title: Arbitration between controlled and impulsive choices.
abstract: The impulse to act for immediate reward often conflicts with more deliberate evaluations that support long-term benefit. The neural architecture that negotiates this conflict remains unclear. One account proposes a single neural circuit that evaluates both immediate and delayed outcomes, while another outlines separate impulsive and patient systems that compete for behavioral control. Here we designed a task in which a complex payout structure divorces the immediate value of acting from the overall long-term value, within the same outcome modality. Using model-based fMRI in humans, we demonstrate separate neural representations of immediate and long-term values, with the former tracked in the anterior caudate (AC) and the latter in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Crucially, when subjects' choices were compatible with long-run consequences, value signals in AC were down-weighted and those in vmPFC were enhanced, while the opposite occurred when choice was impulsive. Thus, our data implicate a trade-off in value representation between AC and vmPFC as underlying controlled versus impulsive choice.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Electronic address: m.economides@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Economides
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK; Ageing Research Centre, Karolinska Institute, SE-11330 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guitart-Masip
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK; Max Planck Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kurth-Nelson
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dolan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Decision-making; Self-control; Striatum; Value; Ventromedial prefrontal cortex; fMRI