Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK.
Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.
Cereb Cortex. 2017 Sep 1;27(9):4635-4648. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhx183.
Economic decisions are guided by highly subjective reward valuations (SVs). Often these SVs are over-ridden when individuals conform to social norms. Yet, the neural mechanisms that underpin the distinct processing of such normative reward valuations (NVs) are poorly understood. The dorsomedial and ventromedial portions of the prefrontal cortex (dmPFC/vmPFC) are putatively key regions for processing social and economic information respectively. However, the contribution of these regions to economic decisions guided by social norms is unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and computational modeling we examine the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of SVs and NVs. Subjects (n = 15) indicated either their own economic preferences or made similar choices based on a social norm-learnt during a training session. We found that that the vmPFC and dmPFC make dissociable contributions to the processing of SV and NV. Regions of the dmPFC processed "only" the value of rewards when making normative choices. In contrast, we identify a novel mechanism in the vmPFC for the coding of value. This region signaled both subjective and normative valuations, but activity was scaled positively for SV and negatively for NV. These results highlight some of the key mechanisms that underpin conformity and social influence in economic decision-making.
经济决策受到高度主观的奖励估值（SV）的指导。通常，当个人遵守社会规范时，这些 SV 会被超越。然而，支持这种规范奖励估值（NV）的不同处理的神经机制还了解甚少。前额叶皮层的背内侧和腹内侧部分（dmPFC/vmPFC）分别被认为是处理社会和经济信息的关键区域。然而，这些区域对受社会规范指导的经济决策的贡献尚不清楚。我们使用功能磁共振成像和计算建模来研究指导 SV 和 NV 处理的神经机制。被试（n=15）要么表示自己的经济偏好，要么根据在培训期间学到的社会规范做出类似的选择。我们发现，vmPFC 和 dmPFC 对 SV 和 NV 的处理有不同的贡献。dmPFC 在进行规范选择时“仅”处理奖励的价值。相比之下，我们在 vmPFC 中发现了一种用于编码价值的新机制。该区域同时表示主观和规范的估值，但活动对 SV 呈正标度，对 NV 呈负标度。这些结果突出了支持经济决策中从众和社会影响的一些关键机制。
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