Subjective value, not a gridlike code, describes neural activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex during value-based decision-making

Abstract

Across many studies, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity has been found to correlate with subjective value during value-based decision-making. Recently, however, vmPFC has also been shown to reflect a hexagonal gridlike code during navigation through physical and conceptual space, and such gridlike codes have been proposed to enable value-based choices between novel options. Here, we first show that, in theory, a hexagonal gridlike code can in some cases mimic vmPFC activity previously attributed to subjective value, raising the possibility that the subjective value correlates previously observed in vmPFC may have actually been a misconstrued gridlike signal. We then compare the two accounts empirically, using fMRI data from a large number of subjects performing an intertemporal choice task. We find clear and unambiguous evidence that subjective value is a better description of vmPFC activity in this task than a hexagonal gridlike code. In fact, we find no significant evidence at all for a hexagonal gridlike code in vmPFC activity during intertemporal choice. This result limits the generality of gridlike modulation as description of vmPFC activity. We suggest that vmPFC may flexibly switch representational schemes so as to encode the most relevant information for the current task.