Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
eNeuro. 2018 Apr 4;5(2). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0346-17.2018. eCollection 2018 Mar-Apr.
Although it is well established that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) represents value using a common currency across categories of rewards, it is unknown whether the vmPFC represents value irrespective of the sensory modality in which alternatives are presented. In the current study, male and female human subjects completed a decision-making task while their neural activity was recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging. On each trial, subjects chose between a safe alternative and a lottery, which was presented visually or aurally. A univariate conjunction analysis revealed that the anterior portion of the vmPFC tracks subjective value (SV) irrespective of the sensory modality. Using a novel cross-modality multivariate classifier, we were able to decode auditory value based on visual trials and vice versa. In addition, we found that the visual and auditory sensory cortices, which were identified using functional localizers, are also sensitive to the value of stimuli, albeit in a modality-specific manner. Whereas both primary and higher-order auditory cortices represented auditory SV (aSV), only a higher-order visual area represented visual SV (vSV). These findings expand our understanding of the common currency network of the brain and shed a new light on the interplay between sensory and value information processing.
尽管已经证实，腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）使用通用货币来代表不同类别的奖励的价值，但尚不清楚 vmPFC 是否代表价值，而与呈现替代方案的感觉模态无关。在当前的研究中，男性和女性人类受试者在完成决策任务时，其神经活动使用功能磁共振成像进行记录。在每次试验中，受试者在安全替代方案和彩票之间进行选择，彩票以视觉或听觉方式呈现。单变量联合分析表明，vmPFC 的前部部分无论感觉模态如何都能追踪主观价值（SV）。使用一种新的跨模态多元分类器，我们能够根据视觉试验解码听觉价值，反之亦然。此外，我们发现，使用功能定位器识别的视觉和听觉感觉皮层也对刺激的价值敏感，尽管是以模态特异性的方式。虽然初级和高级听觉皮层都代表听觉 SV（aSV），但只有高级视觉区域代表视觉 SV（vSV）。这些发现扩展了我们对大脑通用货币网络的理解，并为感官和价值信息处理之间的相互作用提供了新的视角。
