Changing value through cued approach: an automatic mechanism of behavior change

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 625 - 630
• Main Authors: Schonberg, Tom, Bakkour, Akram, Hover, Ashleigh M, Mumford, Jeanette A, Nagar, Lakshya, Perez, Jacob, Poldrack, Russell A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 59/36; 631/378/2649/1310; 631/378/2649/1409; Adult; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Auditory Perception - physiology; Behavior; Behavior modification; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedicine; Choice Behavior - physiology; Consumption; Cues; Decision-making; Eye Movement Measurements; Eye Movements - physiology; Food; Functional Neuroimaging - instrumentation; Functional Neuroimaging - methods; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Medical imaging; Methods; Neurobiology; Neuroimaging; Neurological research; Neurosciences; Physiological aspects; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Snack foods; Time Factors; Willingness to pay; United States > US; Texas
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/nn.3673

The subjective values of stimuli can be changed through reward-based learning, but here the authors show that the value of food items can be modulated by the concurrent presentation of an irrelevant auditory cue to which subjects must make a motor response. The effects of this pairing lasted at least 2 months, and neuroimaging revealed increased preference-related activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex. It is believed that choice behavior reveals the underlying value of goods. The subjective values of stimuli can be changed through reward-based learning mechanisms as well as by modifying the description of the decision problem, but it has yet to be shown that preferences can be manipulated by perturbing intrinsic values of individual items. Here we show that the value of food items can be modulated by the concurrent presentation of an irrelevant auditory cue to which subjects must make a simple motor response (i.e., cue-approach training). Follow-up tests showed that the effects of this pairing on choice lasted at least 2 months after prolonged training. Eye-tracking during choice confirmed that cue-approach training increased attention to the cued items. Neuroimaging revealed the neural signature of a value change in the form of amplified preference-related activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex.