Corticoinsular circuits encode subjective value expectation and violation for effortful goal-directed behavior.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Decision Science

Background:

• Goal-directed behavior often requires decisions under uncertainty regarding effort and reward.
• Neural mechanisms underlying subjective value estimation for effort-based choices remain largely unknown.
• Accurate value estimation is crucial for optimizing effort allocation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural basis of subjective value computation during effort-based decision-making.
• To model distinct computations of effort and reward as information unfolds over time.
• To identify brain regions involved in forming and maintaining value estimates under uncertainty.

Main Methods:

• Employed computational functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
• Utilized an effort-based decision-making task with separated presentation of effort costs and reward magnitudes.
• Modeled neural activity related to distinct effort/reward computations as choice-relevant information became available.

Main Results:

• Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity encoded expected subjective value.
• Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula (aI) activity reflected effort discounting.
• dACC and aI also exhibited a subjective value prediction error signal based on trial history.

Conclusions:

• vmPFC plays a key role in encoding expected subjective value for guiding effortful choices.
• dACC and aI are involved in dynamically updating value estimates by incorporating effort costs and prediction errors.
• These findings elucidate specific neural mechanisms for subjective value formation and maintenance in decision-making under uncertainty.