1
|
Lenglin V, Wong S, O'Callaghan C, Erzinçlioğlu S, Hornberger M, Lebouvier T, Piguet O, Bourgeois-Gironde S, Bertoux M. Zero the hero: Evidence for involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in affective bias for free items. Cortex 2023; 160:24-42. [PMID: 36680922 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 12/06/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Recent evidence from psycho-economics shows that when the price of an item decreases to the extent that it becomes available for free, one can observe a remarkable increase of subjective utility toward this item. This phenomenon, which is not observed for any other price but zero, has been termed the zero-price effect (ZPE). The ZPE is attributed to an affective heuristic where the positive affect elicited by the free status of an item provides a mental shortcut biasing choice towards that item. Given that the ZPE relies on affective processing, a key role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has been proposed, yet neuroscientific studies of the ZPE remain scarce. This study aimed to explore the role of the vmPFC in the ZPE using a novel, within-subject assessment in participants with either an acquired (lesion patients) or degenerative (behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia patients) lesion of the vmPFC, and age-matched healthy controls. All participants were asked to make a series of choices between pairs of items that varied in price. One choice trial involved an equal decrease of both item prices, such that one of the items was priced zero. In contrast to controls, patients with both vmPFC-lesion and behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia showed marked reductions in zero-related changes of preference in pairs of gift-cards, but not for pairs of food items. Our findings suggest that affective evaluations driving the ZPE are altered in patients with focal or degenerative damage to the vmPFC. This supports the notion of a key role of the vmPFC in the ZPE and, more generally, the importance of this region in value-based affective decision-making. Our findings also highlight the potential utility of affective heuristic tasks in future clinical assessments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- V Lenglin
- Lille Neuroscience & Cognition, Univ. Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, LiCEND & DistALZ, Lille, France; ETHICS EA7446, Lille Catholic University, Lille, France
| | - S Wong
- The University of Sydney, School of Psychology and Brain & Mind Centre, Sydney, Australia; Flinders University, College of Education, Psychology & Social Work, Adelaide, Australia
| | - C O'Callaghan
- The University of Sydney, Brain & Mind Centre and School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney, Australia
| | - S Erzinçlioğlu
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge UK
| | - M Hornberger
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - T Lebouvier
- Lille Neuroscience & Cognition, Univ. Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, LiCEND & DistALZ, Lille, France
| | - O Piguet
- The University of Sydney, School of Psychology and Brain & Mind Centre, Sydney, Australia
| | - S Bourgeois-Gironde
- Department of Economics, Université Paris 2 - Panthéon-Assas, Paris, France; Institut Jean-Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France.
| | - M Bertoux
- Lille Neuroscience & Cognition, Univ. Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, LiCEND & DistALZ, Lille, France; Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Effects of exogenous testosterone application on network connectivity within emotion regulation systems. Sci Rep 2020; 10:2352. [PMID: 32047245 PMCID: PMC7012825 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-59329-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2019] [Accepted: 01/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Studies with steroid hormones underlined the vital role of testosterone on social-emotional processing. However, there is still a lack of studies investigating whether testosterone modulates network connectivity during resting-state. Here, we tested how the exogenous application of testosterone would affect functional connectivity between regions implicated in emotion regulation. In total, 96 male participants underwent resting-state fMRI scanning. Before the measurement, half of the subjects received 5 g TestimTM gel (containing 50 mg testosterone) and the other half a corresponding amount of placebo gel. Seeds for the connectivity analysis were meta-analytically defined. First, all regions associated with emotion regulation were chosen via Neurosynth (data driven). Among those, specific seeds were selected and categorized based on the neural model of emotion regulation by Etkin and colleagues (Etkin et al., 2015) (theory-guided). Resting-state connectivity analysis revealed decreased connectivity between the right DLPFC and the right amygdala as well as between the VMPFC and the left IPL for the testosterone group compared to the placebo group. A complementary dynamic causal modeling (DCM) analysis on findings from the resting-state connectivity analysis underlined a bidirectional coupling which was decreased close to zero by testosterone administration. Our results demonstrate that testosterone administration disrupts resting-state connectivity within fronto-subcortical and fronto-parietal circuits. The findings suggest that even without a specific task (e.g. challenge, reward processing) testosterone modulates brain networks important for social-emotional processing.
Collapse
|
3
|
Ma H, Mo Z, Zhang H, Wang C, Fu H. The Temptation of Zero Price: Event-Related Potentials Evidence of How Price Framing Influences the Purchase of Bundles. Front Neurosci 2018; 12:251. [PMID: 29731705 PMCID: PMC5919942 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2018] [Accepted: 04/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies have revealed that consumers are susceptible to price framing effect, a common cognitive bias, due to their limited capacity in processing information. The effect of price framing in a bundling context and its neural correlates, however, remain not clearly characterized. The present study applied the event-related potentials (ERPs) approach to investigate the role of price framing in information processing and purchase decision making in a bundling context. Three price frames were created with practically identical total prices (with a maximum difference of ¥0.1, which was about equal to 0.016 US dollars) for a bundle with two components, a focal product and a tie-in product. In normal price condition (NP), both the focal and tie-in products were offered at a normal discounted price; in zero price condition (ZP), the tie-in product was offered free while the total price of the bundle remained the same as NP; whereas in low price condition (LP), the tie-in product was offered at a low token price (¥0.1), and the focal product shared the same price as the focal product of ZP. The behavioral results showed a higher purchase rate and a shorter reaction time for ZP in contrast to NP. Neurophysiologically, enlarged LPP amplitude was elicited by ZP relative to NP, suggesting that ZP triggered a stronger positive affect that could motivate decision to buy. Thus, this study provides both behavioral and neural evidence for how different price framing information is processed and ultimately gives rise to price framing effect in purchase decision making.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Haiying Ma
- School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
- Laboratory of Neuromanagement and Decision Neuroscience, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zan Mo
- School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
- Laboratory of Neuromanagement and Decision Neuroscience, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Huijun Zhang
- School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
- Laboratory of Neuromanagement and Decision Neuroscience, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Cuicui Wang
- School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China
- Academy of Neuroeconomics and Neuromanagement, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Huijian Fu
- School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
- Laboratory of Neuromanagement and Decision Neuroscience, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
- Academy of Neuroeconomics and Neuromanagement, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| |
Collapse
|