title: Dissociating Value Representation and Inhibition of Inappropriate Affective Response during Reversal Learning in the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex.
abstract: Decision-making studies have implicated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in tracking the value of rewards and punishments. At the same time, fear-learning studies have pointed to a role of the same area in updating previously learned cue-outcome associations. To disentangle these accounts, we used a reward reversal-learning paradigm in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in 18 human participants. Participants first learned that one of two colored squares (color A) was associated with monetary reward, whereas the other (color B) was not, and then had to learn that these contingencies reversed. Consistent with value representation, activity of a dorsal region of vmPFC was positively correlated with reward magnitude. Conversely, a more ventral region of vmPFC responded more to color A than to color B after contingency reversal, compatible with a role of inhibiting the previously learned response that was no longer appropriate. Moreover, the response strength was correlated with subjects' behavioral learning strength. Our findings provide direct evidence for the spatial dissociation of value representation and affective response inhibition in the vmPFC.
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; Section of Comparative Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Zhihao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Sagol Department of Neurobiology, University of Haifa , Haifa, Israel 3498838.
authors.forename: Avi
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4582-2668
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mendelsohn
authors.affiliation: Section of Comparative Medicine, Yale School of Medicine , New Haven, Connecticut 06520.
authors.forename: Kirk F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Manson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York, New York 10029.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schiller
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; Section of Comparative Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520.
authors.forename: Ifat
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7851-9070
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Levy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012193:Reversal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: conditioning; fMRI; human; reward-learning; valuation