Projet ANR-11-EMCO-0011 – HEIDI : Modulation de la prise de décision par les émotions : une approche interdisciplinaire
Programme : Emotion(s), cognition, comportement (EMCO) 2011
Année de financement : 2011
Coordinateur du projet : Madame Marie Claire Villeval (Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St Etienne)
Partenaires : Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive; Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Économique Lyon St-Étienne
Montant : 220000.0 euros
Date de début : 2012
Durée : 36 mois
Résumé : The neural mechanisms underlying the influences of emotion, motivation and cognition on decision making remain poorly understood. New bridges have recently been made between monkey neurophysiology, human neuroimaging, behavior and theoretical models that provide a formal and quantitative account of emotions and decision-making. Yet, there is a need for building an integrative account of emotional and decisional processes, bridging the gap between fundamental computational principles and the brain system level. The current project seeks a better understanding of the psychological and neurobiological basis of the influences of emotions on decision-making to determine the validity of current models of economic choice behavior. It adopts a combination of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective, combining psychophysics, neuroeconomics, cognitive neuroscience, neurology and multimodal neuroimaging (intracranial recordings in humans and model-based fMRI) to investigate the neural mechanisms of the interactions between emotions and decision making processes, both in single individuals and in social context. This project also seeks to provide a framework that brings together computational and neurobiological findings by highlighting the connections between neuroscience, psychology and economics. Ultimately, the goal is to integrate computational principles underlying choice behavior with those defining brain functions. Such integration will be necessary if we are to ultimately model how emotions influence decision making in health and disease.
	The specific aims of this project are to characterize: 1) basic neural coding of positive and negative emotions induced by different rewards and punishments and how they are influenced by probability and uncertainty; 2) the influences of positive/negative emotions induced by rewards/punishment on learning to associate neutral cues with rewarding/aversive outcomes; 3) the neural computations underlying cognitive and automatic regulation during value-based decision making; 4) the neural mechanisms by which emotion and cognitive control interact. We will investigate the temporal dynamics of the influence of negative emotions on cognitive control to understand how negative emotions reduce cognitive flexibility; 5) the relationship between emotions and cognition by focusing on the role of self-image in prosocial decision-making; 6) differences between choices made by groups and by individuals in isolation, focusing on the specific roles of emotions such as envy, compassion and the motivation to avoid guilt and blame when making decisions that affect others’ welfare and the social pressure to conform to certain norms when one is in a group setting. 
	To address these questions, we will combine four complementary approaches:
1) computational modeling using concepts from neuroeconomics, which is important to specify the relationships between the neural mechanisms, behaviour and the patterns of brain activation observed with model-based neuroimaging;
2) human intra-cranial recordings and fMRI, which is key for a comprehensive understanding of different descriptions levels (local field potentials and BOLD signal);
3) investigation of the interactions between emotions and decision making using a computational model-based fMRI approach;
4) behavioral economics laboratory experiments, some of them including physiological measures (SCR).
	This combination of approaches will contribute to a fundamental understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the influences of emotions on decision making in humans. The ground-breaking nature and potential impact of this research is to establish a neurobiological foundation for understanding disorders affecting motivational and decision making processes and for better understanding how the influences of emotions may explain deviations in actual decision-making from equilibrium predictions in economic models.