Automatic versus choice-dependent value representations in the human brain

Marcus Grüschow
University of Zurich

The subjective values (SV) of choice options can impact behavior in two fundamentally different types of 
situations: First, when people explicitly base their actions on such values and, second, when values 
attract attention despite being irrelevant for current behavior. Numerous laboratory studies have 
correlated SVs during value-based choices with brain activity and have identified a valuation system 
comprised of several regions that seem to homogenously code subjective value when these are choice-
relevant. In contrast, very little is known about how task-irrelevant SVs are represented in the brain and 
how they may exert their influence on behavior. Only a few studies have examined brain activity 
correlations with choice-irrelevant SVs, but crucially a precise relationship between these signals and 
important behavioral signatures of non-value-based choices has not yet been established. 
In this talk, I will present data suggesting that regions of the brain valuation system are more functionally 
distinct than previously thought as distinct components of this network encode value in context-
dependent manners that serve fundamentally different behavioral aims. In addition, I will show how 
neural mechanisms that are well-established in the perceptual decision-making literature can inform the 
neural study of value-based decision making.