Value Encoding in Single Neurons in the Human Amygdala during Decision Making
- 1Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706,
- 2Computational & Neural Systems, and
- 3Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, and
- 4Department of Neurosurgery, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
- Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Rick L. Jenison, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W. Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706. rjenison{at}wisc.edu
Abstract
A growing consensus suggests that the brain makes simple choices by assigning values to the stimuli under consideration and then comparing these values to make a decision. However, the network involved in computing the values has not yet been fully characterized. Here, we investigated whether the human amygdala plays a role in the computation of stimulus values at the time of decision making. We recorded single neuron activity from the amygdala of awake patients while they made simple purchase decisions over food items. We found 16 amygdala neurons, located primarily in the basolateral nucleus that responded linearly to the values assigned to individual items.
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