Prefrontal cortex, cognitive control, and the registration of decision costs
- 12 April 2010
- journal article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 107 (17), 7922-7926
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910662107
Abstract
Human choice behavior takes account of internal decision costs: people show a tendency to avoid making decisions in ways that are computationally demanding and subjectively effortful. Here, we investigate neural processes underlying the registration of decision costs. We report two functional MRI experiments that implicate lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) in this function. In Experiment 1, LPFC activity correlated positively with a self-report measure of costs as this measure varied over blocks of simple decisions. In Experiment 2, LPFC activity also correlated with individual differences in effort-based choice, taking on higher levels in subjects with a strong tendency to avoid cognitively demanding decisions. These relationships persisted even when effects of reaction time and error were partialled out, linking LPFC activity to subjectively experienced costs and not merely to response accuracy or time on task. In contrast to LPFC, dorsomedial frontal cortex--an area widely implicated in performance monitoring--showed no relationship to decision costs independent of overt performance. Previous work has implicated LPFC in executive control. Our results thus imply that costs may be registered based on the degree to which control mechanisms are recruited during decision-making.Keywords
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mental fatigue: Costs and benefitsBrain Research Reviews, 2008
- Anticipation of cognitive demand during decision-makingPsychological Research, 2008
- Cognitive Control, Goal Maintenance, and Prefrontal Function in Healthy AgingCerebral Cortex, 2007
- Prefrontal hyperactivation during working memory task in untreated individuals with major depressive disorderMolecular Psychiatry, 2006
- AFNI: Software for Analysis and Visualization of Functional Magnetic Resonance NeuroimagesComputers and Biomedical Research, 1996
- Lottery Choice: Incentives, Complexity and Decision TimeThe Economic Journal, 1993
- MONETARY REWARDS AND DECISION COST IN EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICSEconomic Inquiry, 1993
- A componential analysis of cognitive effort in choiceOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 1990
- Perception of force and weight: Theory and research.Psychological Bulletin, 1986
- A Contingency Model for the Selection of Decision StrategiesAcademy of Management Review, 1978