title: Perceived ownership impacts reward evaluation within medial-frontal cortex.
abstract: Ownership is a powerful construct. Indeed, in a series of recent studies, perceived ownership has been shown to increase attentional capacity, facilitate a memorial advantage, and elicit positive attitudes. Here, we sought to determine whether self-relevance would bias reward evaluation systems within the brain. To accomplish this, we had participants complete a simple gambling task during which they could "win" or "lose" prizes for themselves or for someone else, while electroencephalographic data were recorded. Our results indicated that the amplitude of the feedback error-related negativity, a component of the event-related brain potential sensitive to reward evaluation, was diminished when participants were not gambling for themselves. Furthermore, our data suggest that the ownership cues that indicated who would win or lose a given gamble either were processed as a potential for an increase in utility (i.e., gain: self-gambles) or were processed in a nonutilitarian manner (other-gambles). Importantly, our results suggest that the medial-frontal reward system is sensitive to perceived ownership, to the extent that it may not process changes in utility when they are not directly relevant to self.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Life Sciences Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 4R2. krigolson@dal.ca
authors.forename: Olave E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Krigolson
authors.forename: Cameron D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Hassall
authors.forename: Lynsey
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Balcom
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Turk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010067:Ownership; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult