RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 How context alters value: Price information recruits the brain’s valuation and affective regulation system for shaping experienced taste pleasantness JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 097915 DO 10.1101/097915 A1 Liane Schmidt A1 Vasilisa Skvortsova A1 Claus Kullen A1 Bernd Weber A1 Hilke Plassmann YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/03/097915.abstract AB Informational cues such as the price of a wine can trigger expectations about its taste quality and thereby modulate the sensory experience on a reported and neural level. Yet it is unclear how the brain translates such expectations into sensory pleasantness. We used multilevel mediation analysis of neural and behavioral data obtained in participants who tasted identical wines cued with different prices. We found that the brain's valuation system (BVS) in concert with the anterior prefrontal cortex explained the effect of price cues on taste pleasantness ratings. The sensitivity of the BVS to rewards outside the taste domain moderated the strength of these effects. Moreover, brain mediators of price cue effects overlapped with brain regions previously found to be involved in placebo analgesia. These findings provide novel evidence for the fundamental role that neural pathways linked to motivation and affective regulation play for the effect of informational cues on sensory experiences.