magnitude, the cortical mesial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) additionally activated according to anticipated gain probability. Individual difference analyses indicated that, although NAcc activation correlated with self-reported positive arousal, MPFC activation correlated with probability estimates. These findings suggest that mesolimbic brain regions support the computation of EV in an ascending and distributed manner: whereas subcortical regions represent an affective component, cortical regions also represent a probabilistic component, and, furthermore, may integrate the two.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, General Decision Sciences

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/32713a70d03073741b6d59c235faf5ff3e5bf8b2

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Citations in the corpus

Reward-motivated learning: mesolimbic activation precedes memory formation. (2006, methodology): “, 2001a, 2001b), which reliably evokes activation proportional to the amount of anticipated reward in the NAcc and midbrain (Knutson et al., 2005).”
Neurons in the Frontal Lobe Encode the Value of Multiple Decision Variables (2009, neutral): “... & Gallagher, 2003; O’Doherty, Deichmann, Critchley, & Dolan, 2002; Hikosaka & Watanabe, 2000; Tremblay & Schultz, 1999; Schoenbaum, Chiba, & Gallagher, 1998; Watanabe, 1996), proximity to reward delivery (Ichihara-Takeda & Funahashi, 2007; Roesch et al., 2006; Roesch & Olson, 2005; McClure, Laib”
Behavioral and neural properties of social reinforcement learning (2011, background): “…have shown the rostral anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex is sensitive to cues that predict reward receipt (Tanaka et al., 2004; Knutson et al., 2005; Palminteri et al., 2009) and may play a role in general learning about the value of information and using this information for…”
Anticipatory affect: neural correlates and consequences for choice (2008, neutral): “We excluded studies with contrasts that did not separately model gain and loss (Critchley et al. 2001; Coricelli et al. 2005; Knutson et al. 2005; Preuschoff et al. 2006; Liu et al. 2007; Cooper & Knutson 2008), or that did not separately model anticipation and outcome periods of each trial…”
The Reward Circuit: Linking Primate Anatomy and Human Imaging (2010, background): “FMRI researchers have reported increased midbrain activation during anticipation of pleasant tastes (D’Ardenne et al , 2008; O’Doherty et al , 2002), anticipation of monetary gains (Knutson et al , 2005), and during exposure to visual stimuli that evoke romantic love (Aron et al , 2005).”
How green is the grass on the other side? Frontopolar cortex and the evidence in favor of alternative courses of action. (2009, neutral): “Previous fMRI data have implicated a region of the vmPFC in coding for the expected value of the chosen action or for related variables (Behrens et al., 2008; Daw et al., 2006; Hampton et al., 2006; Hare et al., 2008; Kable and Glimcher, 2007; Knutson et al., 2005; Plassmann et al., 2007; Tanaka e”
Cognitive bias as an indicator of animal emotion and welfare: Emerging evidence and underlying mechanisms (2009, background): “, 2008) as well as in other areas such as the anterior cingulate cortex (Knutson et al., 2005) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (Daw et al.”
The neural basis of financial risk taking. (2005, background): “, “anxiety”) may promote risk aversion (Knutson et al., 2005; Paulus et al., 2003).”
Separate Valuation Subsystems for Delay and Effort Decision Costs (2010, background): “, 2006), and increased activity of the ventral striatum has often been reported with expected value and its basic components, reward probability and magnitude (Knutson et al., 2005; Dreher et al., 2006; Yacubian et al., 2006; Kable and Glimcher, 2007; GregoriosPippas et al., 2009).”
Prediction error as a linear function of reward probability is coded in human nucleus accumbens (2006, neutral): “Neither was an uncertainty signal found in another fMRI study of delayed reward with a short delay (Knutson et al., 2005).”
Neuroeconomics: cross-currents in research on decision-making. (2006, background): “For example, one study has shown that activity in medial prefrontal cortex is inversely related to the probability of obtaining monetary reward [ 38 ].”
Dissociable neural representations of future reward magnitude and delay during temporal discounting (2009, positive): “Given the role of the MPFC in integrating different kinds of value information (e.g., preference, likelihood, cost; (Knutson et al., 2003, 2005, 2007; O'Doherty et al., 2003a; Plassmann et al., 2007), these regions may integrate perceived benefits and costs to potentially inform upcoming choice.”