Context-dependency in valuation

- Canonical computations from sensory systems can predict context-dependent valuation.
- Valuation signals adjust to the distribution of expected rewards.
- Expectations play a central role in valuation of alternatives.
- Expectations are influenced by reward value history and economic cues.
- Quality expectations change neural signatures of outcome valuation.

In the last few years, work in the nascent field of neuroeconomics has advanced understanding of the brain systems involved in value-based decision making. An important modulator of valuation processes is the specific context a decision maker is facing during choice. Recently, neuroeconomics has made great progress in understanding, on both the brain and behavioral level, how context-dependent perception affects valuation and choice. Here we describe how context-sensitive value coding accounts for choice set effects, differential perceptions of gains and losses, and expectancy effects of external (economic) signals.