The neural underpinnings of the interaction between the cognitive control of emotions and value-based decision-making

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Much of our daily life is driven by the prospect of rewards and thus, involves constant decision-making to achieve rewards. Reward valuation is tightly linked to emotions, e.g. the outcome of a decision could result in positive/negative emotions such as joy/anger. Moreover, our daily mood, stress level as well as current feelings may also affect the decisions we make. The relationship between emotion and decision-making has been investigated on a theoretical and behavioural level; the neural mechanisms underlying it, however, remain mostly unclear. Value-based decision-making can be defined as the process of making a choice from at least two alternatives on the basis of a subjective value that one places on them. This choice behaviour can be influenced either by expected and/or immediate emotions. Expected emotions include cognitive predictions about the emotional consequences of decision outcomes. Immediate emotions are real emotions experienced at the time of decision-making. We hypothesize that internal emotional states can be cognitively modulated and thereby affect other processes involved in value-based decision-making. Thus, the regulation of emotions (e.g., reappraisal) could be used as a means to investigate the influence of emotions on value-based decision-making. The proposed program is set out to systematically investigate 1) the effect of immediate emotions on value-based decision-making; 2) the modulatory effect of reappraisal of immediate emotions on decision-making; and 3) the impact of reappraisal goals such as up- and down-regulation of emotions on the process of decision-making. Therefore, we planned a series of three separate behavioural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments in healthy participants. In experiment 1 we will investigate how emotion regulation affects temporal discounting (valuation of options). In experiment 2 we will examine the effect of emotion regulation on decision-making under risk (action selection). In experiment 3 we are interested in carry-over effects of emotion regulation on the processing of secondary outcomes (expected consequences and outcome evaluation). All three experiments will involve a multi-methodological approach combing computational modelling of decision-making behaviour with standard univariate analyses and multivariate pattern classification analyses of fMRI data. Such model-based analyses of decision-making facilitate the detection of even relatively subtle changes in choice behaviour, both between and within individuals. Together, the proposed experiments aim at a systematic, mechanistic characterization of emotion regulation effects on decision-making across different types of decisions and reappraisal goals.