Lecture 11 - Decision Making

What is decision-making in cognitive neuroscience?

Decision-making is the process of selecting one option among several by evaluating expected outcomes associated with each choice. It involves cognitive evaluation and emotional processing

What variables influence the subjective value of an option?

Payoff amount, context, probability, effort/cost, temporal discounting, novelty, and personal preference

What happens when the vmPFC is damaged?

Patients (e.g., Elliot, Damasio 1990s) have normal lab performance but poor real-life decisions: struggle to weigh outcomes, anticipate consequences, prioritize choices, and take risks despite knowing better

Describe the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT).

Participants choose from advantageous decks (low risk, long-term gain) or disadvantageous decks (high risk, long-term loss). Healthy individuals learn to prefer advantageous decks

How do vmPFC and amygdala lesions affect the Iowa Gambling Task?

Both groups fail to avoid risky decks. vmPFC lesions impair anticipatory emotional responses, while amygdala lesions reduce fear-based learning

What is temporal discounting and how is it affected by OFC lesions?

Temporal discounting is the tendency to devalue delayed rewards. OFC lesions lead to impatience and preference for immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards

How do vmPFC/OFC neurons encode choice value?

Neurons fire maximally for the chosen option in proportion to its subjective value (Paola-Schioppa & Assad, 2006). Firing adapts dynamically depending on context.

What is the “common currency” hypothesis in decision-making?

The vmPFC maps diverse options onto a unidimensional scale, allowing comparison of different types of rewards (e.g., hammer vs. spoon depending on context)

Which brain regions are involved in reward and punishment valuation?

Cortical regions: frontal cortex; subcortical regions: nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus, striatum

Explain the Dual Systems Model of decision-making.

System 1: fast, automatic, associative, affective.
System 2: slow, deliberate, rational, rule-based

What is Zelazo et al.'s “hot/cold” concept of executive function?

“Hot” functions involve emotion-laden decisions; “cold” functions involve rational, cognitive processing

What is the role of the amygdala in emotional decision-making?

Processes emotional stimuli, guides fear responses, and influences emotional memory and perception through projections to the hippocampus, cortex, hypothalamus, and ventral striatum

Describe Kluver-Bucy Syndrome.

Damage to anterior temporal lobes including the amygdala causes hyperorality, hypersexuality, lack of fear, and indiscriminate exploration

What did patient S.M. demonstrate about the amygdala?

Near-complete bilateral amygdala destruction led to impaired fear recognition but preserved face identity recognition, showing separate neural systems for emotion and cognition (Adolphs et al., 1994)

How does amygdala stimulation affect physiology?

Electrical stimulation increases skin conductance (SCR) and heart rate in an amplitude-dependent manner, indicating a causal role in emotional responses

How does the vmPFC integrate emotion into decision-making?

Through the Somatic Marker Hypothesis: bodily emotional states (somatic markers) bias decisions toward beneficial outcomes under uncertainty

What deficits are observed in patients with vmPFC damage according to SMH?

Failure to generate anticipatory emotional responses to decision-making cues, despite intact reflexive responses

How can threat or alcohol affect decision-making?

Both inhibit prefrontal cortex activity, shifting control to reflexive System 1 responses (fight, flight, or freeze), reducing flexible decision-making

What are evolutionary implications of reflexive responses in decision-making?

Rapid responses (fight, flight, freeze) are adaptive for survival but can reduce flexibility in novel or complex modern situations

Which neural pathway connects emotional and cognitive regions in decision-making?

The uncinate fasciculus connects the amygdala to the vmPFC, integrating affective signals into cognitive evaluations

How does the distributed network support decision-making?

Decision-making relies on a network of cortical and subcortical regions: vmPFC/OFC for value integration, amygdala for emotion, nucleus accumbens for reward, and hippocampus for memory-guided evaluation