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The Journal of Neuroscience, March 26, 2008, 28(13):3468-3473; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4195-07.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Functional Imaging of Decision Conflict

Jean-Baptiste Pochon,^1 * Jason Riis,^2 * Alan G. Sanfey,^3 * Leigh E. Nystrom,⁴ and Jonathan D. Cohen⁴

¹INSERM Avenir IFR70 and U610, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, F-75103 Paris, France, ²Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts 02163, ³Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, and ⁴Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Alan G. Sanfey, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, 1503 East University Boulevard, Building 68, Tucson, AZ 85721. Email: asanfey{at}u.arizona.edu

Decision conflict occurs when people feel uncertain as to which option to choose from a set of similarly attractive (or unattractive) options, with many studies demonstrating that this conflict can lead to suboptimal decision making. In this article, we investigate the neurobiological underpinnings of decision conflict, in particular, the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Previous studies have implicated the ACC in conflict monitoring during perceptual tasks, but there is considerable controversy as to whether the ACC actually indexes conflict related to choice, or merely conflict related to selection of competing motor responses. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we dissociate the decision and response phases of a decision task, and show that the ACC does indeed index conflict at the decision stage. Furthermore, we show that it does so for a complex decision task, one that requires the integration of beliefs and preferences and not just perceptual judgments.

Key words: conflict; decision; fMRI; anterior cingulate cortex; preferences; attractiveness

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Received Sept. 13, 2007; revised Jan. 7, 2008; accepted Feb. 1, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Alan G. Sanfey, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, 1503 East University Boulevard, Building 68, Tucson, AZ 85721. Email: asanfey{at}u.arizona.edu

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