Figure 2. Responses to Outcome in Medial OFC.
(A) Medial OFC showing a significant increase in activity after avoidance of an aversive outcome as well as after obtaining reward [x = 0, y = 33, z = −18, Z = 3.48, p < 0.05] (corrected for small volume using coordinates derived from a previous study) [ 30].
No other brain areas showed significant effects at p < 0.001, uncorrected. Voxels significant at p < 0.001 are shown in yellow. To illustrate the extent of the activation we also show voxels significant at p < 0.01 in red.
(B) Time-course plots of peak voxels in the OFC for the four different outcomes: receipt of reward (R+), avoidance of an aversive outcome (P−), missed reward (R−), and receipt of an aversive outcome (P+). The plots are arranged such that time 0 corresponds to the point of outcome delivery. These time courses are shown after adjusting for the effects of expected value and PE (i.e., removing those effects from the data). Non-adjusted time-course data from this region (time-locked to the trial onset and including the effects of expected value) are shown in Figure 3C.
(C) Right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity was revealed in the opposite contrast to that reported in Figure 2A (i.e., [R − + P +] – [R + + P −]), depicting areas responding more to receiving an aversive outcome and missing reward than to getting reward and avoiding an aversive outcome.