Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neurobiology

Attraction is relative not absolute

Nature volume 398, pages 661–663 (1999)Cite this article

Suppose you like wine very much, and are faced with the choice of ordinary table wine or Beaujolais Nouveau — the latter is probably very attractive. But if presented with Beaujolais Nouveau and a superior wine, such as Romanée-Conti, the attraction of the Beaujolais Nouveau may subside. A similar phenomenon called ‘reinforcement contrast effect’ seems to occur in animal-learning studies, and Tremblay and Schultz1 now show (page 704of this issue) that a region of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex may be actively involved in this process.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Activity of an imaginary orbitofrontal neuron reflecting relative reward preference.
Figure 2: Lateral and ventral views of the orbitofrontal cortex of the monkey.

References

  1. Tremblay, L. & Schultz, W. Nature 398, 704–708 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Zeaman, D. J. Exp. Psychol. 39, 466–483 (1949).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Rolls, E. T. The Brain and Emotion (Oxford Univ. Press, 1999).

  4. Baylis, L. L. & Gaffan, D. Exp. Brain Res. 86, 617–622 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Goldman-Rakic, P. S. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 351, 1445–1453 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Petrides, M. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 351, 1455–1462 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Damasio, A. Descartes' Error (Putnam, New York, 1994).

  8. Thut, G. et al. NeuroReport 8, 1225–1228 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Watanabe, M. Nature 382, 629–632 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Watanabe, M. Rev. Neurosci. 9, 225–241 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Masataka Watanabe is in the Department of Psychology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience, Musashidai 2-6, Fuchu, 183-0042, Tokyo, Japan

    Masataka Watanabe

Authors
  1. Masataka Watanabe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Watanabe, M. Attraction is relative not absolute. Nature 398, 661–663 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/19414

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/19414

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing