title: Nonlinear responses within the medial prefrontal cortex reveal when specific implicit information influences economic decision making.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how individual economic decisions are influenced by implicit memory contributions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-two participants were asked to make binary decisions between different brands of sensorily nearly undistinguishable consumer goods. Changes of brain activity comparing decisions in the presence or absence of a specific target brand were detected by fMRI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only when the tar get brand was the participant's favorite one did the authors find reduced activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal, posterior parietal, and occipital cortices and the left premotor area (Brodmann areas [BA] 9, 46, 7/19, and 6). Simultaneously, activity was increased in the inferior precuneus and posterior cingulate (BA 7), right superior frontal gyrus (BA 10), right supramarginal gyrus (BA 40), and, most pronounced, in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (BA 10).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For products mainly distinguishable by brand information, the authors revealed a nonlinear winner-take-all effect for a participant's favorite brand characterized, on one hand, by reduced activation in brain areas associated with working memory and reasoning and, on the other hand, increased activation in areas involved in processing of emotions and self-reflections during decision making.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Clinical Radiology, University of Münster and University Hospital Münster, Germany. mail@michael-deppe.de
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deppe
authors.forename: Wolfram
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schwindt
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kugel
authors.forename: Hilke
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Plassmann
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kenning
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001515:Beer; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003069:Coffee; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging; D004467:Economics; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003069:Coffee