Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, United States; Mortimer B Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, United States; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, United States
Yul HR Kang
Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, United States
Allison Reid
Memory Disorders Research Center, VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, United States
Mieke Verfaellie
Memory Disorders Research Center, VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, United States
Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, United States; Mortimer B Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, United States; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, United States; The Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, United States
Daphna Shohamy
Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, United States; Mortimer B Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, United States; The Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, United States
Choosing between two items involves deliberation and comparison of the features of each item and its value. Such decisions take more time when choosing between options of similar value, possibly because these decisions require more evidence, but the mechanisms involved are not clear. We propose that the hippocampus supports deliberation about value, given its well-known role in prospection and relational cognition. We assessed the role of the hippocampus in deliberation in two experiments. First, using fMRI in healthy participants, we found that BOLD activity in the hippocampus increased as a function of deliberation time. Second, we found that patients with hippocampal damage exhibited more stochastic choices and longer reaction times than controls, possibly due to their failure to construct value-based or internal evidence during deliberation. Both sets of results were stronger in value-based decisions compared to perceptual decisions.
