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Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Measuring the Subjective Value of Risky and Ambiguous Options using Experimental Economics and Functional MRI Methods
Published on: September 19, 2012
A cognitive map for value-guided choice in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Sebastijan Veselic1, Timothy H Muller1, Elena Gutierrez2
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3SR, UK.
Abstract:
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is crucial for economic decision-making. However, how PFC value representations facilitate flexible decisions remains unknown. We reframe economic decision-making as a navigation process through a cognitive map of choice values. We found rhesus macaques represented choices as navigation trajectories in a value space using a grid-like code. This occurred in ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) local field potential theta frequency across two datasets. vmPFC neurons deployed the same grid-like code and encoded chosen value. However, both signals depended on theta phase: occurring on theta troughs but on separate theta cycles. Finally, we found sharp-wave ripples-a key signature of planning and flexible behavior-in vmPFC. Thus, vmPFC utilizes cognitive map-based computations to organize and compare values, suggesting an alternative architecture for economic choice in PFC.
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