MEASURING BELIEFS AND REWARDS: A NEUROECONOMIC APPROACH

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Caplin, Andrew; Dean, Mark; Glimcher, Paul W.; Rutledge, Robb B.
• 署名单位: New York University; Brown University; New York University
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/qjec.2010.125.3.923
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 923-960
• 关键词: PREDICTION ERROR; dopamine neurons; TEMPORAL PREDICTION; nucleus-accumbens; responses; probability; serotonin; DECISION; models

摘要

The neurotransmitter dopamine is central to the emerging discipline of neuroeconomics; it is hypothesized to encode the difference between expected and realized rewards and thereby to mediate belief formation and choice. We develop the first formal tests of this theory of dopaminergic function, based on a recent axiomatization by Caplin and Dean (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123 (2008), 663-702). These tests are satisfied by neural activity in the nucleus accumbens, an area rich in dopamine receptors. We find evidence for separate positive and negative reward prediction error signals, suggesting that behavioral asymmetries in responses to losses and gains may parallel asymmetries in nucleus accumbens activity.