Reward and Social Valuation Deficits following Ventromedial Prefrontal Damage

@article{Moretti2009RewardAS,
  title={Reward and Social Valuation Deficits following Ventromedial Prefrontal Damage},
  author={Laura Moretti and Davide Dragone and Giuseppe Di Pellegrino},
  journal={Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience},
  year={2009},
  volume={21},
  pages={128-140}
}
Lesion and imaging studies have implicated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in economic decisions and social interactions, yet its exact functions remain unclear. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that the vmPFC represents the subjective value or desirability of future outcomes during social decision-making. Both vmPFC-damaged patients and control participants acted as the responder in a single-round ultimatum game. To test outcome valuation, we contrasted concrete, immediately… 
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103 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
14
Background Citations
45
Methods Citations
4
Results Citations
13

103 Citations

Dissociation between Private and Social Counterfactual Value Signals Following Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Damage
TLDR
It is concluded that if the vmPFC is critical in processing private counterfactual signals and in integrating those signals in decision-making, then distinct brain areas might support the processing of social counterfactually signals.
The contribution of distinct subregions of the ventromedial frontal cortex to emotion, social behavior, and decision making
TLDR
Recent research suggests that two areas within or adjacent to the VMFC, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), may play distinct but complementary roles in mediating normal patterns of emotion and social behavior.
Human lesion studies of ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is associated with impairments in both spontaneous and deliberative moral judgments
On the Role of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Self-Processing: The Valuation Hypothesis
TLDR
The hypothesis that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex may contribute to assign personal value or significance to self-related contents: stimuli and mental representations that refer or relate to the self tend to be assigned uniquevalue or significance, and the function of the vMPFC may precisely be to evaluate or represent such significance.
Functional and neural mechanisms of intertemporal choice
TLDR
The present findings support the idea that the process of outcome evaluation is strictly related to the ability to pre-experience and envision future events through self-projection, the anticipation of visceral feelings associated with receiving rewards, and the psychological distance from rewards.
Modulating the activity of vmPFC alters altruistic behavior: A tDCS study
Myopic Discounting of Future Rewards after Medial Orbitofrontal Damage in Humans
TLDR
Findings provide the first evidence in humans that mOFC is necessary for valuation and preference of delayed rewards for intertemporal choice and increase significantly the preference for small-immediate over larger-delayed rewards.
Investment and repayment in a trust game after ventromedial prefrontal damage
TLDR
The present findings support the hypothesis that vmPFC damage may impair affective systems specifically designed for mediating social transaction with other individuals and indicate that social valuation and emotion subserved byvmPFC have a critical role in trusting and reciprocity decisions.
Do psychopathic patients use their DLPFC when making decisions in moral dilemmas?
TLDR
If the DLPFC was less activated than in healthy individuals, this could suggest that its activity in such a context might only be a by-product of a process of ‘cognitive control’, which would not support the hypothesis that the D LPFC is specifically involved in a subsystem of moral decision making as generally reported in the literature on decision neuroscience.
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