Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, United States.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2012 Dec;22(6):1027-38. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2012.06.001. Epub 2012 Jul 3.
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.
人类如何在不同类型的奖励之间做出选择？从理论上讲，经济学家们长期以来一直认为，人类通常会做出这些选择，就好像他们所考虑的选项的价值已经被映射到一个单一的通用尺度上进行比较。最近，人类的神经影像学研究开始表明，存在一小群特定的大脑部位，这些部位似乎在神经通用尺度上对不同类型的奖励的主观价值进行编码，几乎完全符合理论预测。我们使用近年来发表的十三项不同功能磁共振成像研究的数据进行了荟萃分析，结果表明，与这种通用表示相关的主要大脑区域是腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）/眶额皮层（OFC）的一个亚区。目前可用的数据表明，这种通用估值路径是参与日常决策的核心系统，这不仅为标准经济理论提供了神经生物学基础，也为神经生物学测量偏好提供了工具。更令人兴奋的是，我们对估值和选择的神经机制的理解可能为成瘾、肥胖和赌博等病理性选择行为提供基本的见解。
