vmPFC – Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
What is it / role: The Core “common currency” hub and arguably the most important area in neuoreconomics. The vmPFC-area integrates sensory, affective, and goal-related attributes into a single subjective value signal used for choice comparison. vmPFC flexibly incorporates attention and goals (e.g., “health” vs “taste”) and is recruited across domains—consumption, intertemporal choice, and prosocial decisions. It also has roles in social behaviour, integrating social attributes (e.g., fairness, harm to others, cooperative context) into a common currency signal. while additionally weighing the costs of enforcing norms when punishment is costly.
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Plassmann, H., O’Doherty, J., & Rangel, A. (2007). Orbitofrontal cortex encodes willingness to pay in everyday economic transactions. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(37), 9984–9988.
Paper description: fMRI auction for foods: trial-by-trial vmPFC/OFC activity scaled with bids (WTP), establishing a continuous neural code for decision value.
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Hare, T. A., Malmaud, J., & Rangel, A. (2011). Focusing attention on the health aspects of foods changes value signals in vmPFC and improves dietary choice. PNAS, 108(17), 6467–6472.
Paper description: Instructed attention shifts made vmPFC incorporate “health” more; shows goal-dependent reweighting of attributes within vmPFC’s value code.
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Plassmann, H., O’Doherty, J., Shiv, B., & Rangel, A. (2008). Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness. PNAS, 105(3), 1050–1054.
Paper description: Price cues made the same wine taste better and boosted mOFC/vmPFC responses—beliefs/expectations directly alter experienced utility signals.
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Kable, J. W., & Glimcher, P. W. (2007). The neural correlates of subjective value during intertemporal choice. Nature Neuroscience, 10(12), 1625–1633.
Paper description: vmPFC and ventral striatum encoded discounted value for delayed money, linking classical utility models with neural valuation mechanisms.
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Hare, T. A., Camerer, C. F., & Rangel, A. (2009). Self-control in decision-making involves modulation of the vmPFC valuation system. Science, 324(5927), 646–648.
Paper description: Self-controllers recruited lateral PFC to bias vmPFC toward long-term goals (health), revealing top-down control over value construction.
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de Quervain, D. J.-F., Fischbacher, U., Treyer, V., et al. (2004). The neural basis of altruistic punishment. Science, 305(5688), 1254–1258.
Paper description: vmPFC/mOFC were more active when subjects had a strong desire to sanction but punishment was costly, consistent with integrating moral benefits and economic costs.
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Rilling, J. K., Gutman, D. A., Zeh, T. R., Pagnoni, G., Berns, G. S., & Kilts, C. D. (2002). A neural basis for social cooperation. Neuron, 35(2), 395–405.
Paper description: vmPFC/OFC co-activated with striatum during mutual cooperation, supporting a common-currency representation that includes social value.
OFC – Orbitofrontal Cortex
What is it / role: Computes experienced utility at consumption and integrates beliefs/expectations into value. Lateral OFC is recruited by risk/volatility; medial OFC tracks pleasantness and social reward. OFC also contributes to valuation under ambiguity and to cost–benefit integration when punishing norm violations.
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Plassmann, H., O’Doherty, J., Shiv, B., & Rangel, A. (2008). Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness. PNAS, 105(3), 1050–1054.
Paper description: Price cues made identical wines taste better and selectively increased mOFC responses to consumption, demonstrating belief-dependent shifts in experienced utility signals.
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Preuschoff, K., Quartz, S. R., & Bossaerts, P. (2006). Human insula activation reflects risk prediction errors as well as risk. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(2), 616–628.
Paper description: While ventral striatum coded expected reward, risk-related signals appeared in insula and lateral OFC during a card task, linking OFC to variance-sensitive valuation.
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Hsu, M., Bhatt, M., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., & Camerer, C. F. (2005). Neural systems responding to degrees of uncertainty in human decision-making. Science, 310(5754), 1680–1683.
Paper description: Ambiguity (unknown probabilities) engaged anterior insula and OFC more than risk; findings tie OFC to evaluating options when probabilities are imprecise.
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Rilling, J. K., Gutman, D. A., Zeh, T. R., Pagnoni, G., Berns, G. S., & Kilts, C. D. (2002). A neural basis for social cooperation. Neuron, 35(2), 395–405.
Paper description: Mutual cooperation with a human partner activated vmPFC/OFC together with striatum, indicating OFC participation in social reward valuation.
DLPFC – Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
What is it / role: Implements top–down control and goal maintenance, biasing valuation systems (e.g., vmPFC/striatum) toward long-term or rule-based objectives; supports norm compliance and self-control.
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McClure, S. M., Laibson, D., Loewenstein, G., & Cohen, J. D. (2004). Separate neural systems value immediate and delayed monetary rewards. Science, 306(5695), 503–507.
Paper description: Identified a ‘δ (delta) system’ including lateral PFC that favored patient choices over immediate gratification, aligning with controlled, planful valuation. Along with the beta co-efficient, the paper suggests a dual process model for choice valuation and decision making.
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Hare, T. A., Camerer, C. F., & Rangel, A. (2009). Self-control in decision-making involves modulation of the vmPFC valuation system. Science, 324(5927), 646–648.
Paper description: Dieters showing self-control engaged lateral PFC more and biased vmPFC to weight health attributes—demonstrating top–down control over valuation.
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Knoch, D., Nitsche, M. A., Fischbacher, U., et al. (2008). Studying the neurobiology of social interaction with transcranial direct current stimulation: The example of punishing unfairness. Cerebral Cortex, 18, 1987–1990.
Paper description: Modulating lateral PFC with tDCS altered acceptance of unfair offers, implying a causal role for DLPFC in norm enforcement/cognitive control.
pre-SMA / SMA – Supplementary Motor Complex
What is it / role: In value-based choice, the pre-SMA doesn’t compute “how good” options are; instead it helps decide when and whether to commit to an action policy. Two core control roles matter for neuroeconomics: (1) adjusting the decision threshold under time pressure (speed–accuracy trade-off), and (2) switching from a default/automatic policy to a controlled, alternative one when the context or incentives change. Through cortico-basal ganglia loops (pre-SMA ↔ striatum/STN), this shapes response caution, strategy switches, and the mapping from values to actions.
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Forstmann, B. U., Dutilh, G., Brown, S., Neumann, J., von Cramon, D. Y., Ridderinkhof, K. R., & Wagenmakers, E.-J. (2008). Striatum and pre-supplementary motor area facilitate decision-making under time pressure. PNAS, 105(45), 17538–17542.
Paper description: Manipulating urgency in a perceptual decision task lowered decision thresholds (model-based) and increased activity in pre-SMA and striatum, linking this circuit to the speed–accuracy trade-off that governs how quickly values are turned into actions.
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Isoda, M., & Hikosaka, O. (2007). Switching from automatic to controlled action by monkey medial frontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 10(2), 240–248.
Paper description: Single-unit recordings plus causal stimulation show pre-SMA neurons ramp for successful policy switches, suppressing habitual responses and enabling slower, correct alternatives—exactly the kind of control you need when incentives or task rules change.
TPJ – Temporoparietal Junction
What is it / role: Social inference / theory-of-mind node used to represent others’ beliefs, intentions, and responsibility. In neuroeconomics, TPJ supports belief-based valuation and strategic reasoning (e.g., fairness expectations, trust).
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Saxe, R., & Powell, L. J. (2006). It’s the thought that counts: Specific brain regions for one component of theory of mind. Psychological Science, 17(8), 692–699.
Paper description: Identified right TPJ selectivity for belief reasoning, providing the substrate for belief-dependent value adjustments in social decision tasks.
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Rilling, J. & Sanfey, A. G. (2011). The neuroscience of social decision-making. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 23–48.
Paper description: Review highlighting TPJ within a social decision network (TPJ/STS/mPFC) used in trust, fairness, and cooperation tasks.
VTA – Ventral Tegmental Area
What is it / role: Midbrain dopaminergic hub projecting to ventral striatum and vmPFC/OFC. In neuroeconomics, VTA dopamine neurons provide a reward prediction error (RPE) teaching signal: brief bursts to better-than-expected outcomes and pauses to worse-than-expected ones. This RPE calibrates learned values and policy selection in cortico-striatal circuits, shaping preference learning, choice under uncertainty, and motivation/vigor.
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Schultz, W., Dayan, P., & Montague, P. R. (1997). A neural substrate of prediction and reward. Science, 275(5306), 1593–1599.
Paper description: Primate electrophysiology showed midbrain dopamine (incl. VTA/SNc) shifts phasic firing from reward delivery to its predictive cue, with bursts for outcomes better than expected and dips for worse—canonical evidence that dopamine implements a temporal-difference-like RPE, the core learning signal used in neuroeconomic models.
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D’Ardenne, K., McClure, S. M., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2008). BOLD responses reflecting dopaminergic signals in the human ventral tegmental area. Science, 319(5867), 1264–1267.
Paper description: High-resolution human fMRI targeting the brainstem showed VTA BOLD tracks positive RPEs and scales with reward probability, while ventral striatum encodes signed RPEs—direct human evidence that VTA carries the dopaminergic teaching signal used to update values during choice.
ACC – Anterior Cingulate Cortex
What is it / role: Salience/conflict monitor that tracks control demand, norm conflict, and affective arousal. In value-based and social choices, ACC co-activates with AI (Anterior Insula) for unfairness/empathy and contributes to evaluating the costs of control to steer behaviour.
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Sanfey, A. G., Rilling, J. K., Aronson, J. A., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2003). The neural basis of economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. Science, 300(5626), 1755–1758.
Paper description: ACC (with bilateral AI) responded to unfair human offers, consistent with conflict between monetary gain and fairness motives.
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Singer, T., Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J., et al. (2004). Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain. Science, 303(5661), 1157–1162.
Paper description: Conjunction analysis showed overlapping activation in ACC when feeling pain and seeing a partner in pain, indexing affective salience that can bias prosocial valuation.
PCC – Posterior Cingulate Cortex
What is it / role: Default-mode/valuation hub implicated in internal mentation and context-dependent value. In intertemporal choice, PCC appears with limbic regions that prioritise immediacy, aligning with present-biased valuation.
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McClure, S. M., Laibson, D., Loewenstein, G., & Cohen, J. D. (2004). Separate neural systems value immediate and delayed monetary rewards. Science, 306(5695), 503–507.
Paper description: Identified a limbic ‘β (beta) system’ that included PCC alongside vmPFC and ventral striatum for immediate rewards—relevant to present bias in discounting.
Caudate Nucleus (Dorsal Striatum)
What is it / role: Part of the dorsal striatum central to goal-directed (action–outcome) control. The caudate integrates cortical inputs (incl. lateral PFC) to compute and update action-specific values, biasing which action is selected in basal ganglia loops. In neuroeconomic tasks, single-unit and fMRI work show the caudate carries signals for action value, chosen value, and learning/prediction required for flexible, cost–benefit decisions.
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Samejima, K., Ueda, Y., Doya, K., & Kimura, M. (2005). Representation of action-specific reward values in the striatum. Science, 310(5752), 1337–1340.
Paper description: Single-unit recordings in primate dorsal striatum (including caudate) during a two-action choice task showed that a large fraction of projection neurons encoded the values of specific actions during the decision period. These action-value signals predicted subsequent choice, providing direct neural evidence for an “actor” representation that guides selection among actions in economic choice contexts.
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Lau, B., & Glimcher, P. W. (2008). Value representations in the primate striatum during matching behavior. Neuron, 58(3), 451–463.
Paper description: Recording caudate neurons while monkeys followed a reward-matching strategy, the study found distinct populations encoding action values and chosen values around the time of choice. Dynamics tracked learning-consistent adjustments in value, positioning the caudate as a key substrate for computing and updating the values that drive action selection.
Insula – (Anterior Insula)
What is it / role: Encodes risk/volatility and norm-violation–related affect; anticipates aversive outcomes and ambiguity. In social contexts, AI tracks empathic affect and unfairness, biasing choices toward norm enforcement or avoidance.
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Preuschoff, K., Quartz, S. R., & Bossaerts, P. (2006). Human insula activation reflects risk prediction errors as well as risk. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(2), 616–628.
Paper description: Insula showed a quadratic relation to probability during anticipation and signaled risk prediction errors, marking volatility-sensitive computation separate from EV.
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Sanfey, A. G., Rilling, J. K., Aronson, J. A., Nystrom, L. E., & Cohen, J. D. (2003). The neural basis of economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. Science, 300(5626), 1755–1758.
Paper description: Anterior insula responses were stronger for unfair (human) offers and predicted rejections—linking AI to norm-violation aversion in choice.
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Singer, T., Seymour, B., O’Doherty, J., et al. (2004). Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain. Science, 303(5661), 1157–1162.
Paper description: Observing a loved one in pain activated AI (and ACC), indicating insula’s role in affect sharing that can shape prosocial choices.
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Hsu, M., Bhatt, M., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., & Camerer, C. F. (2005). Neural systems responding to degrees of uncertainty in human decision-making. Science, 310(5754), 1680–1683.
Paper description: Ambiguity elicited greater AI engagement than risk, consistent with insula tracking uncertainty aversion that modulates valuation.
Amygdala
What is it / role: Tracks aversive value, salience, and learning signals that shape choice under loss, risk, and social threat. Contributes to ambiguity aversion and to negative affect that can bias economic decisions.
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Basten, U., Biele, G., Heekeren, H. R., & Fiebach, C. J. (2010). How the brain integrates costs and benefits during decision making. PNAS, 107(50), 21767–21772.
Paper description: Showed loss magnitude encoded in amygdala, reward magnitude in NAcc (Nucleus Accumbens), and cost–benefit difference in vmPFC—tying amygdala to aversive components of value.
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Hsu, M., Bhatt, M., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., & Camerer, C. F. (2005). Neural systems responding to degrees of uncertainty in human decision-making. Science, 310(5754), 1680–1683.
Paper description: Ambiguity (vs. risk) increased amygdala responses alongside AI/OFC, indicating a role in uncertainty aversion that feeds into valuation. Supports on a neurocognitive level that we are inherently more inclined to avoid and dislike uncertainty in decisions.
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Olsson, A., & Phelps, E. A. (2007). Social learning of fear. Nature Neuroscience, 10(9), 1095–1102.
Paper description: Demonstrated amygdala involvement in socially acquired aversive values—mechanisms that can shape trust, risk, and norm-sensitive choices.