Elucidating the underlying components of food valuation in the human orbitofrontal cortex

The valuation of food is a fundamental component of our decision-making. Yet little is known about how value signals for food and other rewards are constructed by the brain. Using a food-based decision task in human participants, we found that subjective values can be predicted from beliefs about constituent nutritive attributes of food: protein, fat, carbohydrates and vitamin content. Multivariate analyses of functional MRI data demonstrated that, while food value is represented in patterns of neural activity in both medial and lateral parts of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), only the lateral OFC represents the elemental nutritive attributes. Effective connectivity analyses further indicate that information about the nutritive attributes represented in the lateral OFC is integrated within the medial OFC to compute an overall value. These findings provide a mechanistic account for the construction of food value from its constituent nutrients

Perception of intentionality in investor attitudes towards financial risks

Traditionally, financial market participation has been treated as analogous to playing games of chance with a physical device such as roulette. Here, we propose that humans treat financial markets as intentional agents, with own beliefs and aspirations. As a result, the capacity to infer the intentions of others, Theory of Mind, explains behaviour. As evidence, we appeal to results from recent studies of: (i) forecasting in the presence of insiders, (ii) trading in markets with bubbles, and (iii) financial contagion. Intensity of, and skill in, Theory of Mind explains heterogeneity, not only in choices but also in neural activation

Perception of intentionality in investor attitudes towards financial risks

Traditionally, financial market participation has been treated as analogous to playing games of chance with a physical device such as roulette. Here, we propose that humans treat financial markets as intentional agents, with own beliefs and aspirations. As a result, the capacity to infer the intentions of others, Theory of Mind, explains behaviour. As evidence, we appeal to results from recent studies of: (i) forecasting in the presence of insiders, (ii) trading in markets with bubbles, and (iii) financial contagion. Intensity of, and skill in, Theory of Mind explains heterogeneity, not only in choices but also in neural activation