Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6025606 | NeuroImage | 2015 | 11 Pages |
â¢vmPFC evaluates action by considering immediate rewards and future consequences.â¢Anterior caudate evaluates action only by considering immediate rewards.â¢These value representations form dissociable systems that compete for control.â¢Self-control is linked to fluctuations in value representation within each system.
The impulse to act for immediate reward often conflicts with more deliberate evaluations that support long-term benefit. The neural architecture that negotiates this conflict remains unclear. One account proposes a single neural circuit that evaluates both immediate and delayed outcomes, while another outlines separate impulsive and patient systems that compete for behavioral control. Here we designed a task in which a complex payout structure divorces the immediate value of acting from the overall long-term value, within the same outcome modality. Using model-based fMRI in humans, we demonstrate separate neural representations of immediate and long-term values, with the former tracked in the anterior caudate (AC) and the latter in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Crucially, when subjects' choices were compatible with long-run consequences, value signals in AC were down-weighted and those in vmPFC were enhanced, while the opposite occurred when choice was impulsive. Thus, our data implicate a trade-off in value representation between AC and vmPFC as underlying controlled versus impulsive choice.