Values and regrets

Regret, from a decision-making point of view, is a countefactual post-hoc valuation of a decision. Regret and rejoicing are two varieties of remembered utility. Without a doubt, neuroeconomics can be informative about the neural mechanisms of regrets. As I once argued, however, we need a neuroeconomic account of valuation with clear distinction between differnt processes, mechanisms and functions, and between the different contributions of neural structures. A nice example:

In this paper:

• Chandrasekhar, P. V. S., Capra, C. M., Moore, S., Noussair, C., & Berns, G. S. (2007). Neurobiological regret and rejoice functions for aversive outcomes. Neuroimage.

it is said that "a cortical network, consisting of the medial orbitofrontal cortex, left superior frontal cortex, right angular gyrus, and left thalamus, correlates with the degree of regret. A different network, including the rostral anterior cingulate, left hippocampus, left ventral striatum, and brain stem/midbrain correlated with rejoice."

But, in another paper, regret, or its computational cousin "fictive learning signals", is now an outcome of midbrain dopaminergic systems:

• Lohrenz, T., McCabe, K., Camerer, C. F., & Montague, P. R. (2007). Neural signature of fictive learning signals in a sequential investment task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(22), 9493-9498.

How to fit it all together? I am not sure yet but here are 2 possibilities:

1-a "same-level" explanation: dopaminergic systems and cortical networks contribute together to the feeling, emotions, and processing of regret/rejoicing. They are two faces of the same coin.

2-a "different-level" explanation: dopaminergic systems and cortical networks are two layers in a hierarchical multi-level architecture (that may have other level, e.g. molecular, etc.).

suggestions, ideas?