Counterfactual processing of values in private and social contexts

In the talk I will present results from a series of experiments on the behavioral and neural correlates of counterfactual (fictive) processing of values in private and social contexts. Counterfactual evaluation means to compare the outcome of our choice with the outcome we could have gotten with a different choice. In social settings the counterfactual outcome could be the outcome of a choice taken by another individual. Neuroimaging and neuopsychological data show a neuroanatomical dissociation between private and social counterfactual processing. Thus, the orbitofrontal cortex appears to play a fundamental role in encoding counterfactual evaluations in private environments, while the medial prefrontal cortex computes social counterfactual values.