title: Neural antecedents of social decision-making in a partner choice task.
abstract: Experiments in financial decision-making point to two complementary processes that encode prospective gain and loss preceding the choice to purchase consumer goods. These processes involve the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and the right anterior insula, respectively. The current experiment used functional MRI to investigate whether these regions served a similar function during an analogous social decision-making task without the influence of monetary outcomes. In this task, subjects chose partners based on face stimuli of varying attractiveness (operationalizing value) and ratings of compatibility with the participant (operationalizing likelihood of rejection). The NAcc responded to anticipated gain; the right anterior insula responded to compatibility, but not in a manner that suggests an analogy to anticipated cost. Logistic regression modeling demonstrated that both regions predicted subsequent choice above and beyond the influence of group attractiveness ratings or compatibility alone. Although the function of the insula may differ between tasks, these results suggest that financial and social decision-making recruit a similar network of brain regions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, PO Box 208205, 2 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, Stanford School of Medicine, 291 Campus Dr, Stanford, CA 94305, and Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, 108 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716 Department of Psychology, Yale University, PO Box 208205, 2 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, Stanford School of Medicine, 291 Campus Dr, Stanford, CA 94305, and Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, 108 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716 samcartmell@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Samuel C D
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Cartmell
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, PO Box 208205, 2 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, Stanford School of Medicine, 291 Campus Dr, Stanford, CA 94305, and Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, 108 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716.
authors.forename: Marvin M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, PO Box 208205, 2 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, Stanford School of Medicine, 291 Campus Dr, Stanford, CA 94305, and Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, 108 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716 Department of Psychology, Yale University, PO Box 208205, 2 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, Stanford School of Medicine, 291 Campus Dr, Stanford, CA 94305, and Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, 108 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716.
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Vickery
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007092:Imagination; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D012201:Reward; D012919:Social Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: attractiveness; nucleus accumbens; reward; social decision making