Subjective emotional ratings dissociate brain activation and network patterns during counterfactual outcome processing
- 1MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, Brain-Computer Interface & Brain-Inspired Intelligence Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Center for Psychiatry and Psychology, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China
- 2Corresponding author at: Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, Brain-Computer Interface & Brain-Inspired Intelligence Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Center for Psychiatry and Psychology, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, 610054.
Abstract
Human decision-making integrates outcome evaluation, counterfactual comparison, and individual traits. We investigated the neural processing of outcome-related emotions during economic decision-making by classifying feedback according to participants’ subjective emotional ratings rather than objective gain–loss categories. Participants completed a Wheel of Fortune gambling task during fMRI scanning and provided emotional ratings for feedback outcomes, enabling identification of regret, relief, disappointment, and elation. We also assessed individual differences in regret proneness, maximization tendencies, alternative search, high standards, and decision difficulty. Behaviorally, emotional ratings increased with larger obtained outcomes and decreased as reference outcomes increased, indicating robust modulation of outcome evaluation by counterfactual information Whole-brain analyses revealed greater activation for low-rating than high-rating outcomes, indicating stronger neural responses to negative than positive emotions across feedback types. Complete feedback also elicited greater activation than partial feedback within the same emotional valence. Network-level analyses revealed partially dissociable neural profiles for positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions, including elation and relief, predominantly recruited the somatomotor network, whereas negative emotions, including disappointment and regret, engaged broader distributions across the default mode, dorsal attention, and other large-scale networks. Regret elicited the largest activation extent, whereas elation elicited the smallest. Region-of-interest analyses showed that bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) responses were significantly greater for negative than positive emotions and for complete than partial feedback conditions. Across all four emotions, right OFC activation was negatively associated with maximization. For elation, relief, and disappointment, right OFC activation was also negatively associated with alternative search and decision difficulty, whereas these associations were absent for regret. Together, these findings demonstrate that subjective emotional evaluation, counterfactual context, and decision-related traits jointly shape the neural processing of decision outcomes, while suggesting relatively trait-independent neural processing of regret.
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026subjective,
title = {{Subjective emotional ratings dissociate brain activation and network patterns during counterfactual outcome processing}},
author = {Tingting Zhang and Denghui Bai and Xiaotong Wei and Lei Zhuo and Qiuzhu Zhang and Junjun Zhang and Zhenlan Jin and Ling Li},
journal = {NeuroImage},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2026.122303},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2026.122303},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Subjective emotional ratings dissociate brain activation and network patterns during counterfactual outcome processing
AU - Tingting Zhang
AU - Denghui Bai
AU - Xiaotong Wei
AU - Lei Zhuo
AU - Qiuzhu Zhang
AU - Junjun Zhang
AU - Zhenlan Jin
AU - Ling Li
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - NeuroImage
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2026.122303
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2026.122303
AB - Human decision-making integrates outcome evaluation, counterfactual comparison, and individual traits. We investigated the neural processing of outcome-related emotions during economic decision-making by classifying feedback according to participants’ subjective emotional ratings rather than objective gain–loss categories. Participants completed a Wheel of Fortune gambling task during fMRI scanning and provided emotional ratings for feedback outcomes, enabling identification of regret, relief, disappointment, and elation. We also assessed individual differences in regret proneness, maximization tendencies, alternative search, high standards, and decision difficulty. Behaviorally, emotional ratings increased with larger obtained outcomes and decreased as reference outcomes increased, indicating robust modulation of outcome evaluation by counterfactual information Whole-brain analyses revealed greater activation for low-rating than high-rating outcomes, indicating stronger neural responses to negative than positive emotions across feedback types. Complete feedback also elicited greater activation than partial feedback within the same emotional valence. Network-level analyses revealed partially dissociable neural profiles for positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions, including elation and relief, predominantly recruited the somatomotor network, whereas negative emotions, including disappointment and regret, engaged broader distributions across the default mode, dorsal attention, and other large-scale networks. Regret elicited the largest activation extent, whereas elation elicited the smallest. Region-of-interest analyses showed that bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) responses were significantly greater for negative than positive emotions and for complete than partial feedback conditions. Across all four emotions, right OFC activation was negatively associated with maximization. For elation, relief, and disappointment, right OFC activation was also negatively associated with alternative search and decision difficulty, whereas these associations were absent for regret. Together, these findings demonstrate that subjective emotional evaluation, counterfactual context, and decision-related traits jointly shape the neural processing of decision outcomes, while suggesting relatively trait-independent neural processing of regret.
SN - 1095-9572
SN - 1053-8119
ER -