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Updated: Jun 24, 2026
12:09
Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans
Published on: March 19, 2014
How choice reveals and shapes expected hedonic outcome
Tali Sharot1, Benedetto De Martino, Raymond J Dolan
1Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, WCN 3BG London, UK. t.sharot@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
Summary
After making a choice, people value selected items more and rejected items less. This shift in preference is reflected in brain activity within the caudate nucleus, indicating altered hedonic value representation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Decision Science
Background:
- Humans often adjust their attitudes to match their past actions, a phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance.
- Post-decision justification involves enhancing the chosen option and devaluing the rejected one.
- It remains unclear if these attitude changes correspond to alterations in the brain's representation of hedonic value.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether post-decision attitude modifications are associated with changes in the neural representation of expected hedonic value.
- To examine the role of the caudate nucleus in processing hedonic value before and after a choice is made.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
- Participants estimated the pleasure from future events before and after choosing between similarly valued alternatives.
- Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals in the caudate nucleus were analyzed in relation to choices and value judgments.
Main Results:
- Participants rated chosen alternatives more favorably and rejected alternatives less favorably after the decision.
- Increased difference in BOLD signal between selected and rejected stimuli in the caudate nucleus was observed post-decision.
- BOLD signal in the caudate nucleus prior to revaluation predicted later choices.
Conclusions:
- Commitment to a choice alters the neural representation of a stimulus's expected hedonic value.
- The caudate nucleus plays a crucial role in both predicting choices and updating value representations based on decisions.
- Decision-making processes dynamically modulate neural correlates of subjective value.
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