Journal article
Explicit neural signals reflecting reward uncertainty
Wolfram Schultz, Kerstin Preuschoff, Colin Camerer, Ming Hsu, Christopher D Fiorillo, Philippe N Tobler, Peter Bossaerts
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES | ROYAL SOC | Published : 2008
Abstract
The acknowledged importance of uncertainty in economic decision making has stimulated the search for neural signals that could influence learning and inform decision mechanisms. Current views distinguish two forms of uncertainty, namely risk and ambiguity, depending on whether the probability distributions of outcomes are known or unknown. Behavioural neurophysiological studies on dopamine neurons revealed a risk signal, which covaried with the standard deviation or variance of the magnitude of juice rewards and occurred separately from reward value coding. Human imaging studies identified similarly distinct risk signals for monetary rewards in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), th..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Scott Huettel and Dr Ben Seymour for their helpful comments. Our work was supported by the Wellcome Trust, NSF (USA), NIH (USA), Swiss NSF, Human Frontiers Science Program, Moore Foundation and several other grant and fellowship agencies.