%0 Journal Article %A Zhihao Zhang %A Avi Mendelsohn %A Kirk Manson %A Daniela Schiller %A Ifat Levy %T Dissociating value representation and inhibition of inappropriate affective response during reversal learning in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex %D 2015 %R 10.1523/ENEURO.0072-15.2015 %J eneuro %P ENEURO.0072-15.2015 %X Decision-making studies have implicated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in tracking the value of rewards and punishments. At the same time, fear-learning studies have pointed to a role of the same area in updating previously learned cue-outcome associations. To disentangle these accounts, we used a reward reversal-learning paradigm in an fMRI study in 18 human participants. Participants first learned that one of two colored squares (color A) was associated with monetary reward while the other (color B) was not, and then had to learn that these contingencies reversed. Consistent with value representation, activity of a dorsal region of vmPFC was positively correlated with reward magnitude. Conversely, a more ventral region of vmPFC responded more to color A than to color B after contingency reversal, compatible with a role of inhibiting the previously learned response that was no longer appropriate. Moreover, the response strength was correlated with subjects’ behavioral learning strength. Our findings provide direct evidence for the spatial dissociation of value representation and affective response inhibition in the vmPFC.Significance Statement Numerous studies have implicated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in value encoding, forming the basis for decision-making. A separate line of research has associated the same region with a critical role in negative-affect regulation. Are these two distinct functions of the vmPFC or simply different manifestations of the same process? Using a task that requires both value representation and affect regulation, yet enables to distinguish between the neural correlates associated with each, we found that these two processes are localized in different sub-regions of the vmPFC. Such findings bridge two previously disconnected branches of cognitive neuroscience research and advance our understanding of the functional organization of the vmPFC. %U https://www.eneuro.org/content/eneuro/early/2015/12/29/ENEURO.0072-15.2015.full.pdf