Beyond valence and magnitude: A flexible evaluative coding system in the brain

Ruolei Gu; Zhihui Lei; Lucas Broster; Tingting Wu; Yang Jiang; Yue jia Luo

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.10.006

Beyond valence and magnitude: A flexible evaluative coding system in the brain

Ruolei Gu, Zhihui Lei, Lucas Broster, Tingting Wu, Yang Jiang, Yue jia Luo

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

89 Scopus citations

Abstract

Outcome evaluation is a cognitive process that plays an important role in our daily lives. In most paradigms utilized in the field of experimental psychology, outcome valence and outcome magnitude are the two major features investigated. The classical " independent coding model" suggests that outcome valence and outcome magnitude are evaluated by separate neural mechanisms that may be mapped onto discrete event-related potential (ERP) components: feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P3, respectively. To examine this model, we presented outcome valence and magnitude sequentially rather than simultaneously. The results reveal that when only outcome valence or magnitude is known, both the FRN and the P3 encode that outcome feature; when both aspects of outcome are known, the cognitive functions of the two components dissociate: the FRN responds to the information available in the current context, while the P3 pattern depends on outcome presentation sequence. The current study indicates that the human evaluative system, indexed in part by the FRN and the P3, is more flexible than previous theories suggested.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3891-3897
Number of pages	7
Journal	Neuropsychologia
Volume	49
Issue number	14
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.10.006
State	Published - Dec 2011

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 30930031 ), Ministry of Sci & Tech (973 Program, 2011CB711000 ), National Key Technologies R & D Program ( 2009BAI77B01 ), Global Research Initiative Program , United States National Institute of Health grants ( 1R01TW007897 , P50DA05312 ), and Funds for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation of Beijing Normal University . The authors thank Suyong Yang for help with data acquisition, Chunliang Feng for help with manuscript preparation, and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 30930031 ), Ministry of Sci & Tech (973 Program, 2011CB711000 ), National Key Technologies R & D Program ( 2009BAI77B01 ), Global Research Initiative Program , United States National Institute of Health grants ( 1R01TW007897 , P50DA05312 ), and Funds for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation of Beijing Normal University . The authors thank Suyong Yang for help with data acquisition, Chunliang Feng for help with manuscript preparation, and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Funders	Funder number
Funds for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation of Beijing Normal University
Ministry of Sci & Tech	2011CB711000
Italian National Health Institute	P50DA05312, 1R01TW007897
National Key Technologies R & D Program	2009BAI77B01
Fogarty International Center	R01TW007897
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)	30930031

Keywords

Decision-making
Event-related potential (ERP)
Feedback-related negativity (FRN)
Outcome evaluation
Outcome magnitude
Outcome valence
P3

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience
Behavioral Neuroscience

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10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.10.006

Cite this

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title = "Beyond valence and magnitude: A flexible evaluative coding system in the brain",

abstract = "Outcome evaluation is a cognitive process that plays an important role in our daily lives. In most paradigms utilized in the field of experimental psychology, outcome valence and outcome magnitude are the two major features investigated. The classical {"} independent coding model{"} suggests that outcome valence and outcome magnitude are evaluated by separate neural mechanisms that may be mapped onto discrete event-related potential (ERP) components: feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the P3, respectively. To examine this model, we presented outcome valence and magnitude sequentially rather than simultaneously. The results reveal that when only outcome valence or magnitude is known, both the FRN and the P3 encode that outcome feature; when both aspects of outcome are known, the cognitive functions of the two components dissociate: the FRN responds to the information available in the current context, while the P3 pattern depends on outcome presentation sequence. The current study indicates that the human evaluative system, indexed in part by the FRN and the P3, is more flexible than previous theories suggested.",

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note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 30930031 ), Ministry of Sci \& Tech (973 Program, 2011CB711000 ), National Key Technologies R \& D Program ( 2009BAI77B01 ), Global Research Initiative Program , United States National Institute of Health grants ( 1R01TW007897 , P50DA05312 ), and Funds for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation of Beijing Normal University . The authors thank Suyong Yang for help with data acquisition, Chunliang Feng for help with manuscript preparation, and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.",

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Beyond valence and magnitude: A flexible evaluative coding system in the brain

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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