Modality-specific and modality-general representations of subjective value in frontal cortex.

Neuroeconomics theories propose that the value associated with diverse rewards or reward-predicting stimuli is encoded along a common reference scale, irrespective of their sensory properties. However, in a dynamic environment with changing stimulus-reward pairings, the brain must also represent the sensory features of rewarding stimuli. The mechanism by which the brain balances these needs-deriving a common reference scale for valuation while maintaining sensitivity to sensory contexts-remains unclear.

Distinct Patterns of Connectivity between Brain Regions Underlie the Intra-Modal and Cross-Modal Value-Driven Modulations of the Visual Cortex.

Past reward associations may be signaled from different sensory modalities; however, it remains unclear how different types of reward-associated stimuli modulate sensory perception. In this human fMRI study (female and male participants), a visual target was simultaneously presented with either an intra- (visual) or a cross-modal (auditory) cue that was previously associated with rewards. We hypothesized that, depending on the sensory modality of the cues, distinct neural mechanisms underlie the value-driven modulation of visual processing.

The effect of subliminal incentives on goal-directed eye movements.

Over the last decades, several studies have demonstrated that conscious and unconscious reward incentives both affect performance in physical and cognitive tasks, suggesting that goal pursuit can arise from an unconscious will. Whether the planning of goal-directed saccadic eye movements during an effortful task can also be affected by subliminal reward cues has not been systematically investigated. We employed a novel task where participants made several eye movements back and forth between a fixation point and a number of peripheral targets.