The Good, the Bad and the Brain: Neural Correlates of Appetitive and Aversive Values Underlying Decision Making

Overview

Journal Curr Opin Behav Sci

Date 2019 Jun 11

PMID 31179377

Citations 31

Authors

Mathias Pessiglione

Mauricio R Delgado

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Approaching rewards and avoiding punishments could be considered as core principles governing behavior. Experiments from behavioral economics have shown that choices involving gains and losses follow different policy rules, suggesting that appetitive and aversive processes might rely on different brain systems. Here we contrast this hypothesis with recent neuroscience studies exploring the human brain from brainstem nuclei to cortical areas. Although some circuits show rigid specialization, many others appear to process both appetitive and aversive stimuli, in a flexible manner that depends on a context-wise subjective reference point. Moreover, appetitive and aversive aspects are often integrated into net values that are signaled with enhanced activity in 'positive regions', and suppressed activity in 'negative regions'. This dichotomy might explain why drugs or lesions can produce valence-specific effects, biasing decisions towards approaching a reward or avoiding a punishment.

Citing Articles

Examining neuroanatomical correlates of win-stay, lose-shift behaviour.

Westerman M, Hallam G, Kafkas A, Brown H, Retzler C Brain Struct Funct. 2025; 230(2):40.

PMID: 40014138 PMC: 11868257. DOI: 10.1007/s00429-025-02901-z.

Neural and Computational Mechanisms of Motivation and Decision-making.

Yee D J Cogn Neurosci. 2024; 36(12):2822-2830.

PMID: 39378176 PMC: 11602011. DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02258.

Neural interactions in the human frontal cortex dissociate reward and punishment learning.

Combrisson E, Basanisi R, Gueguen M, Rheims S, Kahane P, Bastin J Elife. 2024; 12.

PMID: 38941238 PMC: 11213568. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.92938.

From compulsivity to compulsion: the neural basis of compulsive disorders.

Robbins T, Banca P, Belin D Nat Rev Neurosci. 2024; 25(5):313-333.

PMID: 38594324 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-024-00807-z.

RISK aversion in Italian forensic and non-forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Canessa N, Iozzino L, Andreose S, Castelletti L, Conte G, Dvorak A PLoS One. 2023; 18(7):e0289152.

PMID: 37523390 PMC: 10389697. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289152.

References

Baron-Cohen S, Ring H, Bullmore E, Wheelwright S, Ashwin C, Williams S . The amygdala theory of autism. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2000; 24(3):355-64. DOI: 10.1016/s0149-7634(00)00011-7. View

Delgado M, Nystrom L, Fissell C, Noll D, Fiez J . Tracking the hemodynamic responses to reward and punishment in the striatum. J Neurophysiol. 2000; 84(6):3072-7. DOI: 10.1152/jn.2000.84.6.3072. View

LeDoux J, Gorman J . A call to action: overcoming anxiety through active coping. Am J Psychiatry. 2001; 158(12):1953-5. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.158.12.1953. View

Daw N, Kakade S, Dayan P . Opponent interactions between serotonin and dopamine. Neural Netw. 2002; 15(4-6):603-16. DOI: 10.1016/s0893-6080(02)00052-7. View

ODoherty J, Winston J, Critchley H, Perrett D, Burt D, Dolan R . Beauty in a smile: the role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness. Neuropsychologia. 2002; 41(2):147-55. DOI: 10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00145-8. View

Knutson B, Fong G, Bennett S, Adams C, Hommer D . A region of mesial prefrontal cortex tracks monetarily rewarding outcomes: characterization with rapid event-related fMRI. Neuroimage. 2003; 18(2):263-72. DOI: 10.1016/s1053-8119(02)00057-5. View

ODoherty J, Dayan P, Friston K, Critchley H, Dolan R . Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in the human brain. Neuron. 2003; 38(2):329-37. DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(03)00169-7. View

Frank M, Seeberger L, OReilly R . By carrot or by stick: cognitive reinforcement learning in parkinsonism. Science. 2004; 306(5703):1940-3. DOI: 10.1126/science.1102941. View

Cools R, Blackwell A, Clark L, Menzies L, Cox S, Robbins T . Tryptophan depletion disrupts the motivational guidance of goal-directed behavior as a function of trait impulsivity. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2005; 30(7):1362-73. DOI: 10.1038/sj.npp.1300704. View

10.

Kuhnen C, Knutson B . The neural basis of financial risk taking. Neuron. 2005; 47(5):763-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.08.008. View

11.

Phelps E, LeDoux J . Contributions of the amygdala to emotion processing: from animal models to human behavior. Neuron. 2005; 48(2):175-87. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.09.025. View

12.

Fellows L . Deciding how to decide: ventromedial frontal lobe damage affects information acquisition in multi-attribute decision making. Brain. 2006; 129(Pt 4):944-52. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awl017. View

13.

Kim H, Shimojo S, ODoherty J . Is avoiding an aversive outcome rewarding? Neural substrates of avoidance learning in the human brain. PLoS Biol. 2006; 4(8):e233. PMC: 1484497. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040233. View

14.

de Martino B, Kumaran D, Seymour B, Dolan R . Frames, biases, and rational decision-making in the human brain. Science. 2006; 313(5787):684-7. PMC: 2631940. DOI: 10.1126/science.1128356. View

15.

Pessiglione M, Seymour B, Flandin G, Dolan R, Frith C . Dopamine-dependent prediction errors underpin reward-seeking behaviour in humans. Nature. 2006; 442(7106):1042-5. PMC: 2636869. DOI: 10.1038/nature05051. View

16.

Yacubian J, Glascher J, Schroeder K, Sommer T, Braus D, Buchel C . Dissociable systems for gain- and loss-related value predictions and errors of prediction in the human brain. J Neurosci. 2006; 26(37):9530-7. PMC: 6674602. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2915-06.2006. View

17.

Tom S, Fox C, Trepel C, Poldrack R . The neural basis of loss aversion in decision-making under risk. Science. 2007; 315(5811):515-8. DOI: 10.1126/science.1134239. View

18.

Delgado M . Reward-related responses in the human striatum. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2007; 1104:70-88. DOI: 10.1196/annals.1390.002. View

19.

Seymour B, Daw N, Dayan P, Singer T, Dolan R . Differential encoding of losses and gains in the human striatum. J Neurosci. 2007; 27(18):4826-31. PMC: 2630024. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0400-07.2007. View

20.

Calder A, Beaver J, Davis M, van Ditzhuijzen J, Keane J, Lawrence A . Disgust sensitivity predicts the insula and pallidal response to pictures of disgusting foods. Eur J Neurosci. 2007; 25(11):3422-8. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05604.x. View