Temporally organized representations of reward and risk in the human brain

This study investigates the temporal organization of reward and risk representations in the human brain using intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG). A card game was designed to elicit the computation of reward and risk variables. Results show a sequential order of reward outcome representations along the brain's anteroposterior axis, while expected value was decoded simultaneously from multiple regions. Error signals exhibited mixed sequential and parallel encoding. The anterior insula's role in generalizing between reward and risk prediction errors is highlighted. The findings emphasize the importance of neural dynamics in value-based decisions under uncertainty.

Vincent Man, Jeffrey Cockburn, Oliver Flouty, Phillip E. Gander, Masahiro Sawada, Christopher K. Kovach, Hiroto Kawasaki, Hiroyuki Oya, Matthew A. Howard III, John P. O'Doherty