Figure 3

Brain mediators and moderators of price cue effects in N = 30 participants. (a) BOLD activity in the ventral striatum, anterior prefrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex mediated price cue effects on experienced pleasantness ratings (p _FWE < 0.05). Significant voxels are displayed for visualization purposes in yellow at p < 0.001 uncorrected, and are superimposed on the average anatomical brain image. (b–d) Multilevel mediation path diagram across N = 30 participants for the three brain mediators of price cue effects: (b) the ventral striatum, (c) the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and (d) the anterior prefrontal cortex (antPFC). The [x, y, z] coordinates correspond to Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) coordinates and are taken at maxima of interest. Average path coefficients (a × b (SEM)) and the correlation of a&b coefficients (cov) across participants denote the joint activation in paths a and b at ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01 or ⁺ p < 0.05 two-tailed. Note that multilevel mediation effects can be driven either by significant path a and b co-activation or by covariance of path a and b coefficients.