Since the discovery of cognitive maps in rodent hippocampus (HC), the cognitive map has been developed from being originally intended as spatial representations encoding locations and objects in Euclidean spaces to a general low-dimensional organization of information along selected feature dimensions. A cognitive map includes hypothetical constructs that bridge between environmental stimuli and the final overt behavior. To neuroeconomists, utility and utility functions are such hypothetical constructs with neurobiological basis that drive choice behavior. Emergence of distinct functional neuron groups in the primate orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) during simple economic choice indicates the formation of an abstract cognitive map for organizing information of goods for value computation. Experimental evidence suggests that organization of neuronal activity in such cognitive map reflects the abstraction of core task features. Thus, such map can be adapted to accommodate economic choices under various task contexts.

自从在啮齿动物海马 (HC) 中发现认知图以来，认知图已经从最初旨在编码欧几里得空间中的位置和对象的空间表示发展为沿选定特征维度的一般低维信息组织。认知地图包括在环境刺激和最终公开行为之间架起桥梁的假设结构。对于神经经济学家来说，效用和效用函数是具有神经生物学基础的假设结构，可以驱动选择行为。在简单的经济选择过程中，灵长类动物眶额皮质（OFC）中不同功能神经元群的出现表明形成了一个抽象的认知地图，用于组织商品信息以进行价值计算。实验证据表明，这种认知地图中神经元活动的组织反映了核心任务特征的抽象。因此，这种地图可以适应各种任务环境下的经济选择。