Electrophysiological dissociation of human posterior cingulate cortex contributions to value- and memory-based decision-making

Abstract

The human posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) is routinely implicated in cognition and disease, yet its specific functional contributions remain unclear. Historically, human neuroimaging has linked the region to episodic memory and the default mode network, while a distinct non-human primate electrophysiology literature has focused on economic decision-making. Integrating anatomical evidence with these literatures, it has recently been proposed that this divergence reflects subregional organization, with dorsal PCC as a potential convergence site for value-based and memory-based decisions. Here, we recorded local field potentials (LFPs) and single units from human PCC while the same participants performed matched value- and memory-based decision tasks. LFPs in dorsal but not ventral PCC showed sustained engagement across both tasks, with risk sensitivity emerging only after the decision. In contrast, single-unit activity was more temporally circumscribed and could be grouped into response profiles active before or after the decision. Dorsal but not ventral PCC engagement further extended to memory encoding, recognition, and confidence judgments. Together, these findings reveal a consistent functional dissociation, identifying dorsal PCC as a domain-general interface between evaluative and mnemonic systems. In doing so, they align human and non-human primate accounts of PCC function and help orient future targeted studies of its role in cognition and disease.