Increasing evidence suggests that mental health and physical health are linked by neural
systems that jointly regulate somatic physiology and high-level cognition. Key systems …

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a critical role in the generation and regulation of emotion.
However, we lack an integrative framework for understanding how different emotion-related …

The positive-negative axis of emotional valence has long been recognized as fundamental
to adaptive behavior, but its origin and underlying function have largely eluded formal …

Reversal learning paradigms are among the most widely used tests of cognitive flexibility
and have been used as assays, across species, for altered cognitive processes in a host of …

The ability to experience pleasant or unpleasant feelings or to represent objects as “positive”
or “negative” is known as representing hedonic “valence.” Although scientists …

People with damage to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) have specific problems making
decisions, whereas their other cognitive functions are spared. Neurophysiological studies …

Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has long been known to play an important role in decision
making. However, the exact nature of that role has remained elusive. Here, we propose a …

A central, unresolved problem in affective neuroscience is understanding how emotions are
represented in nervous system activity. After prior localization approaches largely failed …

Successful goal-directed behavior requires not only correct action selection, planning, and
execution but also the ability to flexibly adapt behavior when performance problems occur or …

Midbrain dopamine neurons are well known for their strong responses to rewards and their
critical role in positive motivation. It has become increasingly clear, however, that dopamine …