Functional role of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in decision making
Abstract
To make deliberate decisions, we have to utilize detailed information about the environment and our internal states. The ventral visual pathway provides detailed information on object identity, including color and shape, to the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). The VLPFC also receives motivational and emotional information from the orbitofrontal cortex and subcortical areas, and computes the behavioral significance of external events; this information can be used for elaborate decision making or design of goal-directed behavior. In this review, we discuss recent advances that are revealing the neural mechanisms that underlie the coding of behavioral significance in the VLPFC, and the functional roles of these mechanisms in decision making and action programming in the brain.
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Deficits in activity of the striatum and frontal areas may contribute to impulsivity and inflexibility.
“The deficits activity of the striatum and frontal areas may contribute to impulsivity and inflexibility (Dalley et al., 2008; Sakagami and Pan, 2007; Trempler et al., 2017)”
From Predictive coding in neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic transdiagnostic review. (2025) · cites this paper as Sakagami and Pan, 2007
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“The deficits activity of the striatum and frontal areas may contribute to impulsivity and inflexibility (Dalley et al., 2008; Sakagami and Pan, 2007; Trempler et al., 2017), while reduced activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala support their role in generating…”
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- Authors
- Sakagami, M., & Pan, X.
- Affiliations
- Tamagawa University (JP)
- Corresponding author
- Sakagami, Masamichi
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Neurobiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-04
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 228-233
- ISSN
- 0959-4388 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1966752480
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 0.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Neurobiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology
- Tamagawa University
- Human Frontier Science Program
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, decision-making, ventral stream, orbitofrontal cortex, emotional information, goal-directed behavior, neural coding
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cognition, Decision Making, Humans, Motivation, Prefrontal Cortex
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