Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Prog Brain Res. 2013;202:215-37. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-62604-2.00013-7.
To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive processes underlying decision-making, including perceptual judgments, working memory, as well as cognitive and attentional control. However, in everyday life, the importance of context is even more obvious during economic and social interactions, which often have implicit rule sets that need to be recognized by a decision-maker. Here, we review recent evidence from an increasing number of studies in the fields of Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience that investigate the neurobiological basis of contextual effects on valuation and social choice. Contrary to the assumptions of rational choice theory, multiple contextual factors, such as the availability of alternative choice options, shifts in reference point, and social context, have been shown to modulate behavior, as well as signals in task-relevant neural networks. A consistent picture that emerges from neurobiological results is that valuation-related activity in striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex is highly context dependent during both social and nonsocial choice. Alternative approaches to model and explain choice behavior, such as comparison-based choice models, as well as implications for future research are discussed.
为了在我们复杂的环境中生存，我们必须适应不断变化的环境。先前的研究表明，人类大脑如何处理上下文变化，对决策过程中的多个认知过程产生了重要的调节影响，包括感知判断、工作记忆以及认知和注意力控制。然而，在日常生活中，上下文的重要性在经济和社会互动中更为明显，这些互动通常具有决策者需要识别的隐含规则集。在这里，我们回顾了神经经济学和社会神经科学领域越来越多的研究中的最新证据，这些研究调查了上下文效应对估值和社会选择的神经生物学基础的影响。与理性选择理论的假设相反，许多上下文因素，如替代选择选项的可用性、参照点的转变以及社会背景，都被证明会调节行为以及与任务相关的神经网络中的信号。神经生物学结果所呈现的一致图景是，在社会和非社会选择中，纹状体和腹内侧前额叶皮层的与估值相关的活动高度依赖于上下文。还讨论了替代的模型和解释选择行为的方法，如基于比较的选择模型，以及对未来研究的影响。
