The Involvement of the Orbitofrontal Cortex in the Experience of Regret
Abstract
Facing the consequence of a decision we made can trigger emotions like satisfaction, relief, or regret, which reflect our assessment of what was gained as compared to what would have been gained by making a different decision. These emotions are mediated by a cognitive process known as counterfactual thinking. By manipulating a simple gambling task, we characterized a subject's choices in terms of their anticipated and actual emotional impact. Normal subjects reported emotional responses consistent with counterfactual thinking; they chose to minimize future regret and learned from their emotional experience. Patients with orbitofrontal cortical lesions, however, did not report regret or anticipate negative consequences of their choices. The orbitofrontal cortex has a fundamental role in mediating the experience of regret.
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Ventral frontal lesions decrease the ability to feel regret.
“and regret (Camille et al., 2004).”
From Affective Cognition and its Disruption in Mood Disorders (2011) · cites this paper as Camille et al., 2004
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- Authors
- Camille, N., Coricelli, G., Sallet, J., Pradat-Diehl, P., Duhamel, J.-R., & Sirigu, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Siena (IT)
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67, Boulevard Pinel 69675 Bron, France.
- Corresponding author
- Camille, Nathalie
- Coricelli, Giorgio
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2004-05-21
- Volume
- 304
- Issue
- 5674
- Pages
- 1167-1170
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2037444091
- Cited by
- 716
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 68 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 41 · 2013: 35 · 2012: 40
- FWCI
- 14.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System (Università degli Studi di Trento) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- orbitofrontal cortex, regret, counterfactual reasoning, decision-making, emotional experience, gambling task, anticipated emotions
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Diseases, Choice Behavior, Decision Making, Emotions, Female, Frontal Lobe, Galvanic Skin Response, Gambling, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Thinking, Feedback, Psychological
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