Figure 3. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) activity is positively correlated with relative subjective value, while dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) activity is negatively correlated with relative subjective value.

(a) Whole-brain statistical parametric map for the positive (yellow) and negative (blue) correlation with relative subjective value, thresholded at p<0.05 FWE-corrected, cluster-defining threshold p<0.001, for the intertemporal (left) and risky (right) choice paradigms (sagittal section, x = 2). (b) Simple overlap between the statistical maps for the intertemporal and risky choice paradigms, including the positive (yellow) and negative (blue) correlation with relative subjective value (sagittal section, x = 2; coronal section, y = −28). (c,d) Extracted % signal changes for positive (left; yellow boxes; vmPFC ROI) and negative (right; blue boxes; dmPFC ROI) correlation with relative subjective value for the intertemporal (top) and risky (bottom) choice paradigms for Self and Other trials. Gray boxes indicate the corresponding % signal change for offline relative subjective value in the intertemporal choice task. Insets show 8 mm spherical ROIs for vmPFC (yellow) and dmPFC (blue) used to extract effect sizes. Data are plotted as box plots for each condition in which horizontal lines indicate median values, boxes indicate 25–75% interquartile range and whiskers indicate minimum and maximum values; data points outside 1.5x the interquartile range are shown separately as crosses. * indicates p<0.05, *** indicates p<0.005, all p>0.05 are explicitly stated. Significance was determined by comparison with either Wilcoxon signed rank or Friedman tests. N = 20 participants for intertemporal choice, N = 21 participants for risky choice.

Figure 3—figure supplement 1. Negative correlation with relative subjective value in Other over Self trials does not yield overlapping clusters between paradigms.

Statistical parametric maps show the contrast of negative correlation for relative subjective value in Other over Self trials for the intertemporal (red) and risky (pink) choice paradigms. Maps were thresholded at p<0.05 FWE-corrected, cluster-defining threshold p<0.001. This analysis yielded clusters in the dmPFC for the intertemporal choice paradigm (intertemporal peak MNI coordinates [4 34 38], z_peak = 4.37) as well as precuneous cortex for the risky choice paradigm (risk coordinates [12 -60 26], z_peak = 4.12). No overlap between the two paradigms was observed. No clusters survived statistical thresholding for the comparison of relative subjective value representation in Self over Other trials. N = 20 participants for intertemporal choice, N = 21 participants for risky choice.

Figure 3—figure supplement 2. When recapitulating the methods of Nicolle et al. (2012), evidence is found for representation of offline subjective value in the posterior dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in the intertemporal choice task.

Statistical parametric maps show the contrast of the offline subjective value of the chosen option over the offline subjective value of the unchosen option for Self trials alone (top left), Other trials alone (top right), or for Self and Other trials together (bottom). Maps were thresholded at p<0.05 FWE-corrected, cluster-defining threshold p<0.001. N = 20 participants for intertemporal choice.

Figure 3—figure supplement 3. The absolute value of the chosen option is uncorrelated with activity in either the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) or dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC).

Percent signal change corresponding to the absolute value of the chosen option for the vmPFC (left) or dmPFC (right) for the intertemporal (a) and risky (b) choice paradigms, broken into Self and Other trials. Data are plotted as box plots for each condition in which horizontal lines indicate median values, boxes indicate 25–75% interquartile range and whiskers indicate minimum and maximum values; data points outside 1.5x the interquartile range are shown separately as crosses. Insets show the spherical ROIs for the vmPFC (yellow) and dmPFC (blue), which were based on prior studies. N = 20 participants for intertemporal choice, N = 21 participants for risky choice.