Individuals with ventromedial frontal damage display unstable but transitive preferences during decision making

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 4758
• Main Authors: Yu, Linda Q., Dana, Jason, Kable, Joseph W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 13.08.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/378/2649/1409; 706/689/159; Damage; Decision Making; Frontal Lobe; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Variability
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32511-w

The ventromedial frontal lobe (VMF) is important for decision-making, but the precise causal role of the VMF in the decision process has not been fully established. Previous studies have suggested that individuals with VMF damage violate transitivity, a hallmark axiom of rational decisions. However, these prior studies cannot properly distinguish whether individuals with VMF damage are truly prone to choosing irrationally from whether their preferences are simply more variable. We had individuals with focal VMF damage, individuals with other frontal damage, and healthy controls make repeated choices across three categories—artworks, chocolate bar brands, and gambles. Using proper tests of transitivity, we find that, in our study, individuals with VMF damage make rational decisions consistent with transitive preferences, even though they exhibit greater variability in their preferences. That is, the VMF is necessary for having strong and reliable preferences, but not for being a rational decision maker. VMF damage affects the variability with which value is assessed, but not the consistency with which value is sought. The ventromedial frontal lobes (VMF) contribute to encoding of value. Here the authors show that individuals with VMF damage have less stable, but fundamentally transitive preferences, suggesting that valuation does not solely rely on the VMF.