Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, Lenggstrasse 31, 8032, Zürich, Switzerland,
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2013 Dec;13(4):814-29. doi: 10.3758/s13415-013-0175-5.
Decision-making research has thoroughly investigated how people choose from a set of externally provided options. However, in ill-structured real-world environments, possible options for action are not defined by the situation but have to be generated by the agent. Here, we apply behavioral analysis (Study 1) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (Study 2) to investigate option generation and subsequent choice. For this purpose, we employ a new experimental task that requires participants to generate options for simple real-world scenarios and to subsequently decide among the generated options. Correlational analysis with a cognitive test battery suggests that retrieval of options from long-term memory is a relevant process during option generation. The results of the fMRI study demonstrate that option generation in simple real-world scenarios recruits the anterior prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, we show that choice behavior and its neural correlates differ between self-generated and externally provided options. Specifically, choice between self-generated options is associated with stronger recruitment of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. This impact of option generation on subsequent choice underlines the need for an expanded model of decision making to accommodate choice between self-generated options.
决策研究已经深入探讨了人们如何从一组外部提供的选项中进行选择。然而，在结构不良的现实世界环境中，行动的可能选项不是由情况定义的，而是必须由主体生成。在这里，我们应用行为分析（研究 1）和功能磁共振成像（研究 2）来研究选项生成和随后的选择。为此，我们采用了一种新的实验任务，要求参与者为简单的现实场景生成选项，并随后在生成的选项中进行选择。与认知测试组合的相关分析表明，从长期记忆中检索选项是选项生成过程中的一个相关过程。功能性磁共振成像研究的结果表明，在简单的现实场景中生成选项会招募前额前皮质。此外，我们还表明，自我生成和外部提供的选项之间的选择行为及其神经相关性存在差异。具体而言，自我生成选项之间的选择与背侧前扣带皮层的更强募集有关。选项生成对随后选择的这种影响强调了需要扩展决策模型以适应自我生成选项之间的选择。
