The hippocampus is important for making motivationally conflicting decisions
What is it about?
In our daily lives, we are often faced with motivationally conflicting decisions that may lead to both positive and negative outcomes. For example, deciding whether to accept a prestigious, highly paid job that requires long working hours, or contemplating whether to eat a very delicious but extremely unhealthy dessert. Using a combination of computational modelling and behavioural work in people with hippocampal damage, we found that the hippocampus is critical for this type of decision-making. Specifically, the hippocampus appears to support the accumulation of evidence that is necessary for an individual to decide whether a motivationally conflicting scenario should be approached or avoided.
Why is it important?
By understanding how the brain supports motivational conflict decision-making, we can gain insight into brain disorders in which such decision-making has gone awry, for example anxiety, in which avoidance behaviours may dominate, and addiction, in which approach behaviours may prevail.