Cited by 110Neural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesDecision-Making and Behavioral EconomicsNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

The Value of Exercising Control Over Monetary Gains and Losses

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Leotti, Lauren A., Delgado, Mauricio R.·2014·Psychological Science

Abstract

Using functional MRI, we examined how the affective experience of choice, the means by which individuals exercise control, is modulated by the valence of potential outcomes (gains, losses). When trials involved potential gains, participants reported liking cues predicting a choice opportunity better than cues predicting no choice opportunity—an effect that corresponded with blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) increases in ventral striatum (VS) activity. Surprisingly, no differences were observed between choice and no-choice cues when participants anticipated potential losses. Individual differences in subjective choice preference in the loss condition, however, corresponded to choice-related BOLD activity in VS. We conducted a second experiment to examine whether monetary losses were perceived differently in the context of simultaneous gains. When losses occurred in the absence of gains, participants showed an increased affective experience of choice—they reported greater liking of choice than no-choice trials, and VS activity was greater for choice than for no-choice cues. Collectively, the findings suggest that the affective experience of choice involves reward-processing circuitry when people anticipate appetitive and aversive outcomes, but the choice experience may be sensitive to context and individual differences.

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Crossref · 10.1177/0956797613514589

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  • In healthy controls, personally chosen vs. passively received rewards elicit stronger activation in the striatum (ventral and dorsal) and PFC (inferior frontal gyrus), which is inversely related to depressive symptoms.

    “studies in healthy controls have shown that personally chosen vs. passively received rewards elicit stronger activation in the striatum (ventral and dorsal) and PFC (inferior frontal gyrus) [212-215], which is inversely related to depressive symptoms [212].”

    From Prefrontal cortex and depression (2022) · cites this paper as [214]

    The Experiment 1 Neuroimaging Results report greater ventral-striatal activity for choice cues than no-choice cues when participants anticipated potential monetary gains. This supports a choice-related striatal effect, but the comparison concerns anticipation of a choice opportunity, not personally chosen versus passively received rewards. The cited results do not establish dorsal-striatal or inferior-frontal-gyrus activation, or an inverse relationship with depressive symptoms. Page numbers were not provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Authors
Leotti, L. A., & Delgado, M. R.
Affiliations
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
Venue
Psychological Science
Published
2014-01-03
Volume
25
Issue
2
Pages
596-604
ISSN
  • 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-9280
OpenAlex
W2135441216
Cited by
110
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 3
FWCI
5.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA-027764, F32DA027308, R01DA027764)
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
monetary gains and losses, ventral striatum, reward processing, outcome valence, individual differences, choice preference, context effects, aversive outcomes, decision-making
MeSH terms
Adult, Choice Behavior, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Reward, Young Adult, Executive Function, Anticipation, Psychological, Ventral Striatum

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