Specializations for reward-guided decision-making in the primate ventral prefrontal cortex

The estimated values of choices, and therefore decision-making based on those values, are influenced by both the chance that the chosen items or goods can be obtained (availability) and their current worth (desirability) as well as by the ability to link the estimated values to choices (a process sometimes called credit assignment). In primates, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been thought to contribute to each of these processes; however, causal relationships between particular subdivisions of the PFC and specific functions have been difficult to establish. Recent lesion-based research studies have defined the roles of two different parts of the primate PFC — the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the ventral lateral frontal cortex (VLFC) — and their subdivisions in evaluating each of these factors and in mediating credit assignment during reward-based decision-making. Decision-making requires us to correctly evaluate the likely outcomes of our choices. Murray and Rudebeck describe how evidence from lesion and neurophysiology studies in non-human primates has given us insight into the specific contributions of prefrontal cortex subdivisions in this process.