A Network for Computing Value Equilibrium in the Human Medial Prefrontal Cortex

• Published in: Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 101; no. 5; pp. 977 - 987.e3
• Main Authors: Juechems, Keno, Balaguer, Jan, Herce Castañón, Santiago, Ruz, María, O’Reilly, Jill X., Summerfield, Christopher
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 06.03.2019; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Animals; Brain Mapping; Choice Behavior; Cortex (cingulate); Decision making; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; goal-directed decision-making; Goals; human fMRI; Humans; Hunger; Male; medial prefrontal cortex; Neural networks; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Reinforcement; Thirst; value; Young Adult; human fMRI; goal-directed decision-making; medial prefrontal cortex; value
• ISSN: 0896-6273; 1097-4199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.12.029

Humans and other animals make decisions in order to satisfy their goals. However, it remains unknown how neural circuits compute which of multiple possible goals should be pursued (e.g., when balancing hunger and thirst) and how to combine these signals with estimates of available reward alternatives. Here, humans undergoing fMRI accumulated two distinct assets over a sequence of trials. Financial outcomes depended on the minimum cumulate of either asset, creating a need to maintain “value equilibrium” by redressing any imbalance among the assets. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) tracked the level of imbalance among goals, whereas the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) signaled the level of redress incurred by a choice rather than the overall amount received. These results suggest that a network of medial frontal brain regions compute a value signal that maintains value equilibrium among internal goals. •Humans plan myopically when maintaining equilibrium between two goals•Rostral ACC tracks the level of imbalance between goals•The striatum encodes outcomes independently of equilibrium•vmPFC encodes the redress in imbalance incurred by choice Humans often need to maintain equilibrium between competing goals. Juechems et al. show that a region in the rostral ACC monitors this equilibrium, whereas the vmPFC encodes the redress in imbalance between goals incurred by choice.