The neural correlates of economic value and valuation context: An event-related potentials study.

Tyson-Carr, John Andrew ORCID: 0000-0003-3364-2184, Kokmotou, Katerina, Soto, Vicente, Cook, Stephanie, Fallon, Nicholas B ORCID: 0000-0003-1451-6983, Giesbrecht, Timo and Stancak, Andrej ORCID: 0000-0003-3323-3305 (2018) The neural correlates of economic value and valuation context: An event-related potentials study. Journal of neurophysiology, 119 (5). pp. 1924-1933.

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Abstract

The value of environmental cues and internal states is continuously evaluated by the human brain and it is this subjective value that largely guides decision-making. The present study aimed to investigate the initial value attribution process, specifically the spatio-temporal activation patterns associated with values and valuation context using electroencephalographic event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants completed a stimulus rating task in which everyday household items marketed up to a price of £4 were evaluated with respect to their desirability or material properties. The subjective values of items were evaluated as willingness-to-pay (WTP) in a Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction. Based on the individual's subjective WTP values, the stimuli were divided into high and low value items. Source dipole modelling was applied to estimate the cortical sources underlying ERP components modulated by subjective values (high vs. low WTP) and the evaluation condition (value-relevant vs. value-irrelevant judgments). Low WTP items and value-relevant judgements both led to a more pronounced N2 visual evoked potential at right frontal scalp electrodes. Source activity in right anterior insula and left orbitofrontal cortex was larger for low vs. high WTP at around 200 ms. At a similar latency, source activity in right anterior insula and right parahippocampal gyrus was larger for value-relevant vs. value irrelevant judgements. A stronger response for low- than high-value items in anterior insula and orbitofrontal cortex appears to reflect aversion to low-valued item acquisition which, in an auction experiment, would be perceived as a relative loss. This initial low-value bias occurs automatically irrespective of the valuation context.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	First online version 14 Feb 2018
Uncontrolled Keywords:	• Becker-Degroot-Marschak Mechanism, Insula, N2, orbitofrontal cortex, P12
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	23 Feb 2018 08:42
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 06:39
DOI:	10.1152/jn.00524.2017
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3018344