Intracranial recordings in humans reveal differential contributions of medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex to
Clara Kwon Starkweather1,2, Ethan H Willbrand3, Kristin Sellers4
1Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. clara.starkweather@ucsf.edu.
Abstract:
Approach-avoidance refers to the psychological conflict in which deciding to approach a reward also carries potential punishment. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is proposed to arbitrate approach-avoidance decisions, yet little is known about the real-time computations within OFC during these decisions. We conducted intracranial recordings in humans implanted with stereotactic electroencephalography electrodes in the OFC while they played a gamified approach-avoidance task. Here we identified two anatomically distinct signals within the OFC prior to approach: an increase in activity within the medial compartment and a decrease within the lateral compartment. Prior to decisions, these signals rapidly alternated between discrete pro-approach and pro-avoidant states, thus introducing a new functional architecture within the human OFC during decision-making.
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