Generating value(s): Psychological value hierarchies reflect context-dependent sensitivity of the reward system

The neural basis of one's own conscious and unconscious emotional states

“…For example, happiness was consistently associated with a felt increase in sensation over the whole body, whereas anger only involved increased sensation in the upper limbs, head, and torso. Sadness reliably involved decreased feeling in the arms and legs and an increase in endorsing more egoistic, as opposed to altruistic, values show greater amygdala reactions to earning money (Brosch et al, 2011). Evidence also suggests that amygdala-level appraisal mechanisms may become more sophisticated with iterative, recursive processing (Brosch et al, 2010;Oya et al, 2002), such that initial, coarse appraisals (beginning around 140 ms) can be refined over time through interaction with other structures.…”

Effects of intrinsic motivation on feedback processing during learning

“…Feedback-related responses in the striatum are presumed to reflect the affective value of positive and negative feedback in much the same way that reward responses reflect the subjective value of extrinsic rewards such as food or money (Satterthwaite et al, 2012). However, while previous research has established sensitivity to contextual influences in striatal responses to extrinsic rewards (e.g., Brosch et al, 2011; Chein et al, 2011; Delgado et al, 2008; Guitart-Masip et al, 2010; Nieuwenhuis et al, 2005), it is unclear how the learning context might influence the response of the striatum to positive and negative performance feedback. In particular, motivation to perform well on a task may increase the affective salience of performance feedback, resulting in exaggerated striatal feedback responses.…”

Comment: The Appraising Brain: Towards a Neuro-Cognitive Model of Appraisal Processes in Emotion

“…Accessing information about one's values is related to activation in the medial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in self-reflexive processing, and the dorsal striatum, involved in information integration during action selection (Brosch, Coppin, Schwartz, & Sander, 2012). When distributing money between themselves and a charitable organization, participants endorsing egoistic values donated less money to charity and showed stronger activation of amygdala and ventral striatum when keeping money for themselves (Brosch, Coppin, et al, 2011). This suggests that value compatibility can modulate the motivational saliency and the basic reward value of behavioral options.…”