A mechanistic account of value computation in the human brain

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1001732107
• Publication Date: 2010-05-04T02:02:58Z
• Authors: Marios G. Philias...; Guido Biele; Hauke R. Heekeren
• Keywords: Ventromedial prefrontal cortex; Value (mathematics); ENCODE

To make decisions based on the value of different options, we often have to combine sources probabilistic evidence. For example, when shopping for strawberries a fruit stand, one uses their color and size infer—with some uncertainty—which taste best. Despite much progress in understanding neural underpinnings value-based decision making humans, it remains unclear how brain represents evidence they are used compute signals needed drive decision. Here, use visual categorization task show that regions ventral temporal cortex encode alternatives, while ventromedial prefrontal integrates information from these into signal using difference-based comparator operation.