Economic Value and State Representations: Preparations to Decode the Role of the Human Orbitofrontal Cortex

Abstract

The orbitofrontal cortex is implicated in state representations, value signaling, and value-based decision making. Previous research on the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has suggested that it encodes task-relevant economic values, but it remains unknown whether those values are included as part of the task structure or as a separate entity. Based off a recent finding that OFC encodes a cognitive map of task structure, we predict that relevant economic values will be encoded as part of the task representation, and as such, will be decodable from OFC activity using neuroimaging techniques. In this study, behavioral measures from a complex decision-making task support the given neural hypothesis and prepare future researchers to scan this experiment using fMRI. Assuming these predictions hold true, the common characterization of OFC as a value-signaling region operating under a goods-based model would be challenged and replaced by a new characterization of OFC as a structure representing task space.