Previous work has identified characteristic neural signatures of value-based decision-making, including neural dynamics that closely resemble the ramping evidence accumulation process believed to underpin choice. Here we test whether these signatures of the choice process can be temporally dissociated from additional, choice-‘independent’ value signals. Indeed, EEG activity during value-based choice revealed distinct spatiotemporal clusters, with a stimulus-locked cluster reflecting affective reactions to choice sets and a response-locked cluster reflecting choice difficulty. Surprisingly, ‘neither’ of these clusters met the criteria for an evidence accumulation signal. Instead, we found that stimulus-locked activity can ‘mimic’ an evidence accumulation process when aligned to the response. Re-analysing four previous studies, including three perceptual decision-making studies, we show that response-locked signatures of evidence accumulation disappear when stimulus-locked and response-locked activity are modelled jointly. Collectively, our findings show that neural signatures of value can reflect choice-independent processes and look deceptively like evidence accumulation.

以前的工作已经确定了基于价值的决策的特征性神经特征，包括与被认为支持选择的基础的斜坡证据积累过程非常相似的神经动力学。在这里，我们测试了选择过程的这些特征是否可以在时间上与其他的、 “独立 ”的、 “独立 ”的值信号分离。事实上，基于价值的选择期间的脑电图活动揭示了不同的时空集群，其中刺激锁定集群反映了对选择集的情感反应，而响应锁定集群反映了选择难度。令人惊讶的是，这些集群中 “都没有 ”符合证据积累信号的标准。相反，我们发现刺激锁定活动在与响应保持一致时可以“模拟”证据积累过程。重新分析之前的四项研究，包括三项感知决策研究，我们表明，当刺激锁定和响应锁定活动联合建模时，证据积累的响应锁定特征消失。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，价值的神经特征可以反映独立于选择的过程，并且看起来像证据积累。