Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activation Is Associated with Memory Formation for Predictable Rewards

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Bialleck, Katharina A.; Schaal, Hans-Peter; Kranz, Thorsten A.; Fell, Juergen; Elger, Christian E.; Axmacher, Nikolai

2011-01-01

During reinforcement learning, dopamine release shifts from the moment of reward consumption to the time point when the reward can be predicted. Previous studies provide consistent evidence that reward-predicting cues enhance long-term memory (LTM) formation of these items via dopaminergic projections to the ventral striatum. However, it is less clear whether memory for items that do not precede a reward but are directly associated with reward consumption is also facilitated. Here, we investigated this question in an fMRI paradigm in which LTM for reward-predicting and neutral cues was compared to LTM for items presented during consumption of reliably predictable as compared to less predictable rewards. We observed activation of the ventral striatum and enhanced memory formation during reward anticipation. During processing of less predictable as compared to reliably predictable rewards, the ventral striatum was activated as well, but items associated with less predictable outcomes were remembered worse than items associated with reliably predictable outcomes. Processing of reliably predictable rewards activated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and vmPFC BOLD responses were associated with successful memory formation of these items. Taken together, these findings show that consumption of reliably predictable rewards facilitates LTM formation and is associated with activation of the vmPFC. PMID:21326612

Improved memory for reward cues following acute buprenorphine administration in humans

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Syal, Supriya; Ipser, Jonathan; Terburg, David|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/32304087X; Solms, Mark; Panksepp, Jaak; Malcolm-Smith, Susan; Bos, Peter A.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/337018995; Montoya, Estrella R.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/34141347X; Stein, Dan J.; van Honk, Jack|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/188602801

2015-01-01

In rodents, there is abundant evidence for the involvement of the opioid system in the processing of reward cues, but this system has remained understudied in humans. In humans, the happy facial expression is a pivotal reward cue. Happy facial expressions activate the brain's reward system and are

Reward processing in the value-driven attention network: reward signals tracking cue identity and location.

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Anderson, Brian A

2017-03-01

Through associative reward learning, arbitrary cues acquire the ability to automatically capture visual attention. Previous studies have examined the neural correlates of value-driven attentional orienting, revealing elevated activity within a network of brain regions encompassing the visual corticostriatal loop [caudate tail, lateral occipital complex (LOC) and early visual cortex] and intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Such attentional priority signals raise a broader question concerning how visual signals are combined with reward signals during learning to create a representation that is sensitive to the confluence of the two. This study examines reward signals during the cued reward training phase commonly used to generate value-driven attentional biases. High, compared with low, reward feedback preferentially activated the value-driven attention network, in addition to regions typically implicated in reward processing. Further examination of these reward signals within the visual system revealed information about the identity of the preceding cue in the caudate tail and LOC, and information about the location of the preceding cue in IPS, while early visual cortex represented both location and identity. The results reveal teaching signals within the value-driven attention network during associative reward learning, and further suggest functional specialization within different regions of this network during the acquisition of an integrated representation of stimulus value. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Different populations of subthalamic neurons encode cocaine vs. sucrose reward and predict future error.

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Lardeux, Sylvie; Paleressompoulle, Dany; Pernaud, Remy; Cador, Martine; Baunez, Christelle

2013-10-01

The search for treatment of cocaine addiction raises the challenge to find a way to diminish motivation for the drug without decreasing it for natural rewards. Subthalamic nucleus (STN) inactivation decreases motivation for cocaine while increasing motivation for food, suggesting that STN can dissociate different rewards. Here, we investigated how rat STN neurons respond to cues predicting cocaine or sucrose and to reward delivery while rats are performing a discriminative stimuli task. We show that different neuronal populations of STN neurons encode cocaine and sucrose. In addition, we show that STN activity at the cue onset predicts future error. When changing the reward predicted unexpectedly, STN neurons show capacities of adaptation, suggesting a role in reward-prediction error. Furthermore, some STN neurons show a response to executive error (i.e., "oops neurons") that is specific to the missed reward. These results position the STN as a nexus where natural rewards and drugs of abuse are coded differentially and can influence the performance. Therefore, STN can be viewed as a structure where action could be taken for the treatment of cocaine addiction.

Improved memory for reward cues following acute buprenorphine administration in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Syal, Supriya; Ipser, Jonathan; Terburg, David; Solms, Mark; Panksepp, Jaak; Malcolm-Smith, Susan; Bos, Peter A; Montoya, Estrella R; Stein, Dan J; van Honk, Jack

2015-03-01

In rodents, there is abundant evidence for the involvement of the opioid system in the processing of reward cues, but this system has remained understudied in humans. In humans, the happy facial expression is a pivotal reward cue. Happy facial expressions activate the brain's reward system and are disregarded by subjects scoring high on depressive mood who are low in reward drive. We investigated whether a single 0.2mg administration of the mixed mu-opioid agonist/kappa-antagonist, buprenorphine, would influence short-term memory for happy, angry or fearful expressions relative to neutral faces. Healthy human subjects (n38) participated in a randomized placebo-controlled within-subject design, and performed an emotional face relocation task after administration of buprenorphine and placebo. We show that, compared to placebo, buprenorphine administration results in a significant improvement of memory for happy faces. Our data demonstrate that acute manipulation of the opioid system by buprenorphine increases short-term memory for social reward cues. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A balance of activity in brain control and reward systems predicts self-regulatory outcomes.

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Lopez, Richard B; Chen, Pin-Hao A; Huckins, Jeremy F; Hofmann, Wilhelm; Kelley, William M; Heatherton, Todd F

2017-05-01

Previous neuroimaging work has shown that increased reward-related activity following exposure to food cues is predictive of self-control failure. The balance model suggests that self-regulation failures result from an imbalance in reward and executive control mechanisms. However, an open question is whether the relative balance of activity in brain systems associated with executive control (vs reward) supports self-regulatory outcomes when people encounter tempting cues in daily life. Sixty-nine chronic dieters, a population known for frequent lapses in self-control, completed a food cue-reactivity task during an fMRI scanning session, followed by a weeklong sampling of daily eating behaviors via ecological momentary assessment. We related participants' food cue activity in brain systems associated with executive control and reward to real-world eating patterns. Specifically, a balance score representing the amount of activity in brain regions associated with self-regulatory control, relative to automatic reward-related activity, predicted dieters' control over their eating behavior during the following week. This balance measure may reflect individual self-control capacity and be useful for examining self-regulation success in other domains and populations. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press.

Visual sexual stimuli – cue or reward? A key for interpreting brain imaging studies on human sexual behaviors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mateusz Gola

2016-08-01

Full Text Available There is an increasing number of neuroimaging studies using visual sexual stimuli (VSS for human sexuality studies, including emerging field of research on compulsive sexual behaviors. A central question in this field is whether behaviors such as extensive pornography consumption share common brain mechanisms with widely studied substance and behavioral addictions. Depending on how VSS are conceptualized, different predictions can be formulated within the frameworks of Reinforcement Learning or Incentive Salience Theory, where a crucial distinction is made between conditioned (cue and unconditioned (reward stimuli (related to reward anticipation vs reward consumption, respectively. Surveying 40 recent human neuroimaging studies we show existing ambiguity about the conceptualization of VSS. Therefore, we feel that it is important to address the question of whether VSS should be considered as cues (conditioned stimuli or rewards (unconditioned stimuli. Here we present our own perspective, which is that in most laboratory settings VSS play a role of reward (unconditioned stimuli, as evidenced by: 1. experience of pleasure while watching VSS, possibly accompanied by genital reaction 2. reward-related brain activity correlated with these pleasurable feelings in response to VSS, 3. a willingness to exert effort to view VSS similarly as for other rewarding stimuli such as money, and/or 4. conditioning for cues (CS predictive for. We hope that this perspective paper will initiate a scientific discussion on this important and overlooked topic and increase attention for appropriate interpretations of results of human neuroimaging studies using VSS.

Dorsolateral neostriatum contribution to incentive salience: opioid or dopamine stimulation makes one reward cue more motivationally attractive than another.

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DiFeliceantonio, Alexandra G; Berridge, Kent C

2016-05-01

Pavlovian cues for rewards can become attractive incentives: approached and 'wanted' as the rewards themselves. The motivational attractiveness of a previously learned cue is not fixed, but can be dynamically amplified during re-encounter by simultaneous activation of brain limbic circuitry. Here it was reported that opioid or dopamine microinjections in the dorsolateral quadrant of the neostriatum (DLS) of rats selectively amplify attraction toward a previously learned Pavlovian cue in an individualized fashion, at the expense of a competing cue. In an autoshaping (sign-tracking vs. goal-tracking) paradigm, microinjection of the mu opioid receptor agonist (DAMGO) or dopamine indirect agonist (amphetamine) in the DLS of sign-tracker individuals selectively enhanced their sign-tracking attraction toward the reward-predictive lever cue. By contrast, DAMGO or amphetamine in the DLS of goal-trackers selectively enhanced prepotent attraction toward the reward-proximal cue of sucrose dish. Amphetamine also enhanced goal-tracking in some sign-tracker individuals (if they ever defected to the dish even once). That DLS enhancement of cue attraction was due to stronger motivation, not stronger habits, was suggested by: (i) sign-trackers flexibly followed their cue to a new location when the lever was suddenly moved after DLS DAMGO microinjection; and (ii) DAMGO in the DLS also made sign-trackers work harder on a new instrumental nose-poke response required to earn presentations of their Pavlovian lever cue (instrumental conditioned reinforcement). Altogether, the current results suggest that DLS circuitry can enhance the incentive salience of a Pavlovian reward cue, selectively making that cue a stronger motivational magnet. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Reward sensitivity predicts ice cream-related attentional bias assessed by inattentional blindness.

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Li, Xiaoming; Tao, Qian; Fang, Ya; Cheng, Chen; Hao, Yangyang; Qi, Jianjun; Li, Yu; Zhang, Wei; Wang, Ying; Zhang, Xiaochu

2015-06-01

The cognitive mechanism underlying the association between individual differences in reward sensitivity and food craving is unknown. The present study explored the mechanism by examining the role of reward sensitivity in attentional bias toward ice cream cues. Forty-nine college students who displayed high level of ice cream craving (HICs) and 46 who displayed low level of ice cream craving (LICs) performed an inattentional blindness (IB) task which was used to assess attentional bias for ice cream. In addition, reward sensitivity and coping style were assessed by the Behavior Inhibition System/Behavior Activation System Scales and Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire. Results showed significant higher identification rate of the critical stimulus in the HICs than LICs, suggesting greater attentional bias for ice cream in the HICs. It was indicated that attentional bias for food cues persisted even under inattentional condition. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between the attentional bias and reward sensitivity after controlling for coping style, and reward sensitivity predicted attentional bias for food cues. The mediation analyses showed that attentional bias mediated the relationship between reward sensitivity and food craving. Those findings suggest that the association between individual differences in reward sensitivity and food craving may be attributed to attentional bias for food-related cues. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A balance of activity in brain control and reward systems predicts self-regulatory outcomes

OpenAIRE

Lopez, Richard B.; Chen, Pin-Hao A.; Huckins, Jeremy F.; Hofmann, Wilhelm; Kelley, William M.; Heatherton, Todd F.

2017-01-01

Abstract Previous neuroimaging work has shown that increased reward-related activity following exposure to food cues is predictive of self-control failure. The balance model suggests that self-regulation failures result from an imbalance in reward and executive control mechanisms. However, an open question is whether the relative balance of activity in brain systems associated with executive control (vs reward) supports self-regulatory outcomes when people encounter tempting cues in daily lif...

Dopamine receptor blockade attenuates the general incentive motivational effects of noncontingently delivered rewards and reward-paired cues without affecting their ability to bias action selection.

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Ostlund, Sean B; Maidment, Nigel T

2012-01-01

Environmental cues affect our behavior in a variety of ways. Despite playing an invaluable role in guiding our daily activities, such cues also appear to trigger the harmful, compulsive behaviors that characterize addiction and other disorders of behavioral control. In instrumental conditioning, rewards and reward-paired cues bias action selection and invigorate reward-seeking behaviors, and appear to do so through distinct neurobehavioral processes. Although reward-paired cues are known to invigorate performance through a dopamine-dependent incentive motivational process, it is not known if dopamine also mediates the influence of rewards and reward-paired cues over action selection. The current study contrasted the effects of systemic administration of the nonspecific dopamine receptor antagonist flupentixol on response invigoration and action bias in Pavlovian-instrumental transfer, a test of cue-elicited responding, and in instrumental reinstatement, a test of noncontingent reward-elicited responding. Hungry rats were trained on two different stimulus-outcome relationships (eg, tone-grain pellets and noise-sucrose solution) and two different action-outcome relationships (eg, left press-grain and right press-sucrose). At test, we found that flupentixol pretreatment blocked the response invigoration generated by the cues but spared their ability to bias action selection to favor the action whose outcome was signaled by the cue being presented. The response-biasing influence of noncontingent reward deliveries was also unaffected by flupentixol. Interestingly, although flupentixol had a modest effect on the immediate response invigoration produced by those rewards, it was particularly potent in countering the lingering enhancement of responding produced by multiple reward deliveries. These findings indicate that dopamine mediates the general incentive motivational effects of noncontingent rewards and reward-paired cues but does not support their ability to bias

From prediction error to incentive salience: mesolimbic computation of reward motivation

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Berridge, Kent C.

2011-01-01

Reward contains separable psychological components of learning, incentive motivation and pleasure. Most computational models have focused only on the learning component of reward, but the motivational component is equally important in reward circuitry, and even more directly controls behavior. Modeling the motivational component requires recognition of additional control factors besides learning. Here I will discuss how mesocorticolimbic mechanisms generate the motivation component of incentive salience. Incentive salience takes Pavlovian learning and memory as one input and as an equally important input takes neurobiological state factors (e.g., drug states, appetite states, satiety states) that can vary independently of learning. Neurobiological state changes can produce unlearned fluctuations or even reversals in the ability of a previously-learned reward cue to trigger motivation. Such fluctuations in cue-triggered motivation can dramatically depart from all previously learned values about the associated reward outcome. Thus a consequence of the difference between incentive salience and learning can be to decouple cue-triggered motivation of the moment from previously learned values of how good the associated reward has been in the past. Another consequence can be to produce irrationally strong motivation urges that are not justified by any memories of previous reward values (and without distorting associative predictions of future reward value). Such irrationally strong motivation may be especially problematic in addiction. To comprehend these phenomena, future models of mesocorticolimbic reward function should address the neurobiological state factors that participate to control generation of incentive salience. PMID:22487042

Global cue inconsistency diminishes learning of cue validity

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Tony Wang

2016-11-01

Full Text Available We present a novel two-stage probabilistic learning task that examines the participants’ ability to learn and utilize valid cues across several levels of probabilistic feedback. In the first stage, participants sample from one of three cues that gives predictive information about the outcome of the second stage. Participants are rewarded for correct prediction of the outcome in stage two. Only one of the three cues gives valid predictive information and thus participants can maximise their reward by learning to sample from the valid cue. The validity of this predictive information, however, is reinforced across several levels of probabilistic feedback. A second manipulation involved changing the consistency of the predictive information in stage one and the outcome in stage two. The results show that participants, with higher probabilistic feedback, learned to utilise the valid cue. In inconsistent task conditions, however, participants were significantly less successful in utilising higher validity cues. We interpret this result as implying that learning in probabilistic categorization is based on developing a representation of the task that allows for goal-directed action.

Continuous, but not intermittent, antipsychotic drug delivery intensifies the pursuit of reward cues.

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Bédard, Anne-Marie; Maheux, Jérôme; Lévesque, Daniel; Samaha, Anne-Noël

2011-05-01

Chronic exposure to antipsychotic medications can persistently change brain dopamine systems. Most studies on the functional significance of these neural changes have focused on motor behavior and few have addressed how long-term antipsychotic treatment might influence dopamine-mediated reward function. We asked, therefore, whether a clinically relevant antipsychotic treatment regimen would alter the incentive motivational properties of a reward cue. We assessed the ability of a Pavlovian-conditioned stimulus to function as a conditioned reward, as well as to elicit approach behavior in rats treated with haloperidol, either continuously (achieved via subcutaneous osmotic minipump) or intermittently (achieved via daily subcutaneous injections). Continuous, but not intermittent, treatment enhanced the ability of amphetamine to potentiate the conditioned reinforcing effects of a cue associated with water. This effect was not related to differences in the ability to attribute predictive value to a conditioned stimulus (as measured by conditioned approach behavior), but was potentially linked to the development of behavioral supersensitivity to amphetamine and to augmented amphetamine-induced immediate early-gene expression (c-fos and Nur77) in dorsal striatopallidal and striatonigral cells. By enhancing the ability of reward cues to control behavior and by intensifying dopamine-mediated striatopallidal and striatonigral cell activity, standard (ie, continuous) antipsychotic treatment regimens might exacerbate drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior in schizophrenia. Achieving regular but transiently high antipsychotic levels in the brain (as modeled in the intermittent condition) might be a viable option to prevent these changes. This possibility should be explored in the clinic.

From prediction error to incentive salience: mesolimbic computation of reward motivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Berridge, Kent C

2012-04-01

Reward contains separable psychological components of learning, incentive motivation and pleasure. Most computational models have focused only on the learning component of reward, but the motivational component is equally important in reward circuitry, and even more directly controls behavior. Modeling the motivational component requires recognition of additional control factors besides learning. Here I discuss how mesocorticolimbic mechanisms generate the motivation component of incentive salience. Incentive salience takes Pavlovian learning and memory as one input and as an equally important input takes neurobiological state factors (e.g. drug states, appetite states, satiety states) that can vary independently of learning. Neurobiological state changes can produce unlearned fluctuations or even reversals in the ability of a previously learned reward cue to trigger motivation. Such fluctuations in cue-triggered motivation can dramatically depart from all previously learned values about the associated reward outcome. Thus, one consequence of the difference between incentive salience and learning can be to decouple cue-triggered motivation of the moment from previously learned values of how good the associated reward has been in the past. Another consequence can be to produce irrationally strong motivation urges that are not justified by any memories of previous reward values (and without distorting associative predictions of future reward value). Such irrationally strong motivation may be especially problematic in addiction. To understand these phenomena, future models of mesocorticolimbic reward function should address the neurobiological state factors that participate to control generation of incentive salience. © 2012 The Author. European Journal of Neuroscience © 2012 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Reward dependence moderates smoking-cue- and stress-induced cigarette cravings.

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Michalowski, Alexandra; Erblich, Joel

2014-12-01

Cigarette cravings following exposure to smoking cues in a smoker's environment are thought to play an important role in cessation failure. The possibility that dispositional factors may impact cue-induced cravings, though intriguing, has received little attention. According to Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Theory, factors such as reward dependence (RD), harm avoidance (HA), and novelty seeking (NS) may figure prominently in risk for addiction, as well as relapse, in individuals attempting to abstain from drug and alcohol use. Particularly interesting in this regard is the possibility that smokers with higher levels of RD, who are especially sensitive to reward signals, will have heightened craving reactions to smoking cues. To that end, non-treatment-seeking nicotine dependent smokers (n=96, mean age=41.1, 47% African American, 17% Caucasian, 22% Hispanic, 19.3cigs/day, FTND=7.5) underwent a classic experimental cue-induction, during which they were exposed to imagery of: (1) smoking, (2) neutral, and (3) stress cues, and reported their cigarette cravings (0-100) before and after each exposure. Participants also completed the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. Not surprisingly, smoking and stress cues (but not neutral cues) elicited significant elevations in craving (p'scues (pcues (pcues. Furthermore, the similar effects of RD on stress-induced craving suggest that both cue-and stress-induced cravings may be influenced by a common underlying disposition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reward positivity: Reward prediction error or salience prediction error?

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Heydari, Sepideh; Holroyd, Clay B

2016-08-01

The reward positivity is a component of the human ERP elicited by feedback stimuli in trial-and-error learning and guessing tasks. A prominent theory holds that the reward positivity reflects a reward prediction error signal that is sensitive to outcome valence, being larger for unexpected positive events relative to unexpected negative events (Holroyd & Coles, 2002). Although the theory has found substantial empirical support, most of these studies have utilized either monetary or performance feedback to test the hypothesis. However, in apparent contradiction to the theory, a recent study found that unexpected physical punishments also elicit the reward positivity (Talmi, Atkinson, & El-Deredy, 2013). The authors of this report argued that the reward positivity reflects a salience prediction error rather than a reward prediction error. To investigate this finding further, in the present study participants navigated a virtual T maze and received feedback on each trial under two conditions. In a reward condition, the feedback indicated that they would either receive a monetary reward or not and in a punishment condition the feedback indicated that they would receive a small shock or not. We found that the feedback stimuli elicited a typical reward positivity in the reward condition and an apparently delayed reward positivity in the punishment condition. Importantly, this signal was more positive to the stimuli that predicted the omission of a possible punishment relative to stimuli that predicted a forthcoming punishment, which is inconsistent with the salience hypothesis. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Visual Sexual Stimuli-Cue or Reward? A Perspective for Interpreting Brain Imaging Findings on Human Sexual Behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Gola, Mateusz; Wordecha, Małgorzata; Marchewka, Artur; Sescousse, Guillaume

2016-01-01

There is an increasing number of neuroimaging studies using visual sexual stimuli (VSS), especially within the emerging field of research on compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB). A central question in this field is whether behaviors such as excessive pornography consumption share common brain mechanisms with widely studied substance and behavioral addictions. Depending on how VSS are conceptualized, different predictions can be formulated within the frameworks of Reinforcement Learning or Incentive Salience Theory, where a crucial distinction is made between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (related to reward anticipation vs. reward consumption, respectively). Surveying 40 recent human neuroimaging studies we show existing ambiguity about the conceptualization of VSS. Therefore, we feel that it is important to address the question of whether VSS should be considered as conditioned stimuli (cue) or unconditioned stimuli (reward). Here we present our own perspective, which is that in most laboratory settings VSS play a role of reward, as evidenced by: (1) experience of pleasure while watching VSS, possibly accompanied by genital reaction; (2) reward-related brain activity correlated with these pleasurable feelings in response to VSS; (3) a willingness to exert effort to view VSS similarly as for other rewarding stimuli such as money; and (4) conditioning for cues predictive of VSS. We hope that this perspective article will initiate a scientific discussion on this important and overlooked topic and increase attention for appropriate interpretations of results of human neuroimaging studies using VSS.

Visual Sexual Stimuli—Cue or Reward? A Perspective for Interpreting Brain Imaging Findings on Human Sexual Behaviors

Science.gov (United States)

Gola, Mateusz; Wordecha, Małgorzata; Marchewka, Artur; Sescousse, Guillaume

2016-01-01

There is an increasing number of neuroimaging studies using visual sexual stimuli (VSS), especially within the emerging field of research on compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB). A central question in this field is whether behaviors such as excessive pornography consumption share common brain mechanisms with widely studied substance and behavioral addictions. Depending on how VSS are conceptualized, different predictions can be formulated within the frameworks of Reinforcement Learning or Incentive Salience Theory, where a crucial distinction is made between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (related to reward anticipation vs. reward consumption, respectively). Surveying 40 recent human neuroimaging studies we show existing ambiguity about the conceptualization of VSS. Therefore, we feel that it is important to address the question of whether VSS should be considered as conditioned stimuli (cue) or unconditioned stimuli (reward). Here we present our own perspective, which is that in most laboratory settings VSS play a role of reward, as evidenced by: (1) experience of pleasure while watching VSS, possibly accompanied by genital reaction; (2) reward-related brain activity correlated with these pleasurable feelings in response to VSS; (3) a willingness to exert effort to view VSS similarly as for other rewarding stimuli such as money; and (4) conditioning for cues predictive of VSS. We hope that this perspective article will initiate a scientific discussion on this important and overlooked topic and increase attention for appropriate interpretations of results of human neuroimaging studies using VSS. PMID:27574507

Ventromedial Frontal Cortex Is Critical for Guiding Attention to Reward-Predictive Visual Features in Humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaidya, Avinash R; Fellows, Lesley K

2015-09-16

Adaptively interacting with our environment requires extracting information that will allow us to successfully predict reward. This can be a challenge, particularly when there are many candidate cues, and when rewards are probabilistic. Recent work has demonstrated that visual attention is allocated to stimulus features that have been associated with reward on previous trials. The ventromedial frontal lobe (VMF) has been implicated in learning in dynamic environments of this kind, but the mechanism by which this region influences this process is not clear. Here, we hypothesized that the VMF plays a critical role in guiding attention to reward-predictive stimulus features based on feedback. We tested the effects of VMF damage in human subjects on a visual search task in which subjects were primed to attend to task-irrelevant colors associated with different levels of reward, incidental to the search task. Consistent with previous work, we found that distractors had a greater influence on reaction time when they appeared in colors associated with high reward in the previous trial compared with colors associated with low reward in healthy control subjects and patients with prefrontal damage sparing the VMF. However, this reward modulation of attentional priming was absent in patients with VMF damage. Thus, an intact VMF is necessary for directing attention based on experience with cue-reward associations. We suggest that this region plays a role in selecting reward-predictive cues to facilitate future learning. There has been a swell of interest recently in the ventromedial frontal cortex (VMF), a brain region critical to associative learning. However, the underlying mechanism by which this region guides learning is not well understood. Here, we tested the effects of damage to this region in humans on a task in which rewards were linked incidentally to visual features, resulting in trial-by-trial attentional priming. Controls and subjects with prefrontal damage

Evidence for a shared representation of sequential cues that engage sign-tracking.

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Smedley, Elizabeth B; Smith, Kyle S

2018-06-19

Sign-tracking is a phenomenon whereby cues that predict rewards come to acquire their own motivational value (incentive salience) and attract appetitive behavior. Typically, sign-tracking paradigms have used single auditory, visual, or lever cues presented prior to a reward delivery. Yet, real world examples of events often can be predicted by a sequence of cues. We have shown that animals will sign-track to multiple cues presented in temporal sequence, and with time develop a bias in responding toward a reward distal cue over a reward proximal cue. Further, extinction of responding to the reward proximal cue directly decreases responding to the reward distal cue. One possible explanation of this result is that serial cues become representationally linked with one another. Here we provide further support of this by showing that extinction of responding to a reward distal cue directly reduces responding to a reward proximal cue. We suggest that the incentive salience of one cue can influence the incentive salience of the other cue. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Nucleus accumbens corticotropin-releasing factor increases cue-triggered motivation for sucrose reward: paradoxical positive incentive effects in stress?

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Peciña, Susana; Schulkin, Jay; Berridge, Kent C

2006-04-13

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is typically considered to mediate aversive aspects of stress, fear and anxiety. However, CRF release in the brain is also elicited by natural rewards and incentive cues, raising the possibility that some CRF systems in the brain mediate an independent function of positive incentive motivation, such as amplifying incentive salience. Here we asked whether activation of a limbic CRF subsystem magnifies the increase in positive motivation for reward elicited by incentive cues previously associated with that reward, in a way that might exacerbate cue-triggered binge pursuit of food or other incentives? We assessed the impact of CRF microinjections into the medial shell of nucleus accumbens using a pure incentive version of Pavlovian-Instrumental transfer, a measure specifically sensitive to the incentive salience of reward cues (which it separates from influences of aversive stress, stress reduction, frustration and other traditional explanations for stress-increased behavior). Rats were first trained to press one of two levers to obtain sucrose pellets, and then separately conditioned to associate a Pavlovian cue with free sucrose pellets. On test days, rats received microinjections of vehicle, CRF (250 or 500 ng/0.2 microl) or amphetamine (20 microg/0.2 microl). Lever pressing was assessed in the presence or absence of the Pavlovian cues during a half-hour test. Microinjections of the highest dose of CRF (500 ng) or amphetamine (20 microg) selectively enhanced the ability of Pavlovian reward cues to trigger phasic peaks of increased instrumental performance for a sucrose reward, each peak lasting a minute or so before decaying after the cue. Lever pressing was not enhanced by CRF microinjections in the baseline absence of the Pavlovian cue or during the presentation without a cue, showing that the CRF enhancement could not be explained as a result of generalized motor arousal, frustration or stress, or by persistent attempts to

Mindfulness meditation modulates reward prediction errors in the striatum in a passive conditioning task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulrich eKirk

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Reinforcement learning models have demonstrated that phasic activity of dopamine neurons during reward expectation encodes information about the predictability of rewards and cues that predict reward. Evidence indicates that mindfulness-based approaches reduce reward anticipation signal in the striatum to negative and positive incentives suggesting the hypothesis that such training influence basic reward processing. Using a passive conditioning task and fMRI in a group of experienced mindfulness meditators and age-matched controls, we tested the hypothesis that mindfulness meditation influence reward and reward prediction error signals. We found diminished positive and negative prediction error-related blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD responses in the putamen in meditators compared with controls. In the meditators, this decrease in striatal BOLD responses to reward prediction was paralleled by increased activity in posterior insula, a primary interoceptive region. Critically, responses in the putamen during early trials of the conditioning procedure (run 1 were elevated in both meditators and controls. These results provide evidence that experienced mindfulness meditators show attenuated reward prediction signals to valenced stimuli, which may be related to interoceptive processes encoded in the posterior insula.

Environmental manipulations alter age differences in attribution of incentive salience to reward-paired cues.

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Anderson, Rachel I; Bush, Peter C; Spear, Linda P

2013-11-15

Cues repeatedly paired with rewards often themselves become imbued with enhanced motivational value, or incentive salience. During Pavlovian conditioned approach procedures, a cue repeatedly preceding reward delivery often elicits conditioned responses at either the reward delivery location ("goal-tracking") or the cue itself ("sign-tracking"). Sign-tracking behavior is thought to reflect the individual differences in attribution of incentive salience to reward-paired cues that may contribute to addiction vulnerability. Adolescent rats typically demonstrate less sign-tracking behavior than adult rats, a surprising finding given that adolescence is hypothesized to be a time of heightened addiction vulnerability. Given evidence that adult sign-tracking behavior can be influenced by environmental conditions, the present study compared the effects of isolate housing and food deprivation on expression of sign-tacking and goal-tracking behavior in adolescent and adult male rats across eight days of a Pavlovian conditioned approach procedure. Pair-housed adults exhibited more sign-tracking behavior than pair-housed adolescents; however, this age difference was not apparent in isolate-housed subjects. Adolescents often appeared more sensitive than adults to both food restriction- and isolate housing-induced changes in behavior, with food restriction promoting an increase in sign-tracking among isolate-housed adolescents and an increase in goal-tracking among pair-housed adolescents. For adults, food restriction resulted in a modest increase in overall expression of both sign- and goal-tracking behavior. To the extent that sign-tracking behavior reflects attribution of incentive salience to reward-paired cues, results from the present study provide evidence that reactivity to rewards during adolescence is strongly related to the nature of the surrounding environment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Incidental rewarding cues influence economic decision-making in obesity

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Jakob eSimmank

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Recent research suggests that obesity is linked to prominent alterations in learning and decision-making. This general difference may also underlie the preference for immediately consumable, highly palatable but unhealthy and high-calorie foods. Such poor food-related inter-temporal decision-making can explain weight gain; however, it is not yet clear whether this deficit can be generalized to other domains of inter-temporal decision-making, for example financial decisions. Further, little is known about the stability of decision-making behavior in obesity, especially in the presence of rewarding cues. To answer these questions, obese and lean participants (n=52 completed two sessions of a novel priming paradigm including a computerized monetary delay discounting task. In the first session, general differences between groups in financial delay discounting were measured. In the second session, we tested the general stability of discounting rates. Additionally, participants were primed by affective visual cues of different contextual categories before the financial decision. We found that the obese group showed stronger discounting of future monetary rewards than the lean group, but groups did not differ in their general stability between sessions nor in their sensitivity towards changes in reward magnitude. In the obese group, a fast decrease of subjective value over time was directly related to a higher tendency for opportunistic eating. Obese in contrast to lean people were primed by the affective cues, showing a sex-specific pattern of priming direction. Our findings demonstrate that environments rich of cues, aiming at inducing unhealthy consumer decisions, can be highly detrimental for obese people. It also underscores that obesity is not merely a medical condition but has a strong cognitive component, meaning that current dietary and medical treatment strategies may fall too short.

Nucleus accumbens corticotropin-releasing factor increases cue-triggered motivation for sucrose reward: paradoxical positive incentive effects in stress?

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Schulkin Jay

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF is typically considered to mediate aversive aspects of stress, fear and anxiety. However, CRF release in the brain is also elicited by natural rewards and incentive cues, raising the possibility that some CRF systems in the brain mediate an independent function of positive incentive motivation, such as amplifying incentive salience. Here we asked whether activation of a limbic CRF subsystem magnifies the increase in positive motivation for reward elicited by incentive cues previously associated with that reward, in a way that might exacerbate cue-triggered binge pursuit of food or other incentives? We assessed the impact of CRF microinjections into the medial shell of nucleus accumbens using a pure incentive version of Pavlovian-Instrumental transfer, a measure specifically sensitive to the incentive salience of reward cues (which it separates from influences of aversive stress, stress reduction, frustration and other traditional explanations for stress-increased behavior. Rats were first trained to press one of two levers to obtain sucrose pellets, and then separately conditioned to associate a Pavlovian cue with free sucrose pellets. On test days, rats received microinjections of vehicle, CRF (250 or 500 ng/0.2 μl or amphetamine (20 μg/0.2 μl. Lever pressing was assessed in the presence or absence of the Pavlovian cues during a half-hour test. Results Microinjections of the highest dose of CRF (500 ng or amphetamine (20 μg selectively enhanced the ability of Pavlovian reward cues to trigger phasic peaks of increased instrumental performance for a sucrose reward, each peak lasting a minute or so before decaying after the cue. Lever pressing was not enhanced by CRF microinjections in the baseline absence of the Pavlovian cue or during the presentation without a cue, showing that the CRF enhancement could not be explained as a result of generalized motor arousal, frustration or stress

Dopamine reward prediction error coding.

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Schultz, Wolfram

2016-03-01

Reward prediction errors consist of the differences between received and predicted rewards. They are crucial for basic forms of learning about rewards and make us strive for more rewards-an evolutionary beneficial trait. Most dopamine neurons in the midbrain of humans, monkeys, and rodents signal a reward prediction error; they are activated by more reward than predicted (positive prediction error), remain at baseline activity for fully predicted rewards, and show depressed activity with less reward than predicted (negative prediction error). The dopamine signal increases nonlinearly with reward value and codes formal economic utility. Drugs of addiction generate, hijack, and amplify the dopamine reward signal and induce exaggerated, uncontrolled dopamine effects on neuronal plasticity. The striatum, amygdala, and frontal cortex also show reward prediction error coding, but only in subpopulations of neurons. Thus, the important concept of reward prediction errors is implemented in neuronal hardware.

Dopamine D2/3- and μ-opioid receptor antagonists reduce cue-induced responding and reward impulsivity in humans.

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Weber, S C; Beck-Schimmer, B; Kajdi, M-E; Müller, D; Tobler, P N; Quednow, B B

2016-07-05

Increased responding to drug-associated stimuli (cue reactivity) and an inability to tolerate delayed gratification (reward impulsivity) have been implicated in the development and maintenance of drug addiction. Whereas data from animal studies suggest that both the dopamine and opioid system are involved in these two reward-related processes, their role in humans is less clear. Moreover, dopaminergic and opioidergic drugs have not been directly compared with regard to these functions, even though a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms might inform the development of specific treatments for elevated cue reactivity and reward impulsivity. In a randomized, double-blind, between-subject design we administered the selective dopamine D2/D3 receptor antagonist amisulpride (400 mg, n=41), the unspecific opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone (50 mg, n=40) or placebo (n=40) to healthy humans and measured cue-induced responding with a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer task and reward impulsivity with a delay discounting task. Mood was assessed using a visual analogue scale. Compared with placebo, amisulpride significantly suppressed cue-induced responding and reward impulsivity. The effects of naltrexone were similar, although less pronounced. Both amisulpride and naltrexone decreased average mood ratings compared with placebo. Our results demonstrate that a selective blockade of dopamine D2/D3 receptors reduces cue-induced responding and reward impulsivity in healthy humans. Antagonizing μ-opioid receptors has similar effects for cue-induced responding and to a lesser extent for reward impulsivity.

Dopamine reward prediction error coding

OpenAIRE

Schultz, Wolfram

2016-01-01

Reward prediction errors consist of the differences between received and predicted rewards. They are crucial for basic forms of learning about rewards and make us strive for more rewards?an evolutionary beneficial trait. Most dopamine neurons in the midbrain of humans, monkeys, and rodents signal a reward prediction error; they are activated by more reward than predicted (positive prediction error), remain at baseline activity for fully predicted rewards, and show depressed activity with less...

Ethanol Exposure History and Alcoholic Reward Differentially Alter Dopamine Release in the Nucleus Accumbens to a Reward-Predictive Cue.

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Fiorenza, Amanda M; Shnitko, Tatiana A; Sullivan, Kaitlin M; Vemuru, Sudheer R; Gomez-A, Alexander; Esaki, Julie Y; Boettiger, Charlotte A; Da Cunha, Claudio; Robinson, Donita L

2018-06-01

Conditioned stimuli (CS) that predict reward delivery acquire the ability to induce phasic dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). This dopamine release may facilitate conditioned approach behavior, which often manifests as approach to the site of reward delivery (called "goal-tracking") or to the CS itself (called "sign-tracking"). Previous research has linked sign-tracking in particular to impulsivity and drug self-administration, and addictive drugs may promote the expression of sign-tracking. Ethanol (EtOH) acutely promotes phasic release of dopamine in the accumbens, but it is unknown whether an alcoholic reward alters dopamine release to a CS. We hypothesized that Pavlovian conditioning with an alcoholic reward would increase dopamine release triggered by the CS and subsequent sign-tracking behavior. Moreover, we predicted that chronic intermittent EtOH (CIE) exposure would promote sign-tracking while acute administration of naltrexone (NTX) would reduce it. Rats received 14 doses of EtOH (3 to 5 g/kg, intragastric) or water followed by 6 days of Pavlovian conditioning training. Rewards were a chocolate solution with or without 10% (w/v) alcohol. We used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to measure phasic dopamine release in the NAc core in response to the CS and the rewards. We also determined the effect of NTX (1 mg/kg, subcutaneous) on conditioned approach. Both CIE and alcoholic reward, individually but not together, associated with greater dopamine to the CS than control conditions. However, this increase in dopamine release was not linked to greater sign-tracking, as both CIE and alcoholic reward shifted conditioned approach from sign-tracking behavior to goal-tracking behavior. However, they both also increased sensitivity to NTX, which reduced goal-tracking behavior. While a history of EtOH exposure or alcoholic reward enhanced dopamine release to a CS, they did not promote sign-tracking under the current conditions. These findings are

Incidental rewarding cues influence economic decisions in people with obesity

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Simmank, Jakob; Murawski, Carsten; Bode, Stefan; Horstmann, Annette

2015-01-01

Recent research suggests that obesity is linked to prominent alterations in learning and decision-making. This general difference may also underlie the preference for immediately consumable, highly palatable but unhealthy and high-calorie foods. Such poor food-related inter-temporal decision-making can explain weight gain; however, it is not yet clear whether this deficit can be generalized to other domains of inter-temporal decision-making, for example financial decisions. Further, little is known about the stability of decision-making behavior in obesity, especially in the presence of rewarding cues. To answer these questions, obese and lean participants (n = 52) completed two sessions of a novel priming paradigm including a computerized monetary delay discounting task. In the first session, general differences between groups in financial delay discounting were measured. In the second session, we tested the general stability of discount rates. Additionally, participants were primed by affective visual cues of different contextual categories before making financial decisions. We found that the obese group showed stronger discounting of future monetary rewards than the lean group, but groups did not differ in their general stability between sessions nor in their sensitivity toward changes in reward magnitude. In the obese group, a fast decrease of subjective value over time was directly related to a higher tendency for opportunistic eating. Obese in contrast to lean people were primed by the affective cues, showing a sex-specific pattern of priming direction. Our findings demonstrate that environments rich of cues, aiming at inducing unhealthy consumer decisions, can be highly detrimental for obese people. It also underscores that obesity is not merely a medical condition but has a strong cognitive component, meaning that current dietary and medical treatment strategies may fall too short. PMID:26528158

Abnormal Striatal BOLD Responses to Reward Anticipation and Reward Delivery in ADHD

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Furukawa, Emi; Bado, Patricia; Tripp, Gail; Mattos, Paulo; Wickens, Jeff R.; Bramati, Ivanei E.; Alsop, Brent; Ferreira, Fernanda Meireles; Lima, Debora; Tovar-Moll, Fernanda; Sergeant, Joseph A.; Moll, Jorge

2014-01-01

Altered reward processing has been proposed to contribute to the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The neurobiological mechanism underlying this alteration remains unclear. We hypothesize that the transfer of dopamine release from reward to reward-predicting cues, as normally observed in animal studies, may be deficient in ADHD. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate striatal responses to reward-predicting cues and reward delivery in a classical conditioning paradigm. Data from 14 high-functioning and stimulant-naïve young adults with elevated lifetime symptoms of ADHD (8 males, 6 females) and 15 well-matched controls (8 males, 7 females) were included in the analyses. During reward anticipation, increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses in the right ventral and left dorsal striatum were observed in controls, but not in the ADHD group. The opposite pattern was observed in response to reward delivery; the ADHD group demonstrated significantly greater BOLD responses in the ventral striatum bilaterally and the left dorsal striatum relative to controls. In the ADHD group, the number of current hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms was inversely related to ventral striatal responses during reward anticipation and positively associated with responses to reward. The BOLD response patterns observed in the striatum are consistent with impaired predictive dopamine signaling in ADHD, which may explain altered reward-contingent behaviors and symptoms of ADHD. PMID:24586543

Amphetamine-induced sensitization and reward uncertainty similarly enhance incentive salience for conditioned cues

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Robinson, Mike J.F.; Anselme, Patrick; Suchomel, Kristen; Berridge, Kent C.

2015-01-01

Amphetamine and stress can sensitize mesolimbic dopamine-related systems. In Pavlovian autoshaping, repeated exposure to uncertainty of reward prediction can enhance motivated sign-tracking or attraction to a discrete reward-predicting cue (lever CS+), as well as produce cross-sensitization to amphetamine. However, it remains unknown how amphetamine-sensitization or repeated restraint stress interact with uncertainty in controlling CS+ incentive salience attribution reflected in sign-tracking. Here rats were tested in three successive phases. First, different groups underwent either induction of amphetamine sensitization or repeated restraint stress, or else were not sensitized or stressed as control groups (either saline injections only, or no stress or injection at all). All next received Pavlovian autoshaping training under either certainty conditions (100% CS-UCS association) or uncertainty conditions (50% CS-UCS association and uncertain reward magnitude). During training, rats were assessed for sign-tracking to the lever CS+ versus goal-tracking to the sucrose dish. Finally, all groups were tested for psychomotor sensitization of locomotion revealed by an amphetamine challenge. Our results confirm that reward uncertainty enhanced sign-tracking attraction toward the predictive CS+ lever, at the expense of goal-tracking. We also report that amphetamine sensitization promoted sign-tracking even in rats trained under CS-UCS certainty conditions, raising them to sign-tracking levels equivalent to the uncertainty group. Combining amphetamine sensitization and uncertainty conditions together did not add together to elevate sign-tracking further above the relatively high levels induced by either manipulation alone. In contrast, repeated restraint stress enhanced subsequent amphetamine-elicited locomotion, but did not enhance CS+ attraction. PMID:26076340

Morphine Reward Promotes Cue-Sensitive Learning: Implication of Dorsal Striatal CREB Activity

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Mathieu Baudonnat

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Different parallel neural circuits interact and may even compete to process and store information: whereas stimulus–response (S–R learning critically depends on the dorsal striatum (DS, spatial memory relies on the hippocampus (HPC. Strikingly, despite its potential importance for our understanding of addictive behaviors, the impact of drug rewards on memory systems dynamics has not been extensively studied. Here, we assessed long-term effects of drug- vs food reinforcement on the subsequent use of S–R vs spatial learning strategies and their neural substrates. Mice were trained in a Y-maze cue-guided task, during which either food or morphine injections into the ventral tegmental area (VTA were used as rewards. Although drug- and food-reinforced mice learned the Y-maze task equally well, drug-reinforced mice exhibited a preferential use of an S–R learning strategy when tested in a water-maze competition task designed to dissociate cue-based and spatial learning. This cognitive bias was associated with a persistent increase in the phosphorylated form of cAMP response element-binding protein phosphorylation (pCREB within the DS, and a decrease of pCREB expression in the HPC. Pharmacological inhibition of striatal PKA pathway in drug-rewarded mice limited the morphine-induced increase in levels of pCREB in DS and restored a balanced use of spatial vs cue-based learning. Our findings suggest that drug (opiate reward biases the engagement of separate memory systems toward a predominant use of the cue-dependent system via an increase in learning-related striatal pCREB activity. Persistent functional imbalance between striatal and hippocampal activity could contribute to the persistence of addictive behaviors, or counteract the efficiency of pharmacological or psychotherapeutic treatments.

Reward contingencies and the recalibration of task monitoring and reward systems: a high-density electrical mapping study.

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Morie, K P; De Sanctis, P; Foxe, J J

2014-07-25

Task execution almost always occurs in the context of reward-seeking or punishment-avoiding behavior. As such, ongoing task-monitoring systems are influenced by reward anticipation systems. In turn, when a task has been executed either successfully or unsuccessfully, future iterations of that task will be re-titrated on the basis of the task outcome. Here, we examined the neural underpinnings of the task-monitoring and reward-evaluation systems to better understand how they govern reward-seeking behavior. Twenty-three healthy adult participants performed a task where they accrued points that equated to real world value (gift cards) by responding as rapidly as possible within an allotted timeframe, while success rate was titrated online by changing the duration of the timeframe dependent on participant performance. Informative cues initiated each trial, indicating the probability of potential reward or loss (four levels from very low to very high). We manipulated feedback by first informing participants of task success/failure, after which a second feedback signal indicated actual magnitude of reward/loss. High-density electroencephalography (EEG) recordings allowed for examination of event-related potentials (ERPs) to the informative cues and in turn, to both feedback signals. Distinct ERP components associated with reward cues, task-preparatory and task-monitoring processes, and reward feedback processes were identified. Unsurprisingly, participants displayed increased ERP amplitudes associated with task-preparatory processes following cues that predicted higher chances of reward. They also rapidly updated reward and loss prediction information dependent on task performance after the first feedback signal. Finally, upon reward receipt, initial reward probability was no longer taken into account. Rather, ERP measures suggested that only the magnitude of actual reward or loss was now processed. Reward and task-monitoring processes are clearly dissociable, but

Stingless bees (Melipona scutellaris) learn to associate footprint cues at food sources with a specific reward context.

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Roselino, Ana Carolina; Rodrigues, André Vieira; Hrncir, Michael

2016-10-01

Foraging insects leave chemical footprints on flowers that subsequent foragers may use as indicators for recent flower visits and, thus, potential resource depletion. Accordingly, foragers should reject food sources presenting these chemical cues. Contrasting this assumption, experimental studies in stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponini), so far, demonstrated an attractive effect of footprints. These findings lead to doubts about the meaning of these chemical cues in natural foraging contexts. Here, we asked whether foragers of stingless bees (Melipona scutellaris) use footprints according to the previously experienced reward level of visited food sources. Bees were trained to artificial flower patches, at which the reward of a flower either decreased or, alternatively, increased after a visit by a forager. Individuals were allowed a total of nine foraging bouts to the patch, after which their preference for visited or unvisited flowers was tested. In the choice tests, bees trained under the decreasing reward context preferred unvisited flowers, whereas individuals trained under the increasing reward context preferred visited flowers. Foragers without experience chose randomly between visited and unvisited flowers. These results demonstrate that M. scutellaris learns to associate unspecific footprint cues at food sources with differential, specific reward contexts, and uses these chemical cues accordingly for their foraging decisions.

Amphetamine-induced sensitization and reward uncertainty similarly enhance incentive salience for conditioned cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Mike J F; Anselme, Patrick; Suchomel, Kristen; Berridge, Kent C

2015-08-01

Amphetamine and stress can sensitize mesolimbic dopamine-related systems. In Pavlovian autoshaping, repeated exposure to uncertainty of reward prediction can enhance motivated sign-tracking or attraction to a discrete reward-predicting cue (lever-conditioned stimulus; CS+), as well as produce cross-sensitization to amphetamine. However, it remains unknown how amphetamine sensitization or repeated restraint stress interact with uncertainty in controlling CS+ incentive salience attribution reflected in sign-tracking. Here rats were tested in 3 successive phases. First, different groups underwent either induction of amphetamine sensitization or repeated restraint stress, or else were not sensitized or stressed as control groups (either saline injections only, or no stress or injection at all). All next received Pavlovian autoshaping training under either certainty conditions (100% CS-UCS association) or uncertainty conditions (50% CS-UCS association and uncertain reward magnitude). During training, rats were assessed for sign-tracking to the CS+ lever versus goal-tracking to the sucrose dish. Finally, all groups were tested for psychomotor sensitization of locomotion revealed by an amphetamine challenge. Our results confirm that reward uncertainty enhanced sign-tracking attraction toward the predictive CS+ lever, at the expense of goal-tracking. We also reported that amphetamine sensitization promoted sign-tracking even in rats trained under CS-UCS certainty conditions, raising them to sign-tracking levels equivalent to the uncertainty group. Combining amphetamine sensitization and uncertainty conditions did not add together to elevate sign-tracking further above the relatively high levels induced by either manipulation alone. In contrast, repeated restraint stress enhanced subsequent amphetamine-elicited locomotion, but did not enhance CS+ attraction. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Integration of reward signalling and appetite regulating peptide systems in the control of food-cue responses.

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Reichelt, A C; Westbrook, R F; Morris, M J

2015-11-01

Understanding the neurobiological substrates that encode learning about food-associated cues and how those signals are modulated is of great clinical importance especially in light of the worldwide obesity problem. Inappropriate or maladaptive responses to food-associated cues can promote over-consumption, leading to excessive energy intake and weight gain. Chronic exposure to foods rich in fat and sugar alters the reinforcing value of foods and weakens inhibitory neural control, triggering learned, but maladaptive, associations between environmental cues and food rewards. Thus, responses to food-associated cues can promote cravings and food-seeking by activating mesocorticolimbic dopamine neurocircuitry, and exert physiological effects including salivation. These responses may be analogous to the cravings experienced by abstaining drug addicts that can trigger relapse into drug self-administration. Preventing cue-triggered eating may therefore reduce the over-consumption seen in obesity and binge-eating disorder. In this review we discuss recent research examining how cues associated with palatable foods can promote reward-based feeding behaviours and the potential involvement of appetite-regulating peptides including leptin, ghrelin, orexin and melanin concentrating hormone. These peptide signals interface with mesolimbic dopaminergic regions including the ventral tegmental area to modulate reactivity to cues associated with palatable foods. Thus, a novel target for anti-obesity therapeutics is to reduce non-homeostatic, reward driven eating behaviour, which can be triggered by environmental cues associated with highly palatable, fat and sugar rich foods. © 2015 The British Pharmacological Society.

A food-predictive cue attributed with incentive salience engages subcortical afferents and efferents of the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus.

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Haight, Joshua L; Fuller, Zachary L; Fraser, Kurt M; Flagel, Shelly B

2017-01-06

The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) has been implicated in behavioral responses to reward-associated cues. However, the precise role of the PVT in these behaviors has been difficult to ascertain since Pavlovian-conditioned cues can act as both predictive and incentive stimuli. The "sign-tracker/goal-tracker" rat model has allowed us to further elucidate the role of the PVT in cue-motivated behaviors, identifying this structure as a critical component of the neural circuitry underlying individual variation in the propensity to attribute incentive salience to reward cues. The current study assessed differences in the engagement of specific PVT afferents and efferents in response to presentation of a food-cue that had been attributed with only predictive value or with both predictive and incentive value. The retrograde tracer fluorogold (FG) was injected into the PVT or the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of rats, and cue-induced c-Fos in FG-labeled cells was quantified. Presentation of a predictive stimulus that had been attributed with incentive value elicited c-Fos in PVT afferents from the lateral hypothalamus, medial amygdala (MeA), and the prelimbic cortex (PrL), as well as posterior PVT efferents to the NAc. PVT afferents from the PrL also showed elevated c-Fos levels following presentation of a predictive stimulus alone. Thus, presentation of an incentive stimulus results in engagement of subcortical brain regions; supporting a role for the hypothalamic-thalamic-striatal axis, as well as the MeA, in mediating responses to incentive stimuli; whereas activity in the PrL to PVT pathway appears to play a role in processing the predictive qualities of reward-paired stimuli. Copyright © 2016 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

'Proactive' use of cue-context congruence for building reinforcement learning's reward function.

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Zsuga, Judit; Biro, Klara; Tajti, Gabor; Szilasi, Magdolna Emma; Papp, Csaba; Juhasz, Bela; Gesztelyi, Rudolf

2016-10-28

Reinforcement learning is a fundamental form of learning that may be formalized using the Bellman equation. Accordingly an agent determines the state value as the sum of immediate reward and of the discounted value of future states. Thus the value of state is determined by agent related attributes (action set, policy, discount factor) and the agent's knowledge of the environment embodied by the reward function and hidden environmental factors given by the transition probability. The central objective of reinforcement learning is to solve these two functions outside the agent's control either using, or not using a model. In the present paper, using the proactive model of reinforcement learning we offer insight on how the brain creates simplified representations of the environment, and how these representations are organized to support the identification of relevant stimuli and action. Furthermore, we identify neurobiological correlates of our model by suggesting that the reward and policy functions, attributes of the Bellman equitation, are built by the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), respectively. Based on this we propose that the OFC assesses cue-context congruence to activate the most context frame. Furthermore given the bidirectional neuroanatomical link between the OFC and model-free structures, we suggest that model-based input is incorporated into the reward prediction error (RPE) signal, and conversely RPE signal may be used to update the reward-related information of context frames and the policy underlying action selection in the OFC and ACC, respectively. Furthermore clinical implications for cognitive behavioral interventions are discussed.

Dorsolateral neostriatum contribution to incentive salience: Opioid or dopamine stimulation makes one reward cue more motivationally attractive than another

OpenAIRE

DiFeliceantonio, Alexandra G.; Berridge, Kent C.

2016-01-01

Pavlovian cues for rewards can become attractive incentives: approached and ‘wanted’ as the rewards themselves. The motivational attractiveness of a previously learned cue is not fixed, but can be dynamically amplified during re-encounter by simultaneous activation of brain limbic circuitry. Here we report that opioid or dopamine microinjections in the dorsolateral quadrant of the neostriatum (DLS) of rats selectively amplify attraction toward a previously learned Pavlovian cue in an individu...

Differential Contributions of Nucleus Accumbens Subregions to Cue-Guided Risk/Reward Decision Making and Implementation of Conditional Rules.

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Floresco, Stan B; Montes, David R; Tse, Maric M T; van Holstein, Mieke

2018-02-21

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a key node within corticolimbic circuitry for guiding action selection and cost/benefit decision making in situations involving reward uncertainty. Preclinical studies have typically assessed risk/reward decision making using assays where decisions are guided by internally generated representations of choice-outcome contingencies. Yet, real-life decisions are often influenced by external stimuli that inform about likelihoods of obtaining rewards. How different subregions of the NAc mediate decision making in such situations is unclear. Here, we used a novel assay colloquially termed the "Blackjack" task that models these types of situations. Male Long-Evans rats were trained to choose between one lever that always delivered a one-pellet reward and another that delivered four pellets with different probabilities [either 50% (good-odds) or 12.5% (poor-odds)], which were signaled by one of two auditory cues. Under control conditions, rats selected the large/risky option more often on good-odds versus poor-odds trials. Inactivation of the NAc core caused indiscriminate choice patterns. In contrast, NAc shell inactivation increased risky choice, more prominently on poor-odds trials. Additional experiments revealed that both subregions contribute to auditory conditional discrimination. NAc core or shell inactivation reduced Pavlovian approach elicited by an auditory CS+, yet shell inactivation also increased responding during presentation of a CS-. These data highlight distinct contributions for NAc subregions in decision making and reward seeking guided by discriminative stimuli. The core is crucial for implementation of conditional rules, whereas the shell refines reward seeking by mitigating the allure of larger, unlikely rewards and reducing expression of inappropriate or non-rewarded actions. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Using external cues to guide decision making is crucial for adaptive behavior. Deficits in cue-guided behavior have been

Expected reward value and reward uncertainty have temporally dissociable effects on memory formation

OpenAIRE

Adcock, R; Clement, Nathaniel; Chiew, Kimberly; Dickerson, Kathryn; Stanek, Jessica

2018-01-01

Anticipating rewards has been shown to enhance memory formation. While substantial evidence implicates dopamine in this behavioral effect, the precise mechanisms remain ambiguous. Because dopamine nuclei show two distinct physiological signatures of reward prediction, we hypothesized two dissociable effects on memory formation. These two signatures are a phasic dopamine response immediately following a reward cue that encodes its expected value, and a sustained, ramping dopamine response that...

Individual differences in regulatory focus predict neural response to reward.

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Scult, Matthew A; Knodt, Annchen R; Hanson, Jamie L; Ryoo, Minyoung; Adcock, R Alison; Hariri, Ahmad R; Strauman, Timothy J

2017-08-01

Although goal pursuit is related to both functioning of the brain's reward circuits and psychological factors, the literatures surrounding these concepts have often been separate. Here, we use the psychological construct of regulatory focus to investigate individual differences in neural response to reward. Regulatory focus theory proposes two motivational orientations for personal goal pursuit: (1) promotion, associated with sensitivity to potential gain, and (2) prevention, associated with sensitivity to potential loss. The monetary incentive delay task was used to manipulate reward circuit function, along with instructional framing corresponding to promotion and prevention in a within-subject design. We observed that the more promotion oriented an individual was, the lower their ventral striatum response to gain cues. Follow-up analyses revealed that greater promotion orientation was associated with decreased ventral striatum response even to no-value cues, suggesting that promotion orientation may be associated with relatively hypoactive reward system function. The findings are also likely to represent an interaction between the cognitive and motivational characteristics of the promotion system with the task demands. Prevention orientation did not correlate with ventral striatum response to gain cues, supporting the discriminant validity of regulatory focus theory. The results highlight a dynamic association between individual differences in self-regulation and reward system function.

Neural correlates of water reward in thirsty Drosophila

OpenAIRE

Lin, Suewei; Owald, David; Chandra, Vikram; Talbot, Clifford; Huetteroth, Wolf; Waddell, Scott

2014-01-01

Drinking water is innately rewarding to thirsty animals. In addition, the consumed value can be assigned to behavioral actions and predictive sensory cues by associative learning. Here we show that thirst converts water avoidance into water-seeking in naive Drosophila melanogaster. Thirst also permitted flies to learn olfactory cues paired with water reward. Water learning required water taste and

How Performance-Contingent Reward Prospect Modulates Cognitive Control: Increased Cue Maintenance at the Cost of Decreased Flexibility

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Hefer, Carmen; Dreisbach, Gesine

2017-01-01

Growing evidence suggests that reward prospect promotes cognitive stability in terms of increased context or cue maintenance. In 3 Experiments, using different versions of the AX-continuous performance task, we investigated whether this reward effect comes at the cost of decreased cognitive flexibility. Experiment 1 shows that the reward induced…

The Role of Extrinsic Rewards and Cue-Intention Association in Prospective Memory in Young Children.

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Sheppard, Daniel Patrick; Kretschmer, Anett; Knispel, Elisa; Vollert, Bianka; Altgassen, Mareike

2015-01-01

The current study examined, for the first time, the effect of cue-intention association, as well as the effects of promised extrinsic rewards, on prospective memory in young children, aged 5-years-old (n = 39) and 7-years-old (n = 40). Children were asked to name pictures for a toy mole, whilst also having to remember to respond differently to certain target pictures (prospective memory task). The level to which the target picture was associated with the intention was manipulated across two conditions (low- or high-association) for all participants, whilst half of the participants were promised a reward for good prospective memory performance. Results showed a main effect of age, with the 7-year-olds outperforming the 5-year-olds. Furthermore, there was a main effect of reward, with those promised a reward performing better than those who were not. No effect was found for cue-association, with the participants of both age groups performing equally well in both association conditions. No significant interactions were found between any of the variables. The potentially important role of reward in young children's everyday prospective memory tasks, and possible reasons for the lack of a reflexive-associative effect, are discussed.

Decision Utility, Incentive Salience, and Cue-Triggered "Wanting"

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Berridge, Kent C; Aldridge, J Wayne

2009-01-01

This chapter examines brain mechanisms of reward utility operating at particular decision moments in life-moments such as when one encounters an image, sound, scent, or other cue associated in the past with a particular reward or perhaps just when one vividly imagines that cue. Such a cue can often trigger a sudden motivational urge to pursue its reward and sometimes a decision to do so. Drawing on a utility taxonomy that distinguishes among subtypes of reward utility-predicted utility, decision utility, experienced utility, and remembered utility-it is shown how cue-triggered cravings, such as an addict's surrender to relapse, can hang on special transformations by brain mesolimbic systems of one utility subtype, namely, decision utility. The chapter focuses on a particular form of decision utility called incentive salience, a type of "wanting" for rewards that is amplified by brain mesolimbic systems. Sudden peaks of intensity of incentive salience, caused by neurobiological mechanisms, can elevate the decision utility of a particular reward at the moment its cue occurs. An understanding of what happens at such moments leads to a better understanding of the mechanisms at work in decision making in general.

Prelude to passion: limbic activation by "unseen" drug and sexual cues.

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Anna Rose Childress

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The human brain responds to recognizable signals for sex and for rewarding drugs of abuse by activation of limbic reward circuitry. Does the brain respond in similar way to such reward signals even when they are "unseen", i.e., presented in a way that prevents their conscious recognition? Can the brain response to "unseen" reward cues predict the future affective response to recognizable versions of such cues, revealing a link between affective/motivational processes inside and outside awareness?We exploited the fast temporal resolution of event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to test the brain response to "unseen" (backward-masked cocaine, sexual, aversive and neutral cues of 33 milliseconds duration in male cocaine patients (n = 22. Two days after scanning, the affective valence for visible versions of each cue type was determined using an affective bias (priming task. We demonstrate, for the first time, limbic brain activation by "unseen" drug and sexual cues of only 33 msec duration. Importantly, increased activity in an large interconnected ventral pallidum/amygdala cluster to the "unseen" cocaine cues strongly predicted future positive affect to visible versions of the same cues in subsequent off-magnet testing, pointing both to the functional significance of the rapid brain response, and to shared brain substrates for appetitive motivation within and outside awareness.These findings represent the first evidence that brain reward circuitry responds to drug and sexual cues presented outside awareness. The results underscore the sensitivity of the brain to "unseen" reward signals and may represent the brain's primordial signature for desire. The limbic brain response to reward cues outside awareness may represent a potential vulnerability in disorders (e.g., the addictions for whom poorly-controlled appetitive motivation is a central feature.

Operant conditioning of rat navigation using electrical stimulation for directional cues and rewards.

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Lee, Maan-Gee; Jun, Gayoung; Choi, Hyo-Soon; Jang, Hwan Soo; Bae, Yong Chul; Suk, Kyoungho; Jang, Il-Sung; Choi, Byung-Ju

2010-07-01

Operant conditioning is often used to train a desired behavior in an animal. The contingency between a specific behavior and a reward is required for successful training. Here, we compared the effectiveness of two different mazes for training turning behaviors in response to directional cues in Sprague-Dawley rats. Forty-three rats were implanted with electrodes into the medial forebrain bundle and the left and right somatosensory cortices for reward and cues. Among them, thirteen rats discriminated between the left and right somatosensory stimulations to obtain rewards. They were trained to learn ipsilateral turning response to the stimulation of the left or right somatosensory cortex in either the T-maze (Group T) or the E| maze (Group W). Performance was measured by the navigation speed in the mazes. Performances of rats in Group T were enhanced faster than those in Group W. A significant correlation between performances during training and performance in final testing was observed in Group T starting with the fifth training session while such a correlation was not observed in Group W until the tenth training session. The training mazes did not however affect the performances in the final test. These results suggest that a simple maze is better than a complicated maze for training animals to learn directions and direct cortical stimulation can be used as a cue for direction training. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Temporal dynamics of reward anticipation in the human brain.

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Zhang, Yuanyuan; Li, Qi; Wang, Zhao; Liu, Xun; Zheng, Ya

2017-09-01

Reward anticipation is a complex process including cue evaluation, motor preparation, and feedback anticipation. The present study investigated whether these psychological processes were dissociable on neural dynamics in terms of incentive valence and approach motivation. We recorded EEG when participants were performing a monetary incentive delay task, and found a cue-P3 during the cue-evaluation stage, a contingent negative variation (CNV) during the motor-preparation stage, and a stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) during the feedback-anticipation stage. Critically, both the cue-P3 and SPN exhibited an enhanced sensitivity to gain versus loss anticipation, which was not observed for the CNV. Moreover, both the cue-P3 and SPN, instead of the CNV, for gain anticipation selectively predicted the participants' approach motivation as measured in a following effort expenditure for rewards task, particularly when reward uncertainty was maximal. Together, these results indicate that reward anticipation consists of several sub-stages, each with distinct functional significance, thus providing implications for neuropsychiatric diseases characterized by dysfunction in anticipatory reward processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A causal link between prediction errors, dopamine neurons and learning.

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Steinberg, Elizabeth E; Keiflin, Ronald; Boivin, Josiah R; Witten, Ilana B; Deisseroth, Karl; Janak, Patricia H

2013-07-01

Situations in which rewards are unexpectedly obtained or withheld represent opportunities for new learning. Often, this learning includes identifying cues that predict reward availability. Unexpected rewards strongly activate midbrain dopamine neurons. This phasic signal is proposed to support learning about antecedent cues by signaling discrepancies between actual and expected outcomes, termed a reward prediction error. However, it is unknown whether dopamine neuron prediction error signaling and cue-reward learning are causally linked. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated dopamine neuron activity in rats in two behavioral procedures, associative blocking and extinction, that illustrate the essential function of prediction errors in learning. We observed that optogenetic activation of dopamine neurons concurrent with reward delivery, mimicking a prediction error, was sufficient to cause long-lasting increases in cue-elicited reward-seeking behavior. Our findings establish a causal role for temporally precise dopamine neuron signaling in cue-reward learning, bridging a critical gap between experimental evidence and influential theoretical frameworks.

Segregated encoding of reward-identity and stimulus-reward associations in human orbitofrontal cortex.

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Klein-Flügge, Miriam Cornelia; Barron, Helen Catharine; Brodersen, Kay Henning; Dolan, Raymond J; Behrens, Timothy Edward John

2013-02-13

A dominant focus in studies of learning and decision-making is the neural coding of scalar reward value. This emphasis ignores the fact that choices are strongly shaped by a rich representation of potential rewards. Here, using fMRI adaptation, we demonstrate that responses in the human orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) encode a representation of the specific type of food reward predicted by a visual cue. By controlling for value across rewards and by linking each reward with two distinct stimuli, we could test for representations of reward-identity that were independent of associative information. Our results show reward-identity representations in a medial-caudal region of OFC, independent of the associated predictive stimulus. This contrasts with a more rostro-lateral OFC region encoding reward-identity representations tied to the predicate stimulus. This demonstration of adaptation in OFC to reward specific representations opens an avenue for investigation of more complex decision mechanisms that are not immediately accessible in standard analyses, which focus on correlates of average activity.

An Animal Model of Genetic Vulnerability to Behavioral Disinhibition and Responsiveness to Reward-Related Cues: Implications for Addiction

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Flagel, Shelly B; Robinson, Terry E; Clark, Jeremy J; Clinton, Sarah M; Watson, Stanley J; Seeman, Phillip; Phillips, Paul E M; Akil, Huda

2009-01-01

Rats selectively bred based on high or low reactivity to a novel environment were characterized for other behavioral and neurobiological traits thought to be relevant to addiction vulnerability. The two lines of animals, which differ in their propensity to self-administer drugs, also differ in the value they attribute to cues associated with reward, in impulsive behavior, and in their dopamine system. When a cue was paired with food or cocaine reward bred high-responder rats (bHRs) learned to...

Do cattle (Bos taurus) retain an association of a visual cue with a food reward for a year?

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Hirata, Masahiko; Takeno, Nozomi

2014-06-01

Use of visual cues to locate specific food resources from a distance is a critical ability of animals foraging in a spatially heterogeneous environment. However, relatively little is known about how long animals can retain the learned cue-reward association without reinforcement. We compared feeding behavior of experienced and naive Japanese Black cows (Bos taurus) in discovering food locations in a pasture. Experienced animals had been trained to respond to a visual cue (plastic washtub) for a preferred food (grain-based concentrate) 1 year prior to the experiment, while naive animals had no exposure to the cue. Cows were tested individually in a test arena including tubs filled with the concentrate on three successive days (Days 1-3). Experienced cows located the first tub more quickly and visited more tubs than naive cows on Day 1 (usually P visual cue with a food reward within a day and retain the association for 1 year despite a slight decay. © 2014 Japanese Society of Animal Science.

DISRUPTION OF CONDITIONED REWARD ASSOCIATION BY TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL ANTIPSYCHOTICS

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Danna, C.L.; Elmer, G.I.

2013-01-01

Antipsychotic drugs are broadly classified into typical and atypical compounds; they vary in their pharmacological profile however a common component is their antagonist effects at the D2 dopamine receptors (DRD2). Unfortunately, diminished DRD2 activation is generally thought to be associated with the severity of neuroleptic-induced anhedonia. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the atypical antipsychotic olanzapine and typical antipsychotic haloperidol in a paradigm that reflects the learned transfer of incentive motivational properties to previously neutral stimuli, namely autoshaping. In order to provide a dosing comparison to a therapeutically relevant endpoint, both drugs were tested against amphetamine-induced disruption of prepulse inhibition as well. In the autoshaping task, rats were exposed to repeated pairings of stimuli that were differentially predictive of reward delivery. Conditioned approach to the reward predictive cue (sign-tracking) and to the reward (goal-tracking) increased during repeated pairings in the vehicle treated rats. Haloperidol and olanzapine completely abolished this behavior at relatively low doses (100 μg/kg). This same dose was the threshold dose for each drug to antagonize the sensorimotor gating deficits produced by amphetamine. At lower doses (3–30 μg/kg) both drugs produced a dose-dependent decrease in conditioned approach to the reward predictive cue. There was no difference between drugs at this dose range which indicates that olanzapine disrupts autoshaping at a significantly lower proposed DRD2 receptor occupancy. Interestingly, neither drug disrupted conditioned approach to the reward at the same dose range that disrupted conditioned approach to the reward predictive cue. Thus, haloperidol and olanzapine, at doses well below what is considered therapeutically relevant, disrupts the attribution of incentive motivational value to previously neutral cues. Drug effects on this dimension of reward

Observing others stay or switch - How social prediction errors are integrated into reward reversal learning.

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Ihssen, Niklas; Mussweiler, Thomas; Linden, David E J

2016-08-01

Reward properties of stimuli can undergo sudden changes, and the detection of these 'reversals' is often made difficult by the probabilistic nature of rewards/punishments. Here we tested whether and how humans use social information (someone else's choices) to overcome uncertainty during reversal learning. We show a substantial social influence during reversal learning, which was modulated by the type of observed behavior. Participants frequently followed observed conservative choices (no switches after punishment) made by the (fictitious) other player but ignored impulsive choices (switches), even though the experiment was set up so that both types of response behavior would be similarly beneficial/detrimental (Study 1). Computational modeling showed that participants integrated the observed choices as a 'social prediction error' instead of ignoring or blindly following the other player. Modeling also confirmed higher learning rates for 'conservative' versus 'impulsive' social prediction errors. Importantly, this 'conservative bias' was boosted by interpersonal similarity, which in conjunction with the lack of effects observed in a non-social control experiment (Study 2) confirmed its social nature. A third study suggested that relative weighting of observed impulsive responses increased with increased volatility (frequency of reversals). Finally, simulations showed that in the present paradigm integrating social and reward information was not necessarily more adaptive to maximize earnings than learning from reward alone. Moreover, integrating social information increased accuracy only when conservative and impulsive choices were weighted similarly during learning. These findings suggest that to guide decisions in choice contexts that involve reward reversals humans utilize social cues conforming with their preconceptions more strongly than cues conflicting with them, especially when the other is similar. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B

The tendency to sign-track predicts cue-induced reinstatement during nicotine self-administration, and is enhanced by nicotine but not ethanol.

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Versaggi, Cassandra L; King, Christopher P; Meyer, Paul J

2016-08-01

Some individuals are particularly responsive to reward-associated stimuli ("cues"), including the effects of these cues on craving and relapse to drug-seeking behavior. In the cases of nicotine and alcohol, cues may acquire these abilities via the incentive-enhancing properties of the drug. To determine the interaction between cue-responsivity and nicotine reinforcement, we studied the patterns of nicotine self-administration in rats categorized based on their tendency to approach a food-predictive cue ("sign-trackers") or a reward-delivery location ("goal-trackers"). In a second experiment, we determined whether nicotine and ethanol altered the incentive value of a food cue. Rats were classified as sign- or goal-trackers during a Pavlovian conditioned approach paradigm. Rats then self-administered intravenous nicotine (0.03 mg/kg infusions) followed by extinction and cue-induced reinstatement tests. We also tested the effects of nicotine (0.4 mg/kg base s.c.) or ethanol (0.7 g/kg i.p.) on the approach to, and reinforcing efficacy of, a food cue. Sign-trackers showed greater reinstatement in response to a nicotine cue. Further, nicotine enhanced sign-tracking but not goal-tracking to a food cue and also enhanced responding for the food cue during the conditioned reinforcement test. Conversely, ethanol reduced sign-tracking and increased goal-tracking, but had no effect on conditioned reinforcement. Our studies demonstrate that the tendency to attribute incentive value to a food cue predicts enhanced cue-induced reinstatement. Additionally, the incentive value of food cues is differentially modulated by nicotine and ethanol, which may be related to the reinforcing effects of these drugs.

The tendency to sign-track predicts cue-induced reinstatement during nicotine self-administration, and is enhanced by nicotine but not ethanol

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Versaggi, Cassandra L.; King, Christopher P.; Meyer, Paul J.

2016-01-01

Rationale Some individuals are particularly responsive to reward-associated stimuli (“cues”), including the effects of these cues on craving and relapse to drug-seeking behavior. In the cases of nicotine and alcohol, cues may acquire these abilities via the incentive-enhancing properties of the drug. Objectives To determine the interaction between cue-responsivity and nicotine reinforcement, we studied the patterns of nicotine self-administration in rats categorized based on their tendency to approach a food predictive cue (“sign-trackers”) or a reward-delivery location (“goal-trackers”). In a second experiment, we determined whether nicotine and ethanol altered the incentive value of a food cue. Methods Rats were classified as sign- or goal-trackers during a Pavlovian conditioned approach paradigm. Rats then self-administered intravenous nicotine (0.03 mg/kg infusions) followed by extinction and cue induced reinstatement tests. We also tested the effects of nicotine (0.4 mg/kg base s.c.) or ethanol (0.7 g/kg i.p.) on the approach to, and reinforcing efficacy of, a food cue. Results Sign-trackers showed greater reinstatement in response to a nicotine cue. Further, nicotine enhanced sign-tracking but not goal-tracking to a food cue, and also enhanced responding for the food cue during the conditioned reinforcement test. Conversely, ethanol reduced sign-tracking and increased goal-tracking, but had no effect on conditioned reinforcement. Conclusions Our studies demonstrate that the tendency to attribute incentive value to a food cue predicts enhanced cue-induced reinstatement. Additionally, the incentive value of food cues is differentially modulated by nicotine and ethanol, which may be related to the reinforcing effects of these drugs. PMID:27282365

Response of neural reward regions to food cues in autism spectrum disorders

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Cascio Carissa J

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background One hypothesis for the social deficits that characterize autism spectrum disorders (ASD is diminished neural reward response to social interaction and attachment. Prior research using established monetary reward paradigms as a test of non-social reward to compare with social reward may involve confounds in the ability of individuals with ASD to utilize symbolic representation of money and the abstraction required to interpret monetary gains. Thus, a useful addition to our understanding of neural reward circuitry in ASD includes a characterization of the neural response to primary rewards. Method We asked 17 children with ASD and 18 children without ASD to abstain from eating for at least four hours before an MRI scan in which they viewed images of high-calorie foods. We assessed the neural reward network for increases in the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD signal in response to the food images Results We found very similar patterns of increased BOLD signal to these images in the two groups; both groups showed increased BOLD signal in the bilateral amygdala, as well as in the nucleus accumbens, orbitofrontal cortex, and insula. Direct group comparisons revealed that the ASD group showed a stronger response to food cues in bilateral insula along the anterior-posterior gradient and in the anterior cingulate cortex than the control group, whereas there were no neural reward regions that showed higher activation for controls than for ASD. Conclusion These results suggest that neural response to primary rewards is not diminished but in fact shows an aberrant enhancement in children with ASD.

Reward Draws the Eye, Uncertainty Holds the Eye: Associative Learning Modulates Distractor Interference in Visual Search

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Stephan Koenig

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Stimuli in our sensory environment differ with respect to their physical salience but moreover may acquire motivational salience by association with reward. If we repeatedly observed that reward is available in the context of a particular cue but absent in the context of another cue the former typically attracts more attention than the latter. However, we also may encounter cues uncorrelated with reward. A cue with 50% reward contingency may induce an average reward expectancy but at the same time induces high reward uncertainty. In the current experiment we examined how both values, reward expectancy and uncertainty, affected overt attention. Two different colors were established as predictive cues for low reward and high reward respectively. A third color was followed by high reward on 50% of the trials and thus induced uncertainty. Colors then were introduced as distractors during search for a shape target, and we examined the relative potential of the color distractors to capture and hold the first fixation. We observed that capture frequency corresponded to reward expectancy while capture duration corresponded to uncertainty. The results may suggest that within trial reward expectancy is represented at an earlier time window than uncertainty.

The amygdala, reward and emotion.

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Murray, Elisabeth A

2007-11-01

Recent research provides new insights into amygdala contributions to positive emotion and reward. Studies of neuronal activity in the monkey amygdala and of autonomic responses mediated by the monkey amygdala show that, contrary to a widely held view, the amygdala is just as important for processing positive reward and reinforcement as it is for negative. In addition, neuropsychological studies reveal that the amygdala is essential for only a fraction of what might be considered 'stimulus-reward processing', and that the neural substrates for emotion and reward are partially nonoverlapping. Finally, evidence suggests that two systems within the amygdala, operating in parallel, enable reward-predicting cues to influence behavior; one mediates a general, arousing effect of reward and the other links the sensory properties of reward to emotion.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Cue-Related Processing in a Gambling Task: Early Outcome Evaluation or Outcome Expectation?

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Xiaoyi Zhang

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Several recent studies have suggested that cues that predict outcomes elicit a feedback-related-like negativity (FRN-like negativity reflecting initial appraisals of whether desired outcomes are probable. Some other studies, however, have found that the cues that predict outcomes elicited event-related potentials (ERPs that reflect the expectation to outcomes (e.g., outcome expectations. Given these mixed findings, this study aimed to examine whether the brain activity elicited by predictive cues in a gambling task reflected the initial evaluations of the outcomes, the outcome expectations, or both. We used a gambling task in which the participants were told to guess which of two doors hid a reward. At the beginning of each trial, a cue was presented to inform the participants of how many doors hid a reward. We found that these predictive cues elicited a FRN-like negativity at the frontal sites within around 200–300 ms. However, this negativity did not significantly differ between the cues that fully predicted gains and the cues that fully predicted losses. Furthermore, predictive cues elicited an expectation-related slow wave, and cues that predicted gains with a 50% probability elicited a larger expectation-related slow wave than cues that fully predicted gains or losses. Our results suggest that cues predicting outcomes reflect outcome expectations rather than initial evaluations of the forthcoming outcomes.

Sensitivity for cues predicting reward and punishment in young women with eating disorders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matton, Annelies; de Jong, Peter; Goossens, Lien; Jonker, Nienke; Van Malderen, Eva; Vervaet, Myriam; De Schryver, Nele; Braet, Caroline

Increasing evidence shows that sensitivity to reward (SR) and punishment (SP) may be involved in eating disorders (EDs). Most studies used self-reported positive/negative effect in rewarding/punishing situations, whereas the implied proneness to detect signals of reward/punishment is largely

Sensitivity for cues predicting reward and punishment in young women with eating disorders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matton, Annelies; de Jong, Peter; Goossens, Lien; Jonker, Nienke; Van Malderen, Eva; Vervaet, Myriam; De Schryver, Nele; Braet, Caroline

2017-01-01

Increasing evidence shows that sensitivity to reward (SR) and punishment (SP) may be involved in eating disorders (EDs). Most studies used self-reported positive/negative effect in rewarding/punishing situations, whereas the implied proneness to detect signals of reward/punishment is largely

Reward System Activation in Response to Alcohol Advertisements Predicts College Drinking.

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Courtney, Andrea L; Rapuano, Kristina M; Sargent, James D; Heatherton, Todd F; Kelley, William M

2018-01-01

In this study, we assess whether activation of the brain's reward system in response to alcohol advertisements is associated with college drinking. Previous research has established a relationship between exposure to alcohol marketing and underage drinking. Within other appetitive domains, the relationship between cue exposure and behavioral enactment is known to rely on activation of the brain's reward system. However, the relationship between neural activation to alcohol advertisements and alcohol consumption has not been studied in a nondisordered population. In this cross-sectional study, 53 college students (32 women) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan while viewing alcohol, food, and control (car and technology) advertisements. Afterward, they completed a survey about their alcohol consumption (including frequency of drinking, typical number of drinks consumed, and frequency of binge drinking) over the previous month. In 43 participants (24 women) meeting inclusion criteria, viewing alcohol advertisements elicited activation in the left orbitofrontal cortex and bilateral ventral striatum-regions of the reward system that typically activate to other appetitive rewards and relate to consumption behaviors. Moreover, the level of self-reported drinking correlated with the magnitude of activation in the left orbitofrontal cortex. Results suggest that alcohol cues are processed within the reward system in a way that may motivate drinking behavior.

Theta-band phase locking of orbitofrontal neurons during reward expectancy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Wingerden, M.; Vinck, M.; Lankelma, J.; Pennartz, C.M.A.

2010-01-01

The expectancy of a rewarding outcome following actions and cues is coded by a network of brain structures including the orbitofrontal cortex. Thus far, predicted reward was considered to be coded by time-averaged spike rates of neurons. However, besides firing rate, the precise timing of action

Reward reduces conflict by enhancing attentional control and biasing visual cortical processing.

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Padmala, Srikanth; Pessoa, Luiz

2011-11-01

How does motivation interact with cognitive control during challenging behavioral conditions? Here, we investigated the interactions between motivation and cognition during a response conflict task and tested a specific model of the effect of reward on cognitive processing. Behaviorally, participants exhibited reduced conflict during the reward versus no-reward condition. Brain imaging results revealed that a group of subcortical and fronto-parietal regions was robustly influenced by reward at cue processing and, importantly, that cue-related responses in fronto-parietal attentional regions were predictive of reduced conflict-related signals in the medial pFC (MPFC)/ACC during the upcoming target phase. Path analysis revealed that the relationship between cue responses in the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and interference-related responses in the MPFC during the subsequent target phase was mediated via signals in the left fusiform gyrus, which we linked to distractor-related processing. Finally, reward increased functional connectivity between the right IPS and both bilateral putamen and bilateral nucleus accumbens during the cue phase, a relationship that covaried with across-individual sensitivity to reward in the case of the right nucleus accumbens. Taken together, our findings are consistent with a model in which motivationally salient cues are employed to upregulate top-down control processes that bias the selection of visual information, thereby leading to more efficient stimulus processing during conflict conditions.

Which cue to ‘want’? Opioid stimulation of central amygdala makes goal-trackers show stronger goal-tracking, just as sign-trackers show stronger sign-tracking

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DiFeliceantonio, Alexandra G.; Berridge, Kent C.

2012-01-01

Pavlovian cues that have been paired with reward can gain incentive salience. Drug addicts find drug cues motivationally attractive and binge eaters are attracted by food cues. But the level of incentive salience elicited by a cue re-encounter still varies across time and brain states. In an animal model, cues become attractive and ‘wanted’ in an ‘autoshaping’ paradigm, where different targets of incentive salience emerge for different individuals. Some individuals (sign-trackers) find a predictive discrete cue attractive while others find a reward contiguous and goal cue more attractive (location where reward arrives: goal-trackers). Here we assessed whether central amygdala mu opioid receptor stimulation enhances the phasic incentive salience of the goal-cue for goal-trackers during moments of predictive cue presence (expressed in both approach and consummatory behaviors to goal cue), just as it enhances the attractiveness of the predictive cue target for sign-trackers. Using detailed video analysis we measured the approaches, nibbles, sniffs, and bites directed at their preferred target for both sign-trackers and goal-trackers. We report that DAMGO microinjections in central amygdala made goal-trackers, like sign-trackers, show phasic increases in appetitive nibbles and sniffs directed at the goal-cue expressed selectively whenever the predictive cue was present. This indicates enhancement of incentive salience attributed by both goal trackers and sign-trackers, but attributed in different directions: each to their own target cue. For both phenotypes, amygdala opioid stimulation makes the individual’s prepotent cue into a stronger motivational magnet at phasic moments triggered by a CS that predicts the reward UCS. PMID:22391118

The Roles of Dopamine and Hypocretin in Reward: A Electroencephalographic Study.

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Mensen, Armand; Poryazova, Rositsa; Huegli, Gordana; Baumann, Christian R; Schwartz, Sophie; Khatami, Ramin

2015-01-01

The proper functioning of the mesolimbic reward system is largely dependent on the neurotransmitter dopamine. Recent evidence suggests that the hypocretin system has significant projections to this reward system. We examined the distinct effects of reduced dopamine or reduced hypocretin levels on reward activity in patients with Parkinson's disease, dopamine deficient, as well as patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy, hypocretin depleted, and healthy controls. Participants performed a simple game-like task while high-density electroencephalography was recorded. Topography and timing of event-related potentials for both reward cue, and reward feedback was examined across the entire dataset. While response to reward cue was similar in all groups, two distinct time points were found to distinguish patients and controls for reward feedback. Around 160 ms both patient groups had reduced ERP amplitude compared to controls. Later at 250 ms, both patient groups also showed a clear event-related potential (ERP), which was absent in controls. The initial differences show that both patient groups show a similar, blunted response to reward delivery. The second potential corresponds to the classic feedback-related negativity (FRN) potential which relies on dopamine activity and reflects reward prediction-error signaling. In particular the mismatch between predicted reward and reward subsequently received was significantly higher in PD compared to NC, independent of reward magnitude and valence. The intermediate FRN response in NC highlights the contribution of hypocretin in reward processing, yet also shows that this is not as detrimental to the reward system as in Parkinson's. Furthermore, the inability to generate accurate predictions in NC may explain why hypocretin deficiency mediates cataplexy triggered by both positive and negative emotions.

The Roles of Dopamine and Hypocretin in Reward: A Electroencephalographic Study.

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Armand Mensen

Full Text Available The proper functioning of the mesolimbic reward system is largely dependent on the neurotransmitter dopamine. Recent evidence suggests that the hypocretin system has significant projections to this reward system. We examined the distinct effects of reduced dopamine or reduced hypocretin levels on reward activity in patients with Parkinson's disease, dopamine deficient, as well as patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy, hypocretin depleted, and healthy controls. Participants performed a simple game-like task while high-density electroencephalography was recorded. Topography and timing of event-related potentials for both reward cue, and reward feedback was examined across the entire dataset. While response to reward cue was similar in all groups, two distinct time points were found to distinguish patients and controls for reward feedback. Around 160 ms both patient groups had reduced ERP amplitude compared to controls. Later at 250 ms, both patient groups also showed a clear event-related potential (ERP, which was absent in controls. The initial differences show that both patient groups show a similar, blunted response to reward delivery. The second potential corresponds to the classic feedback-related negativity (FRN potential which relies on dopamine activity and reflects reward prediction-error signaling. In particular the mismatch between predicted reward and reward subsequently received was significantly higher in PD compared to NC, independent of reward magnitude and valence. The intermediate FRN response in NC highlights the contribution of hypocretin in reward processing, yet also shows that this is not as detrimental to the reward system as in Parkinson's. Furthermore, the inability to generate accurate predictions in NC may explain why hypocretin deficiency mediates cataplexy triggered by both positive and negative emotions.

The Role of Extrinsic Rewards and Cue-Intention Association in Prospective Memory in Young Children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sheppard, D.P.; Kretschmer, A.; Knispel, E.; Vollert, B.; Altgassen, A.M.

2015-01-01

The current study examined, for the first time, the effect of cue-intention association, as well as the effects of promised extrinsic rewards, on prospective memory in young children, aged 5-years-old (n = 39) and 7-years-old (n = 40). Children were asked to name pictures for a toy mole, whilst also

Brain Circuits Encoding Reward from Pain Relief.

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Navratilova, Edita; Atcherley, Christopher W; Porreca, Frank

2015-11-01

Relief from pain in humans is rewarding and pleasurable. Primary rewards, or reward-predictive cues, are encoded in brain reward/motivational circuits. While considerable advances have been made in our understanding of reward circuits underlying positive reinforcement, less is known about the circuits underlying the hedonic and reinforcing actions of pain relief. We review findings from electrophysiological, neuroimaging, and behavioral studies supporting the concept that the rewarding effect of pain relief requires opioid signaling in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), activation of midbrain dopamine neurons, and the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Understanding of circuits that govern the reward of pain relief may allow the discovery of more effective and satisfying therapies for patients with acute or chronic pain.

Expected reward modulates encoding-related theta activity before an event.

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Gruber, Matthias J; Watrous, Andrew J; Ekstrom, Arne D; Ranganath, Charan; Otten, Leun J

2013-01-01

Oscillatory brain activity in the theta frequency range (4-8 Hz) before the onset of an event has been shown to affect the likelihood of successfully encoding the event into memory. Recent work has also indicated that frontal theta activity might be modulated by reward, but it is not clear how reward expectancy, anticipatory theta activity, and memory formation might be related. Here, we used scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to assess the relationship between these factors. EEG was recorded from healthy adults while they memorized a series of words. Each word was preceded by a cue that indicated whether a high or low monetary reward would be earned if the word was successfully remembered in a later recognition test. Frontal theta power between the presentation of the reward cue and the onset of a word was predictive of later memory for the word, but only in the high reward condition. No theta differences were observed before word onset following low reward cues. The magnitude of prestimulus encoding-related theta activity in the high reward condition was correlated with the number of high reward words that were later confidently recognized. These findings provide strong evidence for a link between reward expectancy, theta activity, and memory encoding. Theta activity before event onset seems to be especially important for the encoding of motivationally significant stimuli. One possibility is that dopaminergic activity during reward anticipation mediates frontal theta activity related to memory. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Frontal-striatum dysfunction during reward processing: Relationships to amotivation in schizophrenia.

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Chung, Yu Sun; Barch, Deanna M

2016-04-01

Schizophrenia is characterized by deficits of context processing, thought to be related to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) impairment. Despite emerging evidence suggesting a crucial role of the DLPFC in integrating reward and goal information, we do not know whether individuals with schizophrenia can represent and integrate reward-related context information to modulate cognitive control. To address this question, 36 individuals with schizophrenia (n = 29) or schizoaffective disorder (n = 7) and 27 healthy controls performed a variant of a response conflict task (Padmala & Pessoa, 2011) during fMRI scanning, in both baseline and reward conditions, with monetary incentives on some reward trials. We used a mixed state-item design that allowed us to examine both sustained and transient reward effects on cognitive control. Different from predictions about impaired DLPFC function in schizophrenia, we found an intact pattern of increased sustained DLPFC activity during reward versus baseline blocks in individuals with schizophrenia at a group level but blunted sustained activations in the putamen. Contrary to our predictions, individuals with schizophrenia showed blunted cue-related activations in several regions of the basal ganglia responding to reward-predicting cues. Importantly, as predicted, individual differences in anhedonia/amotivation symptoms severity were significantly associated with reduced sustained DLPFC activation in the same region that showed overall increased activity as a function of reward. These results suggest that individual differences in motivational impairments in schizophrenia may be related to dysfunction of the DLPFC and striatum in motivationally salient situations. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Baseline frontostriatal-limbic connectivity predicts reward-based memory formation.

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Hamann, Janne M; Dayan, Eran; Hummel, Friedhelm C; Cohen, Leonardo G

2014-12-01

Reward mediates the acquisition and long-term retention of procedural skills in humans. Yet, learning under rewarded conditions is highly variable across individuals and the mechanisms that determine interindividual variability in rewarded learning are not known. We postulated that baseline functional connectivity in a large-scale frontostriatal-limbic network could predict subsequent interindividual variability in rewarded learning. Resting-state functional MRI was acquired in two groups of subjects (n = 30) who then trained on a visuomotor procedural learning task with or without reward feedback. We then tested whether baseline functional connectivity within the frontostriatal-limbic network predicted memory strength measured immediately, 24 h and 1 month after training in both groups. We found that connectivity in the frontostriatal-limbic network predicted interindividual variability in the rewarded but not in the unrewarded learning group. Prediction was strongest for long-term memory. Similar links between connectivity and reward-based memory were absent in two control networks, a fronto-parieto-temporal language network and the dorsal attention network. The results indicate that baseline functional connectivity within the frontostriatal-limbic network successfully predicts long-term retention of rewarded learning. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Differential effects of fructose versus glucose on brain and appetitive responses to food cues and decisions for food rewards.

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Luo, Shan; Monterosso, John R; Sarpelleh, Kayan; Page, Kathleen A

2015-05-19

Prior studies suggest that fructose compared with glucose may be a weaker suppressor of appetite, and neuroimaging research shows that food cues trigger greater brain reward responses in a fasted relative to a fed state. We sought to determine the effects of ingesting fructose versus glucose on brain, hormone, and appetitive responses to food cues and food-approach behavior. Twenty-four healthy volunteers underwent two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions with ingestion of either fructose or glucose in a double-blinded, random-order cross-over design. fMRI was performed while participants viewed images of high-calorie foods and nonfood items using a block design. After each block, participants rated hunger and desire for food. Participants also performed a decision task in which they chose between immediate food rewards and delayed monetary bonuses. Hormones were measured at baseline and 30 and 60 min after drink ingestion. Ingestion of fructose relative to glucose resulted in smaller increases in plasma insulin levels and greater brain reactivity to food cues in the visual cortex (in whole-brain analysis) and left orbital frontal cortex (in region-of-interest analysis). Parallel to the neuroimaging findings, fructose versus glucose led to greater hunger and desire for food and a greater willingness to give up long-term monetary rewards to obtain immediate high-calorie foods. These findings suggest that ingestion of fructose relative to glucose results in greater activation of brain regions involved in attention and reward processing and may promote feeding behavior.

Adolescents, adults and rewards: comparing motivational neurocircuitry recruitment using fMRI.

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James M Bjork

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Adolescent risk-taking, including behaviors resulting in injury or death, has been attributed in part to maturational differences in mesolimbic incentive-motivational neurocircuitry, including ostensible oversensitivity of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc to rewards. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To test whether adolescents showed increased NAcc activation by cues for rewards, or by delivery of rewards, we scanned 24 adolescents (age 12-17 and 24 adults age (22-42 with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed a monetary incentive delay (MID task. The MID task was configured to temporally disentangle potential reward or potential loss anticipation-related brain signal from reward or loss notification-related signal. Subjects saw cues signaling opportunities to win or avoid losing $0, $.50, or $5 for responding quickly to a subsequent target. Subjects then viewed feedback of their trial success after a variable interval from cue presentation of between 6 to 17 s. Adolescents showed reduced NAcc recruitment by reward-predictive cues compared to adult controls in a linear contrast with non-incentive cues, and in a volume-of-interest analysis of signal change in the NAcc. In contrast, adolescents showed little difference in striatal and frontocortical responsiveness to reward deliveries compared to adults. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In light of divergent developmental difference findings between neuroimaging incentive paradigms (as well as at different stages within the same task, these data suggest that maturational differences in incentive-motivational neurocircuitry: 1 may be sensitive to nuances of incentive tasks or stimuli, such as behavioral or learning contingencies, and 2 may be specific to the component of the instrumental behavior (such as anticipation versus notification.

A possible role of midbrain dopamine neurons in short- and long-term adaptation of saccades to position-reward mapping.

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Takikawa, Yoriko; Kawagoe, Reiko; Hikosaka, Okihide

2004-10-01

Dopamine (DA) neurons respond to sensory stimuli that predict reward. To understand how DA neurons acquire such ability, we trained monkeys on a one-direction-rewarded version of memory-guided saccade task (1DR) only when we recorded from single DA neurons. In 1DR, position-reward mapping was changed across blocks of trials. In the early stage of training of 1DR, DA neurons responded to reward delivery; in the later stages, they responded predominantly to the visual cue that predicted reward or no reward (reward predictor) differentially. We found that such a shift of activity from reward to reward predictor also occurred within a block of trials after position-reward mapping was altered. A main effect of long-term training was to accelerate the within-block reward-to-predictor shift of DA neuronal responses. The within-block shift appeared first in the intermediate stage, but was slow, and DA neurons often responded to the cue that indicated reward in the preceding block. In the advanced stage, the reward-to-predictor shift occurred quickly such that the DA neurons' responses to visual cues faithfully matched the current position-reward mapping. Changes in the DA neuronal responses co-varied with the reward-predictive differentiation of saccade latency both in short-term (within-block) and long-term adaptation. DA neurons' response to the fixation point also underwent long-term changes until it occurred predominantly in the first trial within a block. This might trigger a switch between the learned sets. These results suggest that midbrain DA neurons play an essential role in adapting oculomotor behavior to frequent switches in position-reward mapping.

Intersection of reward and memory in monkey rhinal cortex.

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Clark, Andrew M; Bouret, Sebastien; Young, Adrienne M; Richmond, Barry J

2012-05-16

In humans and other animals, the vigor with which a reward is pursued depends on its desirability, that is, on the reward's predicted value. Predicted value is generally context-dependent, varying according to the value of rewards obtained in the recent and distant past. Signals related to reward prediction and valuation are believed to be encoded in a circuit centered around midbrain dopamine neurons and their targets in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. Notably absent from this hypothesized reward pathway are dopaminergic targets in the medial temporal lobe. Here we show that a key part of the medial temporal lobe memory system previously reported to be important for sensory mnemonic and perceptual processing, the rhinal cortex (Rh), is required for using memories of previous reward values to predict the value of forthcoming rewards. We tested monkeys with bilateral Rh lesions on a task in which reward size varied across blocks of uncued trials. In this experiment, the only cues for predicting current reward value are the sizes of rewards delivered in previous blocks. Unexpectedly, monkeys with Rh ablations, but not intact controls, were insensitive to differences in predicted reward, responding as if they expected all rewards to be of equal magnitude. Thus, it appears that Rh is critical for using memory of previous rewards to predict the value of forthcoming rewards. These results are in agreement with accumulating evidence that Rh is critical for establishing the relationships between temporally interleaved events, which is a key element of episodic memory.

Dopamine or opioid stimulation of nucleus accumbens similarly amplify cue-triggered 'wanting' for reward: entire core and medial shell mapped as substrates for PIT enhancement.

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Peciña, Susana; Berridge, Kent C

2013-05-01

Pavlovian cues [conditioned stimulus (CS+)] often trigger intense motivation to pursue and consume related reward [unconditioned stimulus (UCS)]. But cues do not always trigger the same intensity of motivation. Encountering a reward cue can be more tempting on some occasions than on others. What makes the same cue trigger more intense motivation to pursue reward on a particular encounter? The answer may be the level of incentive salience ('wanting') that is dynamically generated by mesocorticolimbic brain systems, influenced especially by dopamine and opioid neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) at that moment. We tested the ability of dopamine stimulation (by amphetamine microinjection) vs. mu opioid stimulation [by d-Ala, nMe-Phe, Glyol-enkephalin (DAMGO) microinjection] of either the core or shell of the NAc to amplify cue-triggered levels of motivation to pursue sucrose reward, measured with a Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) procedure, a relatively pure assay of incentive salience. Cue-triggered 'wanting' in PIT was enhanced by amphetamine or DAMGO microinjections equally, and also equally at nearly all sites throughout the entire core and medial shell (except for a small far-rostral strip of shell). NAc dopamine/opioid stimulations specifically enhanced CS+ ability to trigger phasic peaks of 'wanting' to obtain UCS, without altering baseline efforts when CS+ was absent. We conclude that dopamine/opioid stimulation throughout nearly the entire NAc can causally amplify the reactivity of mesocorticolimbic circuits, and so magnify incentive salience or phasic UCS 'wanting' peaks triggered by a CS+. Mesolimbic amplification of incentive salience may explain why a particular cue encounter can become irresistibly tempting, even when previous encounters were successfully resisted before. © 2013 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Orbitofrontal lesions eliminate signalling of biological significance in cue-responsive ventral striatal neurons.

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Cooch, Nisha K; Stalnaker, Thomas A; Wied, Heather M; Bali-Chaudhary, Sheena; McDannald, Michael A; Liu, Tzu-Lan; Schoenbaum, Geoffrey

2015-05-21

The ventral striatum has long been proposed as an integrator of biologically significant associative information to drive actions. Although inputs from the amygdala and hippocampus have been much studied, the role of prominent inputs from orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) are less well understood. Here, we recorded single-unit activity from ventral striatum core in rats with sham or ipsilateral neurotoxic lesions of lateral OFC, as they performed an odour-guided spatial choice task. Consistent with prior reports, we found that spiking activity recorded in sham rats during cue sampling was related to both reward magnitude and reward identity, with higher firing rates observed for cues that predicted more reward. Lesioned rats also showed differential activity to the cues, but this activity was unbiased towards larger rewards. These data support a role for OFC in shaping activity in the ventral striatum to represent the biological significance of associative information in the environment.

Does predictability matter? Effects of cue predictability on neurocognitive mechanisms underlying prospective memory.

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Cona, Giorgia; Arcara, Giorgio; Tarantino, Vincenza; Bisiacchi, Patrizia S

2015-01-01

Prospective memory (PM) represents the ability to successfully realize intentions when the appropriate moment or cue occurs. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the impact of cue predictability on the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting PM. Participants performed an ongoing task and, simultaneously, had to remember to execute a pre-specified action when they encountered the PM cues. The occurrence of the PM cues was predictable (being signaled by a warning cue) for some participants and was completely unpredictable for others. In the predictable cue condition, the behavioral and ERP correlates of strategic monitoring were observed mainly in the ongoing trials wherein the PM cue was expected. In the unpredictable cue condition they were instead shown throughout the whole PM block. This pattern of results suggests that, in the predictable cue condition, participants engaged monitoring only when subjected to a context wherein the PM cue was expected, and disengaged monitoring when the PM cue was not expected. Conversely, participants in the unpredictable cue condition distributed their resources for strategic monitoring in more continuous manner. The findings of this study support the most recent views-the "Dynamic Multiprocess Framework" and the "Attention to Delayed Intention" (AtoDI) model-confirming that strategic monitoring is a flexible mechanism that is recruited mainly when a PM cue is expected and that may interact with bottom-up spontaneous processes.

A review of reward processing and motivational impairment in schizophrenia.

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Strauss, Gregory P; Waltz, James A; Gold, James M

2014-03-01

This article reviews and synthesizes research on reward processing in schizophrenia, which has begun to provide important insights into the cognitive and neural mechanisms associated with motivational impairments. Aberrant cortical-striatal interactions may be involved with multiple reward processing abnormalities, including: (1) dopamine-mediated basal ganglia systems that support reinforcement learning and the ability to predict cues that lead to rewarding outcomes; (2) orbitofrontal cortex-driven deficits in generating, updating, and maintaining value representations; (3) aberrant effort-value computations, which may be mediated by disrupted anterior cingulate cortex and midbrain dopamine functioning; and (4) altered activation of the prefrontal cortex, which is important for generating exploratory behaviors in environments where reward outcomes are uncertain. It will be important for psychosocial interventions targeting negative symptoms to account for abnormalities in each of these reward processes, which may also have important interactions; suggestions for novel behavioral intervention strategies that make use of external cues, reinforcers, and mobile technology are discussed.

Regulating task-monitoring systems in response to variable reward contingencies and outcomes in cocaine addicts.

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Morie, Kristen P; De Sanctis, Pierfilippo; Garavan, Hugh; Foxe, John J

2016-03-01

We investigated anticipatory and consummatory reward processing in cocaine addiction. In addition, we set out to assess whether task-monitoring systems were appropriately recalibrated in light of variable reward schedules. We also examined neural measures of task-monitoring and reward processing as a function of hedonic tone, since anhedonia is a vulnerability marker for addiction that is obviously germane in the context of reward processing. High-density event-related potentials were recorded while participants performed a speeded response task that systematically varied anticipated probabilities of reward receipt. The paradigm dissociated feedback regarding task success (or failure) from feedback regarding the value of reward (or loss), so that task-monitoring and reward processing could be examined in partial isolation. Twenty-three active cocaine abusers and 23 age-matched healthy controls participated. Cocaine abusers showed amplified anticipatory responses to reward predictive cues, but crucially, these responses were not as strongly modulated by reward probability as in controls. Cocaine users also showed blunted responses to feedback about task success or failure and did not use this information to update predictions about reward. In turn, they showed clearly blunted responses to reward feedback. In controls and users, measures of anhedonia were associated with reward motivation. In cocaine users, anhedonia was also associated with diminished monitoring and reward feedback responses. Findings imply that reward anticipation and monitoring deficiencies in addiction are associated with increased responsiveness to reward cues but impaired ability to predict reward in light of task contingencies, compounded by deficits in responding to actual reward outcomes.

Does predictability matter? Effects of cue predictability on neurocognitive mechanisms underlying Prospective Memory

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Giorgia eCona

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Prospective memory (PM represents the ability to successfully realize intentions when the appropriate moment or cue occurs. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs to explore the impact of cue predictability on the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting PM. Participants performed an ongoing task and, simultaneously, had to remember to execute a pre-specified action when they encountered the PM cues. The occurrence of the PM cues was predictable (being signalled by a warning cue for some participants and was completely unpredictable for others. In the predictable cue condition, the behavioural and ERP correlates of strategic monitoring were observed mainly in the ongoing trials wherein the PM cue was expected. In the unpredictable cue condition they were instead shown throughout the whole PM block. This pattern of results suggests that, in the predictable cue condition, participants engaged monitoring only when subjected to a context wherein the PM cue was expected, and disengaged monitoring when the PM cue was not expected. Conversely, participants in the unpredictable cue condition distributed their resources for strategic monitoring in more continuous manner. The findings of this study support the most recent views – the ‘Dynamic Multiprocess Framework’ and the ‘Attention to Delayed Intention’ (AtoDI model – confirming that strategic monitoring is a flexible mechanism that is recruited mainly when a PM cue is expected and that may interact with bottom-up spontaneous processes.

Dopamine reward prediction error responses reflect marginal utility.

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Stauffer, William R; Lak, Armin; Schultz, Wolfram

2014-11-03

Optimal choices require an accurate neuronal representation of economic value. In economics, utility functions are mathematical representations of subjective value that can be constructed from choices under risk. Utility usually exhibits a nonlinear relationship to physical reward value that corresponds to risk attitudes and reflects the increasing or decreasing marginal utility obtained with each additional unit of reward. Accordingly, neuronal reward responses coding utility should robustly reflect this nonlinearity. In two monkeys, we measured utility as a function of physical reward value from meaningful choices under risk (that adhered to first- and second-order stochastic dominance). The resulting nonlinear utility functions predicted the certainty equivalents for new gambles, indicating that the functions' shapes were meaningful. The monkeys were risk seeking (convex utility function) for low reward and risk avoiding (concave utility function) with higher amounts. Critically, the dopamine prediction error responses at the time of reward itself reflected the nonlinear utility functions measured at the time of choices. In particular, the reward response magnitude depended on the first derivative of the utility function and thus reflected the marginal utility. Furthermore, dopamine responses recorded outside of the task reflected the marginal utility of unpredicted reward. Accordingly, these responses were sufficient to train reinforcement learning models to predict the behaviorally defined expected utility of gambles. These data suggest a neuronal manifestation of marginal utility in dopamine neurons and indicate a common neuronal basis for fundamental explanatory constructs in animal learning theory (prediction error) and economic decision theory (marginal utility). Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sensitivity for Cues Predicting Reward and Punishment in Young Women with Eating Disorders.

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Matton, Annelies; de Jong, Peter; Goossens, Lien; Jonker, Nienke; Van Malderen, Eva; Vervaet, Myriam; De Schryver, Nele; Braet, Caroline

2017-11-01

Increasing evidence shows that sensitivity to reward (SR) and punishment (SP) may be involved in eating disorders (EDs). Most studies used self-reported positive/negative effect in rewarding/punishing situations, whereas the implied proneness to detect signals of reward/punishment is largely ignored. This pilot study used a spatial orientation task to examine transdiagnostic and interdiagnostic differences in SR/SP. Participants (14-29 years) were patients with anorexia nervosa of restricting type (AN-R, n = 20), binge/purge ED group [AN of binge/purge type and bulimia nervosa (n = 16)] and non-symptomatic individuals (n = 23). Results revealed stronger difficulties to redirect attention away from signals of rewards in AN-R compared with binge/purge EDs, and binge/purge EDs showed stronger difficulties to direct attention away from signals of punishment compared with AN-R. Findings demonstrate interdiagnostic differences and show that the spatial orientation task is sensitive for individual differences in SP/SR within the context of EDs, thereby sustaining its usefulness as behavioural measure of reinforcement sensitivity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Distinct Motivational Effects of Contingent and Noncontingent Rewards.

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Manohar, Sanjay G; Finzi, Rebecca Dawn; Drew, Daniel; Husain, Masud

2017-07-01

When rewards are available, people expend more energy, increasing their motivational vigor. In theory, incentives might drive behavior for two distinct reasons: First, they increase expected reward; second, they increase the difference in subjective value between successful and unsuccessful performance, which increases contingency-the degree to which action determines outcome. Previous studies of motivational vigor have never compared these directly. Here, we indexed motivational vigor by measuring the speed of eye movements toward a target after participants heard a cue indicating how outcomes would be determined. Eye movements were faster when the cue indicated that monetary rewards would be contingent on performance than when the cue indicated that rewards would be random. But even when the cue indicated that a reward was guaranteed regardless of speed, movement was still faster than when no reward was available. Motivation by contingent and certain rewards was uncorrelated across individuals, which suggests that there are two separable, independent components of motivation. Contingent motivation generated autonomic arousal, and unlike noncontingent motivation, was effective with penalties as well as rewards.

Distinct Roles for the Amygdala and Orbitofrontal Cortex in Representing the Relative Amount of Expected Reward.

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Saez, Rebecca A; Saez, Alexandre; Paton, Joseph J; Lau, Brian; Salzman, C Daniel

2017-07-05

The same reward can possess different motivational meaning depending upon its magnitude relative to other rewards. To study the neurophysiological mechanisms mediating assignment of motivational meaning, we recorded the activity of neurons in the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of monkeys during a Pavlovian task in which the relative amount of liquid reward associated with one conditioned stimulus (CS) was manipulated by changing the reward amount associated with a second CS. Anticipatory licking tracked relative reward magnitude, implying that monkeys integrated information about recent rewards to adjust the motivational meaning of a CS. Upon changes in relative reward magnitude, neural responses to reward-predictive cues updated more rapidly in OFC than amygdala, and activity in OFC but not the amygdala was modulated by recent reward history. These results highlight a distinction between the amygdala and OFC in assessing reward history to support the flexible assignment of motivational meaning to sensory cues. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hunger, taste, and normative cues in predictions about food intake.

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Vartanian, Lenny R; Reily, Natalie M; Spanos, Samantha; McGuirk, Lucy C; Herman, C Peter; Polivy, Janet

2017-09-01

Normative eating cues (portion size, social factors) have a powerful impact on people's food intake, but people often fail to acknowledge the influence of these cues, instead explaining their food intake in terms of internal (hunger) or sensory (taste) cues. This study examined whether the same biases apply when making predictions about how much food a person would eat. Participants (n = 364) read a series of vignettes describing an eating scenario and predicted how much food the target person would eat in each situation. Some scenarios consisted of a single eating cue (hunger, taste, or a normative cue) that would be expected to increase intake (e.g., high hunger) or decrease intake (e.g., a companion who eats very little). Other scenarios combined two cues that were in conflict with one another (e.g., high hunger + a companion who eats very little). In the cue-conflict scenarios involving an inhibitory internal/sensory cue (e.g., low hunger) with an augmenting normative cue (e.g., a companion who eats a lot), participants predicted a low level of food intake, suggesting a bias toward the internal/sensory cue. For scenarios involving an augmenting internal/sensory cue (e.g., high hunger) and an inhibitory normative cue (e.g., a companion who eats very little), participants predicted an intermediate level of food intake, suggesting that they were influenced by both the internal/sensory and normative cue. Overall, predictions about food intake tend to reflect a general bias toward internal/sensory cues, but also include normative cues when those cues are inhibitory. If people are systematically biased toward internal, sensory, and inhibitory cues, then they may underestimate how much food they or other people will eat in many situations, particularly when normative cues promoting eating are present. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Curiosity and reward: Valence predicts choice and information prediction errors enhance learning.

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Marvin, Caroline B; Shohamy, Daphna

2016-03-01

Curiosity drives many of our daily pursuits and interactions; yet, we know surprisingly little about how it works. Here, we harness an idea implied in many conceptualizations of curiosity: that information has value in and of itself. Reframing curiosity as the motivation to obtain reward-where the reward is information-allows one to leverage major advances in theoretical and computational mechanisms of reward-motivated learning. We provide new evidence supporting 2 predictions that emerge from this framework. First, we find an asymmetric effect of positive versus negative information, with positive information enhancing both curiosity and long-term memory for information. Second, we find that it is not the absolute value of information that drives learning but, rather, the gap between the reward expected and reward received, an "information prediction error." These results support the idea that information functions as a reward, much like money or food, guiding choices and driving learning in systematic ways. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Does predictability matter? Effects of cue predictability on neurocognitive mechanisms underlying prospective memory

OpenAIRE

Cona, Giorgia; Arcara, Giorgio; Tarantino, Vincenza; Bisiacchi, Patrizia S.

2015-01-01

Prospective memory (PM) represents the ability to successfully realize intentions when the appropriate moment or cue occurs. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the impact of cue predictability on the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting PM. Participants performed an ongoing task and, simultaneously, had to remember to execute a pre-specified action when they encountered the PM cues. The occurrence of the PM cues was predictable (being signaled by a warning...

Moderation of the Relationship Between Reward Expectancy and Prediction Error-Related Ventral Striatal Reactivity by Anhedonia in Unmedicated Major Depressive Disorder: Findings From the EMBARC Study.

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Greenberg, Tsafrir; Chase, Henry W; Almeida, Jorge R; Stiffler, Richelle; Zevallos, Carlos R; Aslam, Haris A; Deckersbach, Thilo; Weyandt, Sarah; Cooper, Crystal; Toups, Marisa; Carmody, Thomas; Kurian, Benji; Peltier, Scott; Adams, Phillip; McInnis, Melvin G; Oquendo, Maria A; McGrath, Patrick J; Fava, Maurizio; Weissman, Myrna; Parsey, Ramin; Trivedi, Madhukar H; Phillips, Mary L

2015-09-01

Anhedonia, disrupted reward processing, is a core symptom of major depressive disorder. Recent findings demonstrate altered reward-related ventral striatal reactivity in depressed individuals, but the extent to which this is specific to anhedonia remains poorly understood. The authors examined the effect of anhedonia on reward expectancy (expected outcome value) and prediction error- (discrepancy between expected and actual outcome) related ventral striatal reactivity, as well as the relationship between these measures. A total of 148 unmedicated individuals with major depressive disorder and 31 healthy comparison individuals recruited for the multisite EMBARC (Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response in Clinical Care) study underwent functional MRI during a well-validated reward task. Region of interest and whole-brain data were examined in the first- (N=78) and second- (N=70) recruited cohorts, as well as the total sample, of depressed individuals, and in healthy individuals. Healthy, but not depressed, individuals showed a significant inverse relationship between reward expectancy and prediction error-related right ventral striatal reactivity. Across all participants, and in depressed individuals only, greater anhedonia severity was associated with a reduced reward expectancy-prediction error inverse relationship, even after controlling for other symptoms. The normal reward expectancy and prediction error-related ventral striatal reactivity inverse relationship concords with conditioning models, predicting a shift in ventral striatal responding from reward outcomes to reward cues. This study shows, for the first time, an absence of this relationship in two cohorts of unmedicated depressed individuals and a moderation of this relationship by anhedonia, suggesting reduced reward-contingency learning with greater anhedonia. These findings help elucidate neural mechanisms of anhedonia, as a step toward identifying potential biosignatures

Individual differences in the influence of task-irrelevant Pavlovian cues on human behavior.

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Garofalo, Sara; di Pellegrino, Giuseppe

2015-01-01

Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) refers to the process of a Pavlovian reward-paired cue acquiring incentive motivational proprieties that drive choices. It represents a crucial phenomenon for understanding cue-controlled behavior, and it has both adaptive and maladaptive implications (i.e., drug-taking). In animals, individual differences in the degree to which such cues bias performance have been identified in two types of individuals that exhibit distinct Conditioned Responses (CR) during Pavlovian conditioning: Sign-Trackers (ST) and Goal-Trackers (GT). Using an appetitive PIT procedure with a monetary reward, the present study investigated, for the first time, the extent to which such individual differences might affect the influence of reward-paired cues in humans. In a first task, participants learned an instrumental response leading to reward; then, in a second task, a visual Pavlovian cue was associated with the same reward; finally, in a third task, PIT was tested by measuring the preference for the reward-paired instrumental response when the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue was presented, in the absence of the reward itself. In ST individuals, but not in GT individuals, reward-related cues biased behavior, resulting in an increased likelihood to perform the instrumental response independently paired with the same reward when presented with the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue, even if the reward itself was no longer available (i.e., stronger PIT effect). This finding has important implications for developing individualized treatment for maladaptive behaviors, such as addiction.

Individual differences in the influence of task-irrelevant Pavlovian cues on human behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara eGarofalo

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT refers to the process of a Pavlovian reward-paired cue acquiring incentive motivational proprieties that drive choices. It represents a crucial phenomenon for understanding cue-controlled behavior, and it has both adaptive and maladaptive implications (i.e., drug-taking. In animals, individual differences in the degree to which such cues bias performance have been identified in two types of individuals that exhibit distinct Conditioned Responses during Pavlovian conditioning: Sign-Trackers (ST and Goal-Trackers (GT. Using an appetitive PIT procedure with a monetary reward, the present study investigated, for the first time, the extent to which such individual differences might affect the influence of reward-paired cues in humans. In a first task, participants learned an instrumental response leading to reward; then, in a second task, a visual Pavlovian cue was associated with the same reward; finally, in a third task, PIT was tested by measuring the preference for the reward-paired instrumental response when the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue was presented, in the absence of the reward itself. In ST individuals, but not in GT individuals, reward-related cues biased behavior, resulting in an increased likelihood to perform the instrumental response independently paired with the same reward when presented with the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue, even if the reward itself was no longer available (i.e., stronger PIT effect. This finding has important implications for developing individualized treatment for maladaptive behaviors, such as addiction.

Individual differences in the influence of task-irrelevant Pavlovian cues on human behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Garofalo, Sara; di Pellegrino, Giuseppe

2015-01-01

Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) refers to the process of a Pavlovian reward-paired cue acquiring incentive motivational proprieties that drive choices. It represents a crucial phenomenon for understanding cue-controlled behavior, and it has both adaptive and maladaptive implications (i.e., drug-taking). In animals, individual differences in the degree to which such cues bias performance have been identified in two types of individuals that exhibit distinct Conditioned Responses (CR) during Pavlovian conditioning: Sign-Trackers (ST) and Goal-Trackers (GT). Using an appetitive PIT procedure with a monetary reward, the present study investigated, for the first time, the extent to which such individual differences might affect the influence of reward-paired cues in humans. In a first task, participants learned an instrumental response leading to reward; then, in a second task, a visual Pavlovian cue was associated with the same reward; finally, in a third task, PIT was tested by measuring the preference for the reward-paired instrumental response when the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue was presented, in the absence of the reward itself. In ST individuals, but not in GT individuals, reward-related cues biased behavior, resulting in an increased likelihood to perform the instrumental response independently paired with the same reward when presented with the task-irrelevant reward-paired cue, even if the reward itself was no longer available (i.e., stronger PIT effect). This finding has important implications for developing individualized treatment for maladaptive behaviors, such as addiction. PMID:26157371

Motivational state, reward value, and Pavlovian cues differentially affect skilled forelimb grasping in rats

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de Clauser, Larissa; Kasper, Hansjörg; Schwab, Martin E.

2016-01-01

Motor skills represent high-precision movements performed at optimal speed and accuracy. Such motor skills are learned with practice over time. Besides practice, effects of motivation have also been shown to influence speed and accuracy of movements, suggesting that fast movements are performed to maximize gained reward over time as noted in previous studies. In rodents, skilled motor performance has been successfully modeled with the skilled grasping task, in which animals use their forepaw to grasp for sugar pellet rewards through a narrow window. Using sugar pellets, the skilled grasping task is inherently tied to motivation processes. In the present study, we performed three experiments modulating animals’ motivation during skilled grasping by changing the motivational state, presenting different reward value ratios, and displaying Pavlovian stimuli. We found in all three studies that motivation affected the speed of skilled grasping movements, with the strongest effects seen due to motivational state and reward value. Furthermore, accuracy of the movement, measured in success rate, showed a strong dependence on motivational state as well. Pavlovian cues had only minor effects on skilled grasping, but results indicate an inverse Pavlovian-instrumental transfer effect on movement speed. These findings have broad implications considering the increasing use of skilled grasping in studies of motor system structure, function, and recovery after injuries. PMID:27194796

Competitor suppresses neuronal representation of food reward in the nucleus accumbens/medial striatum of domestic chicks.

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Amita, Hidetoshi; Matsushima, Toshiya

2014-07-15

To investigate the role of social contexts in controlling the neuronal representation of food reward, we recorded single neuron activity in the medial striatum/nucleus accumbens of domestic chicks and examined whether activities differed between two blocks with different contexts. Chicks were trained in an operant task to associate light-emitting diode color cues with three trial types that differed in the type of food reward: no reward (S-), a small reward/short-delay option (SS), and a large reward/long-delay alternative (LL). Amount and duration of reward were set such that both of SS and LL were chosen roughly equally. Neurons showing distinct cue-period activity in rewarding trials (SS and LL) were identified during an isolation block, and activity patterns were compared with those recorded from the same neuron during a subsequent pseudo-competition block in which another chick was allowed to forage in the same area, but was separated by a transparent window. In some neurons, cue-period activity was lower in the pseudo-competition block, and the difference was not ascribed to the number of repeated trials. Comparison at neuronal population level revealed statistically significant suppression in the pseudo-competition block in both SS and LL trials, suggesting that perceived competition generally suppressed the representation of cue-associated food reward. The delay- and reward-period activities, however, did not significantly different between blocks. These results demonstrate that visual perception of a competitive forager per se weakens the neuronal representation of predicted food reward. Possible functional links to impulse control are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contralateral Disconnection of the Rat Prelimbic Cortex and Dorsomedial Striatum Impairs Cue-Guided Behavioral Switching

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Baker, Phillip M.; Ragozzino, Michael E.

2014-01-01

Switches in reward outcomes or reward-predictive cues are two fundamental ways in which information is used to flexibly shift response patterns. The rat prelimbic cortex and dorsomedial striatum support behavioral flexibility based on a change in outcomes. The present experiments investigated whether these two brain regions are necessary for…

Moderation of the Relationship Between Reward Expectancy and Prediction Error-Related Ventral Striatal Reactivity by Anhedonia in Unmedicated Major Depressive Disorder: Findings From the EMBARC Study

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Greenberg, Tsafrir; Chase, Henry W.; Almeida, Jorge R.; Stiffler, Richelle; Zevallos, Carlos R.; Aslam, Haris A.; Deckersbach, Thilo; Weyandt, Sarah; Cooper, Crystal; Toups, Marisa; Carmody, Thomas; Kurian, Benji; Peltier, Scott; Adams, Phillip; McInnis, Melvin G.; Oquendo, Maria A.; McGrath, Patrick J.; Fava, Maurizio; Weissman, Myrna; Parsey, Ramin; Trivedi, Madhukar H.; Phillips, Mary L.

2016-01-01

Objective Anhedonia, disrupted reward processing, is a core symptom of major depressive disorder. Recent findings demonstrate altered reward-related ventral striatal reactivity in depressed individuals, but the extent to which this is specific to anhedonia remains poorly understood. The authors examined the effect of anhedonia on reward expectancy (expected outcome value) and prediction error-(discrepancy between expected and actual outcome) related ventral striatal reactivity, as well as the relationship between these measures. Method A total of 148 unmedicated individuals with major depressive disorder and 31 healthy comparison individuals recruited for the multisite EMBARC (Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response in Clinical Care) study underwent functional MRI during a well-validated reward task. Region of interest and whole-brain data were examined in the first- (N=78) and second- (N=70) recruited cohorts, as well as the total sample, of depressed individuals, and in healthy individuals. Results Healthy, but not depressed, individuals showed a significant inverse relationship between reward expectancy and prediction error-related right ventral striatal reactivity. Across all participants, and in depressed individuals only, greater anhedonia severity was associated with a reduced reward expectancy-prediction error inverse relationship, even after controlling for other symptoms. Conclusions The normal reward expectancy and prediction error-related ventral striatal reactivity inverse relationship concords with conditioning models, predicting a shift in ventral striatal responding from reward outcomes to reward cues. This study shows, for the first time, an absence of this relationship in two cohorts of unmedicated depressed individuals and a moderation of this relationship by anhedonia, suggesting reduced reward-contingency learning with greater anhedonia. These findings help elucidate neural mechanisms of anhedonia, as a step toward

Trait Anticipatory Pleasure Predicts Effort Expenditure for Reward.

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Joachim T Geaney

Full Text Available Research in motivation and emotion has been increasingly influenced by the perspective that processes underpinning the motivated approach of rewarding goals are distinct from those underpinning enjoyment during reward consummation. This distinction recently inspired the construction of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS, a self-report measure that distinguishes trait anticipatory pleasure (pre-reward feelings of desire from consummatory pleasure (feelings of enjoyment and gratification upon reward attainment. In a university community sample (N = 97, we examined the TEPS subscales as predictors of (1 the willingness to expend effort for monetary rewards, and (2 affective responses to a pleasant mood induction procedure. Results showed that both anticipatory pleasure and a well-known trait measure of reward motivation predicted effort-expenditure for rewards when the probability of being rewarded was relatively low. Against expectations, consummatory pleasure was unrelated to induced pleasant affect. Taken together, our findings provide support for the validity of the TEPS anticipatory pleasure scale, but not the consummatory pleasure scale.

Learning from sensory and reward prediction errors during motor adaptation.

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Izawa, Jun; Shadmehr, Reza

2011-03-01

Voluntary motor commands produce two kinds of consequences. Initially, a sensory consequence is observed in terms of activity in our primary sensory organs (e.g., vision, proprioception). Subsequently, the brain evaluates the sensory feedback and produces a subjective measure of utility or usefulness of the motor commands (e.g., reward). As a result, comparisons between predicted and observed consequences of motor commands produce two forms of prediction error. How do these errors contribute to changes in motor commands? Here, we considered a reach adaptation protocol and found that when high quality sensory feedback was available, adaptation of motor commands was driven almost exclusively by sensory prediction errors. This form of learning had a distinct signature: as motor commands adapted, the subjects altered their predictions regarding sensory consequences of motor commands, and generalized this learning broadly to neighboring motor commands. In contrast, as the quality of the sensory feedback degraded, adaptation of motor commands became more dependent on reward prediction errors. Reward prediction errors produced comparable changes in the motor commands, but produced no change in the predicted sensory consequences of motor commands, and generalized only locally. Because we found that there was a within subject correlation between generalization patterns and sensory remapping, it is plausible that during adaptation an individual's relative reliance on sensory vs. reward prediction errors could be inferred. We suggest that while motor commands change because of sensory and reward prediction errors, only sensory prediction errors produce a change in the neural system that predicts sensory consequences of motor commands.

Impaired cross-talk between mesolimbic food reward processing and metabolic signaling predicts body mass index

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Joe J Simon

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The anticipation of the pleasure derived from food intake drives the motivation to eat, and hence facilitate overconsumption of food which ultimately results in obesity. Brain imaging studies provide evidence that mesolimbic brain regions underlie both general as well as food related anticipatory reward processing. In light of this knowledge, the present study examined the neural responsiveness of the ventral striatum in participants with a broad BMI spectrum. The study differentiated between general (i.e. monetary and food related anticipatory reward processing. We recruited a sample of volunteers with greatly varying body weights, ranging from a low BMI (below 20 kg/m² over a normal (20 to 25 kg/m² and overweight (25 to 30 kg/m² BMI, to class I (30 to 35 kg/m² and class II (35 to 40 kg/m² obesity. A total of 24 participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging whilst performing both a food and monetary incentive delay task, which allows to measure neural activation during the anticipation of rewards. After the presentation of a cue indicating the amount of food or money to be won, participants had to react correctly in order to earn snack points or money coins which could then be exchanged for real food or money, respectively, at the end of the experiment. During the anticipation of both types of rewards, participants displayed activity in the ventral striatum, a region that plays a pivotal role in the anticipation of rewards. Additionally, we observed that specifically anticipatory food reward processing predicted the individual BMI (current and maximum lifetime. This relation was found to be mediated by impaired hormonal satiety signaling, i.e. increased leptin levels and insulin resistance. These findings suggest that heightened food reward motivation contributes to obesity through impaired metabolic signaling.

Music-related reward responses predict episodic memory performance.

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Ferreri, Laura; Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni

2017-12-01

Music represents a special type of reward involving the recruitment of the mesolimbic dopaminergic system. According to recent theories on episodic memory formation, as dopamine strengthens the synaptic potentiation produced by learning, stimuli triggering dopamine release could result in long-term memory improvements. Here, we behaviourally test whether music-related reward responses could modulate episodic memory performance. Thirty participants rated (in terms of arousal, familiarity, emotional valence, and reward) and encoded unfamiliar classical music excerpts. Twenty-four hours later, their episodic memory was tested (old/new recognition and remember/know paradigm). Results revealed an influence of music-related reward responses on memory: excerpts rated as more rewarding were significantly better recognized and remembered. Furthermore, inter-individual differences in the ability to experience musical reward, measured through the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire, positively predicted memory performance. Taken together, these findings shed new light on the relationship between music, reward and memory, showing for the first time that music-driven reward responses are directly implicated in higher cognitive functions and can account for individual differences in memory performance.

Fasting for 24 hours heightens reward from food and food-related cues.

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Cameron, Jameason D; Goldfield, Gary S; Finlayson, Graham; Blundell, John E; Doucet, Eric

2014-01-01

We examined the impact of a 24 hour complete fast (vs. fed state) on two measures of food reward: 1) 'wanting', as measured by response to food images and by the relative-reinforcing value of food (RRV), and 2) 'liking', as measured by response to food images and the hedonic evaluation of foods consumed. Utilizing a randomized crossover design, 15 subjects (9 male; 6 female) aged 28.6±4.5 yrs with body mass index 25.3±1.4 kg/m(2) were randomized and counterbalanced to normal feeding (FED) and 24-hour fast (FASTED) conditions. Trait characteristics were measured with the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire. Two computer tasks measured food reward: 1) RRV progressive ratio task, 2) explicit 'liking' and 'wanting' (Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire, LFPQ). Also measured were ad libitum energy intake (EI; buffet) and food 'liking' (visual analogue scale) of personalized stimuli. There were no significant anthropometric changes between conditions. Appetite scores, hedonic ratings of 'liking', and ad libitum EI all significantly increased under the FASTED condition (pFASTED condition there were significant increases in the RRV of snack foods; similarly, explicit 'wanting' and 'liking' significantly increased for all food categories. 'Liking' of sweet foods remained high across-meals under FASTED, but savory foods decreased in hedonic saliency. Relative to a fed state, we observed an increase in hedonic ratings of food, the rewarding value of food, and food intake after a 24 hr fast. Alliesthesia to food and food cues is suggested by heightened hedonic ratings under the FASTED condition relative to FED.

Evidence of Structure and Persistence in Motivational Attraction to Serial Pavlovian Cues

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Smedley, Elizabeth B.; Smith, Kyle S.

2018-01-01

Sign-tracking is a form of autoshaping where animals develop conditioned responding directed toward stimuli predictive of an outcome even though the outcome is not contingent on the animal's behavior. Sign-tracking behaviors are thought to arise out of the attribution of incentive salience (i.e., motivational value) to reward-predictive cues. It…

Scaling prediction errors to reward variability benefits error-driven learning in humans.

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Diederen, Kelly M J; Schultz, Wolfram

2015-09-01

Effective error-driven learning requires individuals to adapt learning to environmental reward variability. The adaptive mechanism may involve decays in learning rate across subsequent trials, as shown previously, and rescaling of reward prediction errors. The present study investigated the influence of prediction error scaling and, in particular, the consequences for learning performance. Participants explicitly predicted reward magnitudes that were drawn from different probability distributions with specific standard deviations. By fitting the data with reinforcement learning models, we found scaling of prediction errors, in addition to the learning rate decay shown previously. Importantly, the prediction error scaling was closely related to learning performance, defined as accuracy in predicting the mean of reward distributions, across individual participants. In addition, participants who scaled prediction errors relative to standard deviation also presented with more similar performance for different standard deviations, indicating that increases in standard deviation did not substantially decrease "adapters'" accuracy in predicting the means of reward distributions. However, exaggerated scaling beyond the standard deviation resulted in impaired performance. Thus efficient adaptation makes learning more robust to changing variability. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

Nucleus accumbens response to food cues predicts subsequent snack consumption in women and increased body mass index in those with reduced self-control.

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Lawrence, Natalia S; Hinton, Elanor C; Parkinson, John A; Lawrence, Andrew D

2012-10-15

Individuals have difficulty controlling their food consumption, which is due in part to the ubiquity of tempting food cues in the environment. Individual differences in the propensity to attribute incentive (motivational) salience to and act on these cues may explain why some individuals eat more than others. Using fMRI in healthy women, we found that food cue related activity in the nucleus accumbens, a key brain region for food motivation and reward, was related to subsequent snack food consumption. However, both nucleus accumbens activation and snack food consumption were unrelated to self-reported hunger, or explicit wanting and liking for the snack. In contrast, food cue reactivity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was associated with subjective hunger/appetite, but not with consumption. Whilst the food cue reactivity in the nucleus accumbens that predicted snack consumption was not directly related to body mass index (BMI), it was associated with increased BMI in individuals reporting low self-control. Our findings reveal a neural substrate underpinning automatic environmental influences on consumption in humans and demonstrate how self-control interacts with this response to predict BMI. Our data provide support for theoretical models that advocate a 'dual hit' of increased incentive salience attribution to food cues and poor self-control in determining vulnerability to overeating and overweight. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Beyond reward prediction errors: the role of dopamine in movement kinematics

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Joseph eBarter

2015-05-01

Full Text Available We recorded activity of dopamine (DA neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta in unrestrained mice while monitoring their movements with video tracking. Our approach allows an unbiased examination of the continuous relationship between single unit activity and behavior. Although DA neurons show characteristic burst firing following cue or reward presentation, as previously reported, their activity can be explained by the representation of actual movement kinematics. Unlike neighboring pars reticulata GABAergic output neurons, which can represent vector components of position, DA neurons represent vector components of velocity or acceleration. We found neurons related to movements in four directions—up, down, left right. For horizontal movements, there is significant lateralization of neurons: the left nigra contains more rightward neurons, whereas the right nigra contains more leftward neurons. The relationship between DA activity and movement kinematics was found on both appetitive trials using sucrose and aversive trials using air puff, showing that these neurons belong to a velocity control circuit that can be used for any number of purposes, whether to seek reward or to avoid harm. In support of this conclusion, mimicry of the phasic activation of DA neurons with selective optogenetic stimulation could also generate movements. Contrary to the popular hypothesis that DA neurons encode reward prediction errors, our results suggest that nigrostriatal DA plays an essential role in controlling the kinematics of voluntary movements. We hypothesize that DA signaling implements gain adjustment for adaptive transition control, and describe a new model of BG in which DA functions to adjust the gain of a transition controller. This model has significant implications for our understanding of movement disorders implicating DA and the BG.

Imbalance in the sensitivity to different types of rewards in pathological gambling.

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Sescousse, Guillaume; Barbalat, Guillaume; Domenech, Philippe; Dreher, Jean-Claude

2013-08-01

Pathological gambling is an addictive disorder characterized by a persistent and compulsive desire to engage in gambling activities. This maladaptive behaviour has been suggested to result from a decreased sensitivity to experienced rewards, regardless of reward type. Alternatively, pathological gambling might reflect an imbalance in the sensitivity to monetary versus non-monetary incentives. To directly test these two hypotheses, we examined how the brain reward circuit of pathological gamblers responds to different types of rewards. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared the brain responses of 18 pathological gamblers and 20 healthy control subjects while they engaged in a simple incentive task manipulating both monetary and visual erotic rewards. During reward anticipation, the ventral striatum of pathological gamblers showed a differential response to monetary versus erotic cues, essentially driven by a blunted reactivity to cues predicting erotic stimuli. This differential response correlated with the severity of gambling symptoms and was paralleled by a reduced behavioural motivation for erotic rewards. During reward outcome, a posterior orbitofrontal cortex region, responding to erotic rewards in both groups, was further recruited by monetary gains in pathological gamblers but not in control subjects. Moreover, while ventral striatal activity correlated with subjective ratings assigned to monetary and erotic rewards in control subjects, it only correlated with erotic ratings in gamblers. Our results point to a differential sensitivity to monetary versus non-monetary rewards in pathological gambling, both at the motivational and hedonic levels. Such an imbalance might create a bias towards monetary rewards, potentially promoting addictive gambling behaviour.

Model-free and model-based reward prediction errors in EEG.

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Sambrook, Thomas D; Hardwick, Ben; Wills, Andy J; Goslin, Jeremy

2018-05-24

Learning theorists posit two reinforcement learning systems: model-free and model-based. Model-based learning incorporates knowledge about structure and contingencies in the world to assign candidate actions with an expected value. Model-free learning is ignorant of the world's structure; instead, actions hold a value based on prior reinforcement, with this value updated by expectancy violation in the form of a reward prediction error. Because they use such different learning mechanisms, it has been previously assumed that model-based and model-free learning are computationally dissociated in the brain. However, recent fMRI evidence suggests that the brain may compute reward prediction errors to both model-free and model-based estimates of value, signalling the possibility that these systems interact. Because of its poor temporal resolution, fMRI risks confounding reward prediction errors with other feedback-related neural activity. In the present study, EEG was used to show the presence of both model-based and model-free reward prediction errors and their place in a temporal sequence of events including state prediction errors and action value updates. This demonstration of model-based prediction errors questions a long-held assumption that model-free and model-based learning are dissociated in the brain. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Trial-by-Trial Modulation of Associative Memory Formation by Reward Prediction Error and Reward Anticipation as Revealed by a Biologically Plausible Computational Model.

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Aberg, Kristoffer C; Müller, Julia; Schwartz, Sophie

2017-01-01

Anticipation and delivery of rewards improves memory formation, but little effort has been made to disentangle their respective contributions to memory enhancement. Moreover, it has been suggested that the effects of reward on memory are mediated by dopaminergic influences on hippocampal plasticity. Yet, evidence linking memory improvements to actual reward computations reflected in the activity of the dopaminergic system, i.e., prediction errors and expected values, is scarce and inconclusive. For example, different previous studies reported that the magnitude of prediction errors during a reinforcement learning task was a positive, negative, or non-significant predictor of successfully encoding simultaneously presented images. Individual sensitivities to reward and punishment have been found to influence the activation of the dopaminergic reward system and could therefore help explain these seemingly discrepant results. Here, we used a novel associative memory task combined with computational modeling and showed independent effects of reward-delivery and reward-anticipation on memory. Strikingly, the computational approach revealed positive influences from both reward delivery, as mediated by prediction error magnitude, and reward anticipation, as mediated by magnitude of expected value, even in the absence of behavioral effects when analyzed using standard methods, i.e., by collapsing memory performance across trials within conditions. We additionally measured trait estimates of reward and punishment sensitivity and found that individuals with increased reward (vs. punishment) sensitivity had better memory for associations encoded during positive (vs. negative) prediction errors when tested after 20 min, but a negative trend when tested after 24 h. In conclusion, modeling trial-by-trial fluctuations in the magnitude of reward, as we did here for prediction errors and expected value computations, provides a comprehensive and biologically plausible description of

Reminder cues modulate the renewal effect in human predictive learning

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Javier Bustamante

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Associative learning refers to our ability to learn about regularities in our environment. When a stimulus is repeatedly followed by a specific outcome, we learn to expect the outcome in the presence of the stimulus. We are also able to modify established expectations in the face of disconfirming information (the stimulus is no longer followed by the outcome. Both the change of environmental regularities and the related processes of adaptation are referred to as extinction. However, extinction does not erase the initially acquired expectations. For instance, following successful extinction, the initially learned expectations can recover when there is a context change – a phenomenon called the renewal effect, which is considered as a model for relapse after exposure therapy. Renewal was found to be modulated by reminder cues of acquisition and extinction. However, the mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of reminder cues are not well understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of reminder cues on renewal in the field of human predictive learning. Experiment I demonstrated that renewal in human predictive learning is modulated by cues related to acquisition or extinction. Initially, participants received pairings of a stimulus and an outcome in one context. These stimulus-outcome pairings were preceded by presentations of a reminder cue (acquisition cue. Then, participants received extinction in a different context in which presentations of the stimulus were no longer followed by the outcome. These extinction trials were preceded by a second reminder cue (extinction cue. During a final phase conducted in a third context, participants showed stronger expectations of the outcome in the presence of the stimulus when testing was accompanied by the acquisition cue compared to the extinction cue. Experiment II tested an explanation of the reminder cue effect in terms of simple cue-outcome associations. Therefore

The Timing Effects of Reward, Business Longevity, and Involvement on Consumers’ Responses to a Reward Program

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Badri Munir Sukoco

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Managers could elicit customers’ repeat purchase behavior through a well-designed reward program. This study examines two extrinsic cues - business longevity and timing effects of reward – to determine the consumers’ perceived risk and intention to participate in this kind of program. Moreover, this study discusses how different levels of involvement might interact with these two cues. An experiment with a 2 (business longevity: long vs. short x 2 (timing of reward: delayed vs. immediate x 2 (involvement: high vs. low between-subject factorial design is conducted to validate the proposed research hypotheses. The results show that an immediate reward offered by an older, more established, firm for a highly-involved product, make loyalty programs less risky and consequently attract consumers to participate. Interestingly, immediate rewards that are offered by older firms for a product that customers are less involved in has the opposite effects. Managerial and academic implications are further presented in this study.

Monitoring and regulation of learning in medical education: the need for predictive cues.

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de Bruin, Anique B H; Dunlosky, John; Cavalcanti, Rodrigo B

2017-06-01

Being able to accurately monitor learning activities is a key element in self-regulated learning in all settings, including medical schools. Yet students' ability to monitor their progress is often limited, leading to inefficient use of study time. Interventions that improve the accuracy of students' monitoring can optimise self-regulated learning, leading to higher achievement. This paper reviews findings from cognitive psychology and explores potential applications in medical education, as well as areas for future research. Effective monitoring depends on students' ability to generate information ('cues') that accurately reflects their knowledge and skills. The ability of these 'cues' to predict achievement is referred to as 'cue diagnosticity'. Interventions that improve the ability of students to elicit predictive cues typically fall into two categories: (i) self-generation of cues and (ii) generation of cues that is delayed after self-study. Providing feedback and support is useful when cues are predictive but may be too complex to be readily used. Limited evidence exists about interventions to improve the accuracy of self-monitoring among medical students or trainees. Developing interventions that foster use of predictive cues can enhance the accuracy of self-monitoring, thereby improving self-study and clinical reasoning. First, insight should be gained into the characteristics of predictive cues used by medical students and trainees. Next, predictive cue prompts should be designed and tested to improve monitoring and regulation of learning. Finally, the use of predictive cues should be explored in relation to teaching and learning clinical reasoning. Improving self-regulated learning is important to help medical students and trainees efficiently acquire knowledge and skills necessary for clinical practice. Interventions that help students generate and use predictive cues hold the promise of improved self-regulated learning and achievement. This framework is

Largely overlapping neuronal substrates of reactivity to drug, gambling, food and sexual cues: A comprehensive meta-analysis.

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Noori, Hamid R; Cosa Linan, Alejandro; Spanagel, Rainer

2016-09-01

Cue reactivity to natural and social rewards is essential for motivational behavior. However, cue reactivity to drug rewards can also elicit craving in addicted subjects. The degree to which drug and natural rewards share neural substrates is not known. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on drug, gambling and natural stimuli (food and sex) to identify the common and distinct neural substrates of cue reactivity to drug and natural rewards. Neural cue reactivity studies were selected for the meta-analysis by means of activation likelihood estimations, followed by sensitivity and clustering analyses of averaged neuronal response patterns. Data from 176 studies (5573 individuals) suggests largely overlapping neural response patterns towards all tested reward modalities. Common cue reactivity to natural and drug rewards was expressed by bilateral neural responses within anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, caudate head, inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus and cerebellum. However, drug cues also generated distinct activation patterns in medial frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus, caudate body and putamen. Natural (sexual) reward cues induced unique activation of the pulvinar in thalamus. Neural substrates of cue reactivity to alcohol, drugs of abuse, food, sex and gambling are largely overlapping and comprise a network that processes reward, emotional responses and habit formation. This suggests that cue-mediated craving involves mechanisms that are not exclusive for addictive disorders but rather resemble the intersection of information pathways for processing reward, emotional responses, non-declarative memory and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Association of Elevated Reward Prediction Error Response With Weight Gain in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa.

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DeGuzman, Marisa; Shott, Megan E; Yang, Tony T; Riederer, Justin; Frank, Guido K W

2017-06-01

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric disorder of unknown etiology. Understanding associations between behavior and neurobiology is important in treatment development. Using a novel monetary reward task during functional magnetic resonance brain imaging, the authors tested how brain reward learning in adolescent anorexia nervosa changes with weight restoration. Female adolescents with anorexia nervosa (N=21; mean age, 16.4 years [SD=1.9]) underwent functional MRI (fMRI) before and after treatment; similarly, healthy female control adolescents (N=21; mean age, 15.2 years [SD=2.4]) underwent fMRI on two occasions. Brain function was tested using the reward prediction error construct, a computational model for reward receipt and omission related to motivation and neural dopamine responsiveness. Compared with the control group, the anorexia nervosa group exhibited greater brain response 1) for prediction error regression within the caudate, ventral caudate/nucleus accumbens, and anterior and posterior insula, 2) to unexpected reward receipt in the anterior and posterior insula, and 3) to unexpected reward omission in the caudate body. Prediction error and unexpected reward omission response tended to normalize with treatment, while unexpected reward receipt response remained significantly elevated. Greater caudate prediction error response when underweight was associated with lower weight gain during treatment. Punishment sensitivity correlated positively with ventral caudate prediction error response. Reward system responsiveness is elevated in adolescent anorexia nervosa when underweight and after weight restoration. Heightened prediction error activity in brain reward regions may represent a phenotype of adolescent anorexia nervosa that does not respond well to treatment. Prediction error response could be a neurobiological marker of illness severity that can indicate individual treatment needs.

Monetary rewards influence retrieval orientations.

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Halsband, Teresa M; Ferdinand, Nicola K; Bridger, Emma K; Mecklinger, Axel

2012-09-01

Reward anticipation during learning is known to support memory formation, but its role in retrieval processes is so far unclear. Retrieval orientations, as a reflection of controlled retrieval processing, are one aspect of retrieval that might be modulated by reward. These processes can be measured using the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by retrieval cues from tasks with different retrieval requirements, such as via changes in the class of targeted memory information. To determine whether retrieval orientations of this kind are modulated by reward during learning, we investigated the effects of high and low reward expectancy on the ERP correlates of retrieval orientation in two separate experiments. The reward manipulation at study in Experiment 1 was associated with later memory performance, whereas in Experiment 2, reward was directly linked to accuracy in the study task. In both studies, the participants encoded mixed lists of pictures and words preceded by high- or low-reward cues. After 24 h, they performed a recognition memory exclusion task, with words as the test items. In addition to a previously reported material-specific effect of retrieval orientation, a frontally distributed, reward-associated retrieval orientation effect was found in both experiments. These findings suggest that reward motivation during learning leads to the adoption of a reward-associated retrieval orientation to support the retrieval of highly motivational information. Thus, ERP retrieval orientation effects not only reflect retrieval processes related to the sought-for materials, but also relate to the reward conditions with which items were combined during encoding.

Reward-related brain response and craving correlates of marijuana cue exposure: a preliminary study in treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects.

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Goldman, Marina; Szucs-Reed, Regina P; Jagannathan, Kanchana; Ehrman, Ronald N; Wang, Ze; Li, Yin; Suh, Jesse J; Kampman, Kyle; O'Brien, Charles P; Childress, Anna Rose; Franklin, Teresa R

2013-01-01

: Determining the brain substrates underlying the motivation to abuse addictive drugs is critical for understanding and treating addictive disorders. Laboratory neuroimaging studies have demonstrated differential activation of limbic and motivational circuitry (eg, amygdala, hippocampus, ventral striatum, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex) triggered by cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol cues. The literature on neural responses to marijuana cues is sparse. Thus, the goals of this study were to characterize the brain's response to marijuana cues, a major motivator underlying drug use and relapse, and determine whether these responses are linked to self-reported craving in a clinically relevant population of treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects. : Marijuana craving was assessed in 12 marijuana-dependent subjects using the Marijuana Craving Questionnaire-Short Form. Subsequently, blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired during exposure to alternating 20-second blocks of marijuana-related versus matched nondrug visual cues. : Brain activation during marijuana cue exposure was significantly greater in the bilateral amygdala and the hippocampus. Significant positive correlations between craving scores and brain activation were found in the ventral striatum and the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (P cues and craving and extends the current literature on marijuana cue reactivity. Furthermore, the correlative relationship between craving and brain activity in reward-related regions was observed in a clinically relevant sample (treatment-seeking marijuana-dependent subjects). Results are consistent with prior findings in cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol cue studies, indicating that the brain substrates of cue-triggered drug motivation are shared across abused substances.

Novelty enhances visual salience independently of reward in the parietal lobe.

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Foley, Nicholas C; Jangraw, David C; Peck, Christopher; Gottlieb, Jacqueline

2014-06-04

Novelty modulates sensory and reward processes, but it remains unknown how these effects interact, i.e., how the visual effects of novelty are related to its motivational effects. A widespread hypothesis, based on findings that novelty activates reward-related structures, is that all the effects of novelty are explained in terms of reward. According to this idea, a novel stimulus is by default assigned high reward value and hence high salience, but this salience rapidly decreases if the stimulus signals a negative outcome. Here we show that, contrary to this idea, novelty affects visual salience in the monkey lateral intraparietal area (LIP) in ways that are independent of expected reward. Monkeys viewed peripheral visual cues that were novel or familiar (received few or many exposures) and predicted whether the trial will have a positive or a negative outcome--i.e., end in a reward or a lack of reward. We used a saccade-based assay to detect whether the cues automatically attracted or repelled attention from their visual field location. We show that salience--measured in saccades and LIP responses--was enhanced by both novelty and positive reward associations, but these factors were dissociable and habituated on different timescales. The monkeys rapidly recognized that a novel stimulus signaled a negative outcome (and withheld anticipatory licking within the first few presentations), but the salience of that stimulus remained high for multiple subsequent presentations. Therefore, novelty can provide an intrinsic bonus for attention that extends beyond the first presentation and is independent of physical rewards. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/347947-11$15.00/0.

Introspective responses to cues and motivation to reduce cigarette smoking influence state and behavioral responses to cue exposure.

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Veilleux, Jennifer C; Skinner, Kayla D

2016-09-01

In the current study, we aimed to extend smoking cue-reactivity research by evaluating delay discounting as an outcome of cigarette cue exposure. We also separated introspection in response to cues (e.g., self-reporting craving and affect) from cue exposure alone, to determine if introspection changes behavioral responses to cigarette cues. Finally, we included measures of quit motivation and resistance to smoking to assess motivational influences on cue exposure. Smokers were invited to participate in an online cue-reactivity study. Participants were randomly assigned to view smoking images or neutral images, and were randomized to respond to cues with either craving and affect questions (e.g., introspection) or filler questions. Following cue exposure, participants completed a delay discounting task and then reported state affect, craving, and resistance to smoking, as well as an assessment of quit motivation. We found that after controlling for trait impulsivity, participants who introspected on craving and affect showed higher delay discounting, irrespective of cue type, but we found no effect of response condition on subsequent craving (e.g., craving reactivity). We also found that motivation to quit interacted with experimental conditions to predict state craving and state resistance to smoking. Although asking about craving during cue exposure did not increase later craving, it resulted in greater delaying of discounted rewards. Overall, our findings suggest the need to further assess the implications of introspection and motivation on behavioral outcomes of cue exposure. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mixed signals: The effect of conflicting reward- and goal-driven biases on selective attention.

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Preciado, Daniel; Munneke, Jaap; Theeuwes, Jan

2017-07-01

Attentional selection depends on the interaction between exogenous (stimulus-driven), endogenous (goal-driven), and selection history (experience-driven) factors. While endogenous and exogenous biases have been widely investigated, less is known about their interplay with value-driven attention. The present study investigated the interaction between reward-history and goal-driven biases on perceptual sensitivity (d') and response time (RT) in a modified cueing paradigm presenting two coloured cues, followed by sinusoidal gratings. Participants responded to the orientation of one of these gratings. In Experiment 1, one cue signalled reward availability but was otherwise task irrelevant. In Experiment 2, the same cue signalled reward, and indicated the target's most likely location at the opposite side of the display. This design introduced a conflict between reward-driven biases attracting attention and goal-driven biases directing it away. Attentional effects were examined comparing trials in which cue and target appeared at the same versus opposite locations. Two interstimulus interval (ISI) levels were used to probe the time course of attentional effects. Experiment 1 showed performance benefits at the location of the reward-signalling cue and costs at the opposite for both ISIs, indicating value-driven capture. Experiment 2 showed performance benefits only for the long ISI when the target was at the opposite to the reward-associated cue. At the short ISI, only performance costs were observed. These results reveal the time course of these biases, indicating that reward-driven effects influence attention early but can be overcome later by goal-driven control. This suggests that reward-driven biases are integrated as attentional priorities, just as exogenous and endogenous factors.

Effects of motivation on reward and attentional networks: an fMRI study.

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Ivanov, Iliyan; Liu, Xun; Clerkin, Suzanne; Schulz, Kurt; Friston, Karl; Newcorn, Jeffrey H; Fan, Jin

2012-11-01

Existing evidence suggests that reward and attentional networks function in concert and that activation in one system influences the other in a reciprocal fashion; however, the nature of these influences remains poorly understood. We therefore developed a three-component task to assess the interaction effects of reward anticipation and conflict resolution on the behavioral performance and the activation of brain reward and attentional systems. Sixteen healthy adult volunteers aged 21-45 years were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing the task. A two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with cue (reward vs. non-reward) and target (congruent vs. incongruent) as within-subjects factors was used to test for main and interaction effects. Neural responses to anticipation, conflict, and reward outcomes were tested. Behaviorally there were main effects of both reward cue and target congruency on reaction time. Neuroimaging results showed that reward anticipation and expected reward outcomes activated components of the attentional networks, including the inferior parietal and occipital cortices, whereas surprising non-rewards activated the frontoinsular cortex bilaterally and deactivated the ventral striatum. In turn, conflict activated a broad network associated with cognitive control and motor functions. Interaction effects showed decreased activity in the thalamus, anterior cingulated gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus bilaterally when difficult conflict trials (e.g., incongruent targets) were preceded by reward cues; in contrast, the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex showed greater activation during congruent targets preceded by reward cues. These results suggest that reward anticipation is associated with lower activation in attentional networks, possibly due to increased processing efficiency, whereas more difficult, conflict trials are associated with lower activity in regions of the reward system, possibly

Attentional Bias for Reward and Punishment in Overweight and Obesity: The TRAILS Study.

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Jonker, Nienke C; Glashouwer, Klaske A; Ostafin, Brian D; van Hemel-Ruiter, Madelon E; Smink, Frédérique R E; Hoek, Hans W; de Jong, Peter J

2016-01-01

More than 80% of obese adolescents will become obese adults, and it is therefore important to enhance insight into characteristics that underlie the development and maintenance of overweight and obesity at a young age. The current study is the first to focus on attentional biases towards rewarding and punishing cues as potentially important factors. Participants were young adolescents (N = 607) who were followed from the age of 13 until the age of 19, and completed a motivational game indexing the attentional bias to general cues of reward and punishment. Additionally, self-reported reward and punishment sensitivity was measured. This study showed that attentional biases to cues that signal reward or punishment and self-reported reward and punishment sensitivity were not related to body mass index or the change in body mass index over six years in adolescents. Thus, attentional bias to cues of reward and cues of punishment, and self-reported reward and punishment sensitivity, do not seem to be crucial factors in the development and maintenance of overweight and obesity in adolescents. Exploratory analyses of the current study suggest that the amount of effort to gain reward and to avoid punishment may play a role in the development and maintenance of overweight and obesity. However, since the effort measure was a construct based on face validity and has not been properly validated, more studies are necessary before firm conclusions can be drawn.

Single versus multiple impulse control disorders in Parkinson's disease: an ¹¹C-raclopride positron emission tomography study of reward cue-evoked striatal dopamine release.

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Wu, Kit; Politis, Marios; O'Sullivan, Sean S; Lawrence, Andrew D; Warsi, Sarah; Bose, Subrata; Lees, Andrew J; Piccini, Paola

2015-06-01

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are reported in Parkinson's disease (PD) in association with dopaminergic treatment. Approximately 25 % of patients with ICDs have multiple co-occurring ICDs (i.e. more than one diagnosed ICD). The extent to which dopaminergic neurotransmission in PD patients with multiple ICDs differs from those with only one diagnosed ICD is unknown. The aims of this study are: (1) to investigate dopamine neurotransmission in PD patients diagnosed with multiple ICDs, single ICDs and non-ICD controls in response to reward-related visual cues using positron emission tomography with (11)C-raclopride. (2) to compare clinical features of the above three groups. PD individuals with mulitple ICDs (n = 10), single ICD (n = 7) and no ICDs (n = 9) were recruited and underwent two positron emission tomography (PET) scans with (11)C-raclopride: one where they viewed neutral visual cues and the other where they viewed a range of visual cues related to different rewards. Individuals with both multiple ICDs and single ICDs showed significantly greater ventral striatal dopamine release compared to non-ICD PD individuals in response to reward cues, but the two ICD groups did not differ from each other in the extent of dopamine release. Subjects with multiple ICDs were, however, significantly more depressed, and had higher levels of impulsive sensation-seeking compared to subjects with single ICDs and without ICDs. This is the first study to compare dopamine neurotransmission using PET neuroimaging in PD subjects with multiple vs. single ICDs. Our results suggest that striatal dopamine neurotransmission is not directly related to the co-occurrence of ICDs in PD, potentially implicating non-dopaminergic mechanisms linked to depression; and suggest that physicians should be vigilant in managing depression in PD patients with ICDs.

Cocaine-associated odor cue re-exposure increases blood oxygenation level dependent signal in memory and reward regions of the maternal rat brain.

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Caffrey, Martha K; Febo, Marcelo

2014-01-01

Cue triggered relapse during the postpartum period can negatively impact maternal care. Given the high reward value of pups in maternal rats, we designed an fMRI experiment to test whether offspring presence reduces the neural response to a cocaine associated olfactory cue. Cocaine conditioned place preference was carried out before pregnancy in the presence of two distinct odors that were paired with cocaine or saline (+Cue and -Cue). The BOLD response to +Cue and -Cue was measured in dams on postpartum days 2-4. Odor cues were delivered to dams in the absence and then the presence of pups. Our data indicate that several limbic and cognitive regions of the maternal rat brain show a greater BOLD signal response to a +Cue versus -Cue. These include dorsal striatum, prelimbic cortex, parietal cortex, habenula, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, lateral septum and the mediodorsal and the anterior thalamic nucleus. Of the aforementioned brain regions, only the parietal cortex of cocaine treated dams showed a significant modulatory effect of pup presence. In this area of the cortex, cocaine exposed maternal rats showed a greater BOLD activation in response to the +Cue in the presence than in the absence of pups. Specific regions of the cocaine exposed maternal rat brain are strongly reactive to drug associated cues. The regions implicated in cue reactivity have been previously reported in clinical imaging work, and previous work supports their role in various motivational and cognitive functions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

COCAINE-ASSOCIATED ODOR CUE RE-EXPOSURE INCREASES BLOOD OXYGENATION LEVEL DEPENDENT SIGNAL IN MEMORY AND REWARD REGIONS OF THE MATERNAL RAT BRAIN*

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Caffrey, Martha K.; Febo, Marcelo

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND Cue triggered relapse during the postpartum period can negatively impact maternal care. Given the high reward value of pups in maternal rats, we designed an fMRI experiment to test whether offspring presence reduces the neural response to a cocaine associated olfactory cue. METHODS Cocaine conditioned place preference was carried out before pregnancy in the presence of two distinct odors that were paired with cocaine or saline (+Cue and −Cue). The BOLD response to +Cue and −Cue was measured in dams on postpartum days 2–4. Odor cues were delivered to dams in the absence and then the presence of pups. RESULTS Our data indicate that several limbic and cognitive regions of the maternal rat brain show a greater BOLD signal response to a +Cue versus −Cue. These include dorsal striatum, prelimbic cortex, parietal cortex, habenula, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, lateral septum and the mediodorsal and the anterior thalamic nucleus. Of the aforementioned brain regions, only the parietal cortex of cocaine treated dams showed a significant modulatory effect of pup presence. In this area of the cortex, cocaine exposed maternal rats showed a greater BOLD activation in response to the +Cue in the presence than in the absence of pups. CONCLUSIONS Specific regions of the cocaine exposed maternal rat brain are strongly reactive to drug associated cues. The regions implicated in cue reactivity have been previously reported in clinical imaging work, and previous work supports their role in various motivational and cognitive functions. PMID:24183499

Do reward-processing deficits in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders promote cannabis use? An investigation of physiological response to natural rewards and drug cues

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Cassidy, Clifford M.; Brodeur, Mathieu B.; Lepage, Martin; Malla, Ashok

2014-01-01

Background Dysfunctional reward processing is present in individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD) and may confer vulnerability to addiction. Our objective was to identify a deficit in patients with SSD on response to rewarding stimuli and determine whether this deficit predicts cannabis use. Methods We divided a group of patients with SSD and nonpsychotic controls into cannabis users and nonusers. Response to emotional and cannabis-associated visual stimuli was assessed using self-report, event-related potentials (using the late positive potential [LPP]), facial electromyography and skin-conductance response. Results Our sample comprised 35 patients with SSD and 35 nonpsychotic controls. Compared with controls, the patients with SSD showed blunted LPP response to pleasant stimuli (p = 0.003). Across measures, cannabis-using controls showed greater response to pleasant stimuli than to cannabis stimuli whereas cannabis-using patients showed little bias toward pleasant stimuli. Reduced LPP response to pleasant stimuli was predictive of more frequent subsequent cannabis use (β = −0.24, p = 0.034). Limitations It is not clear if the deficit associated with cannabis use is specific to rewarding stimuli or nonspecific to any kind of emotionally salient stimuli. Conclusion The LPP captures a reward-processing deficit in patients with SSD and shows potential as a biomarker for identifying patients at risk of heavy cannabis use. PMID:24913137

Blunted Striatal Responses to Favorite Food Cues in Smokers*

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Jastreboff, Ania M.; Sinha, Rajita; Lacadie, Cheryl M.; Balodis, Iris M.; Sherwin, Robert; Potenza, Marc N.

2014-01-01

Background Although tobacco-smoking is associated with relatively leaner body mass and smoking cessation with weight gain, the brain mechanisms underlying these relationships are not well understood. Smokers compared to non-smokers have shown diminished neural responses to non-tobacco rewarding stimuli (e.g., monetary rewards), but brain responses to favorite-food cues have not been investigated relative to smoking status. We hypothesized that smokers would exhibit diminished neural responses compared to non-smokers in response to favorite-food cues in motivation-reward and emotion-regulating regions of the brain. Methods Twenty-three smokers and 23 non-smokers matched based on body mass index (BMI), age, and gender listened to personalized favorite-food-cue, stress, and neutral-relaxing audiotapes during fMRI. Results During favorite-food-cue exposure, smokers versus non-smokers exhibited diminished activations in the caudate, putamen, insula, and thalamus. Neural responses during stress and neutral-relaxing conditions were similar across groups. Subjective food-craving ratings were similar across groups. Conclusions The relatively diminished neural responses to favorite-food cues in smokers may contribute to lower BMI. PMID:25444233

Signed reward prediction errors drive declarative learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Loof, E.; Ergo, K.; Naert, L.; Janssens, C.; Talsma, D.; van Opstal, F.; Verguts, T.

2018-01-01

Reward prediction errors (RPEs) are thought to drive learning. This has been established in procedural learning (e.g., classical and operant conditioning). However, empirical evidence on whether RPEs drive declarative learning–a quintessentially human form of learning–remains surprisingly absent. We

Obese adults have visual attention bias for food cue images: evidence for altered reward system function.

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Castellanos, E H; Charboneau, E; Dietrich, M S; Park, S; Bradley, B P; Mogg, K; Cowan, R L

2009-09-01

The major aim of this study was to investigate whether the motivational salience of food cues (as reflected by their attention-grabbing properties) differs between obese and normal-weight subjects in a manner consistent with altered reward system function in obesity. A total of 18 obese and 18 normal-weight, otherwise healthy, adult women between the ages of 18 and 35 participated in an eye-tracking paradigm in combination with a visual probe task. Eye movements and reaction time to food and non-food images were recorded during both fasted and fed conditions in a counterbalanced design. Eating behavior and hunger level were assessed by self-report measures. Obese individuals had higher scores than normal-weight individuals on self-report measures of responsiveness to external food cues and vulnerability to disruptions in control of eating behavior. Both obese and normal-weight individuals demonstrated increased gaze duration for food compared to non-food images in the fasted condition. In the fed condition, however, despite reduced hunger in both groups, obese individuals maintained the increased attention to food images, whereas normal-weight individuals had similar gaze duration for food and non-food images. Additionally, obese individuals had preferential orienting toward food images at the onset of each image. Obese and normal-weight individuals did not differ in reaction time measures in the fasted or fed condition. Food cue incentive salience is elevated equally in normal-weight and obese individuals during fasting. Obese individuals retain incentive salience for food cues despite feeding and decreased self-report of hunger. Sensitization to food cues in the environment and their dysregulation in obese individuals may play a role in the development and/or maintenance of obesity.

A simple solution for model comparison in bold imaging: the special case of reward prediction error and reward outcomes.

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Erdeniz, Burak; Rohe, Tim; Done, John; Seidler, Rachael D

2013-01-01

Conventional neuroimaging techniques provide information about condition-related changes of the BOLD (blood-oxygen-level dependent) signal, indicating only where and when the underlying cognitive processes occur. Recently, with the help of a new approach called "model-based" functional neuroimaging (fMRI), researchers are able to visualize changes in the internal variables of a time varying learning process, such as the reward prediction error or the predicted reward value of a conditional stimulus. However, despite being extremely beneficial to the imaging community in understanding the neural correlates of decision variables, a model-based approach to brain imaging data is also methodologically challenging due to the multicollinearity problem in statistical analysis. There are multiple sources of multicollinearity in functional neuroimaging including investigations of closely related variables and/or experimental designs that do not account for this. The source of multicollinearity discussed in this paper occurs due to correlation between different subjective variables that are calculated very close in time. Here, we review methodological approaches to analyzing such data by discussing the special case of separating the reward prediction error signal from reward outcomes.

Measuring effects of voluntary attention: a comparison among predictive arrow, colour, and number cues.

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Olk, Bettina; Tsankova, Elena; Petca, A Raisa; Wilhelm, Adalbert F X

2014-10-01

The Posner cueing paradigm is one of the most widely used paradigms in attention research. Importantly, when employing it, it is critical to understand which type of orienting a cue triggers. It has been suggested that large effects elicited by predictive arrow cues reflect an interaction of involuntary and voluntary orienting. This conclusion is based on comparisons of cueing effects of predictive arrows, nonpredictive arrows (involuntary orienting), and predictive numbers (voluntary orienting). Experiment 1 investigated whether this conclusion is restricted to comparisons with number cues and showed similar results to those of previous studies, but now for comparisons to predictive colour cues, indicating that the earlier conclusion can be generalized. Experiment 2 assessed whether the size of a cueing effect is related to the ease of deriving direction information from a cue, based on the rationale that effects for arrows may be larger, because it may be easier to process direction information given by symbols such as arrows than that given by other cues. Indeed, direction information is derived faster and more accurately from arrows than from colour and number cues in a direction judgement task, and cueing effects are larger for arrows than for the other cues. Importantly though, performance in the two tasks is not correlated. Hence, the large cueing effects of arrows are not a result of the ease of information processing, but of the types of orienting that the arrows elicit.

Default mode network deactivation to smoking cue relative to food cue predicts treatment outcome in nicotine use disorder.

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Wilcox, Claire E; Claus, Eric D; Calhoun, Vince D; Rachakonda, Srinivas; Littlewood, Rae A; Mickey, Jessica; Arenella, Pamela B; Goodreau, Natalie; Hutchison, Kent E

2018-01-01

Identifying predictors of treatment outcome for nicotine use disorders (NUDs) may help improve efficacy of established treatments, like varenicline. Brain reactivity to drug stimuli predicts relapse risk in nicotine and other substance use disorders in some studies. Activity in the default mode network (DMN) is affected by drug cues and other palatable cues, but its clinical significance is unclear. In this study, 143 individuals with NUD (male n = 91, ages 18-55 years) received a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan during a visual cue task during which they were presented with a series of smoking-related or food-related video clips prior to randomization to treatment with varenicline (n = 80) or placebo. Group independent components analysis was utilized to isolate the DMN, and temporal sorting was used to calculate the difference between the DMN blood-oxygen-level dependent signal during smoke cues and that during food cues for each individual. Food cues were associated with greater deactivation compared with smoke cues in the DMN. In correcting for baseline smoking and other clinical variables, which have been shown to be related to treatment outcome in previous work, a less positive Smoke - Food difference score predicted greater smoking at 6 and 12 weeks when both treatment groups were combined (P = 0.005, β = -0.766). An exploratory analysis of executive control and salience networks demonstrated that a more positive Smoke - Food difference score for executive control network predicted a more robust response to varenicline relative to placebo. These findings provide further support to theories that brain reactivity to palatable cues, and in particular in DMN, may have a direct clinical relevance in NUD. © 2017 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Reward sensitivity is associated with brain activity during erotic stimulus processing.

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Costumero, Victor; Barrós-Loscertales, Alfonso; Bustamante, Juan Carlos; Ventura-Campos, Noelia; Fuentes, Paola; Rosell-Negre, Patricia; Ávila, César

2013-01-01

The behavioral approach system (BAS) from Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory is a neurobehavioral system involved in the processing of rewarding stimuli that has been related to dopaminergic brain areas. Gray's theory hypothesizes that the functioning of reward brain areas is modulated by BAS-related traits. To test this hypothesis, we performed an fMRI study where participants viewed erotic and neutral pictures, and cues that predicted their appearance. Forty-five heterosexual men completed the Sensitivity to Reward scale (from the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire) to measure BAS-related traits. Results showed that Sensitivity to Reward scores correlated positively with brain activity during reactivity to erotic pictures in the left orbitofrontal cortex, left insula, and right ventral striatum. These results demonstrated a relationship between the BAS and reward sensitivity during the processing of erotic stimuli, filling the gap of previous reports that identified the dopaminergic system as a neural substrate for the BAS during the processing of other rewarding stimuli such as money and food.

Reward sensitivity is associated with brain activity during erotic stimulus processing.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor Costumero

Full Text Available The behavioral approach system (BAS from Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory is a neurobehavioral system involved in the processing of rewarding stimuli that has been related to dopaminergic brain areas. Gray's theory hypothesizes that the functioning of reward brain areas is modulated by BAS-related traits. To test this hypothesis, we performed an fMRI study where participants viewed erotic and neutral pictures, and cues that predicted their appearance. Forty-five heterosexual men completed the Sensitivity to Reward scale (from the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire to measure BAS-related traits. Results showed that Sensitivity to Reward scores correlated positively with brain activity during reactivity to erotic pictures in the left orbitofrontal cortex, left insula, and right ventral striatum. These results demonstrated a relationship between the BAS and reward sensitivity during the processing of erotic stimuli, filling the gap of previous reports that identified the dopaminergic system as a neural substrate for the BAS during the processing of other rewarding stimuli such as money and food.

Serotonergic neurons signal reward and punishment on multiple timescales

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Cohen, Jeremiah Y; Amoroso, Mackenzie W; Uchida, Naoshige

2015-01-01

Serotonin's function in the brain is unclear. One challenge in testing the numerous hypotheses about serotonin's function has been observing the activity of identified serotonergic neurons in animals engaged in behavioral tasks. We recorded the activity of dorsal raphe neurons while mice experienced a task in which rewards and punishments varied across blocks of trials. We ‘tagged’ serotonergic neurons with the light-sensitive protein channelrhodopsin-2 and identified them based on their responses to light. We found three main features of serotonergic neuron activity: (1) a large fraction of serotonergic neurons modulated their tonic firing rates over the course of minutes during reward vs punishment blocks; (2) most were phasically excited by punishments; and (3) a subset was phasically excited by reward-predicting cues. By contrast, dopaminergic neurons did not show firing rate changes across blocks of trials. These results suggest that serotonergic neurons signal information about reward and punishment on multiple timescales. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06346.001 PMID:25714923

Palatable food consumption in children: interplay between (food) reward motivation and the home food environment.

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De Decker, Annelies; Verbeken, Sandra; Sioen, Isabelle; Van Lippevelde, Wendy; Braet, Caroline; Eiben, Gabriele; Pala, Valeria; Reisch, Lucia A; De Henauw, Stefaan

2017-04-01

To understand the importance of the home food environment on unhealthy food consumption in children high in reward sensitivity, this study tested the hypothesis that the home availability of unhealthy food moderates the effect of reward sensitivity on children's fast-food consumption frequency, exerted via food cue responsiveness. Children between 7.5 and 14 years (n = 174, 50.6% boys) reported on reward sensitivity and food cue responsiveness (by means of the subscale 'external eating'). Their height and weight were measured. Parents reported on their children's fast-food consumption frequency, food cue responsiveness (by means of the subscale 'food responsiveness'), and on the home availability of unhealthy foods. Two moderated mediation models were conducted, one with the parent- and one with the child-reported food cue responsiveness as mediator. Findings suggested that with a high home availability of unhealthy foods, (a) a higher fast-food consumption frequency was found in children high in reward sensitivity and (b) the relation between reward sensitivity and the fast-food consumption frequency was mediated by external eating. The findings point at the importance of the home food environment in children high in reward sensitivity. They suggest to limit the home availability of unhealthy foods. What is Known: • Reward sensitivity (RS) is positively associated with children's palatable food consumption • In adolescents, this effect is mediated by food cue responsiveness, which determines the strength of an individual's motivation to obtain food when perceiving food cues What is New: • Children high in RS may be more vulnerable to palatable food cues in their everyday food environment because of a higher food cue responsiveness • The home food environment may be an important determining factor of the palatable food consumption of these children.

Allostatic dysregulation of natural reward processing in prescription opioid misuse: autonomic and attentional evidence.

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Garland, Eric L; Froeliger, Brett; Howard, Matthew O

2015-02-01

Chronic pain patients who misuse prescription opioids may suffer from allostatic dysregulation of natural reward processing. Hence, this study examined whether prescription opioid misusers with chronic pain (n=72) evidenced decreased natural reward responsiveness relative to non-misusers with chronic pain (n=26). Subjects completed a dot probe task containing pain-related, opioid-related, and natural reward stimuli while attentional bias (AB) scores and heart rate variability (HRV) responses were assessed. Compared to non-misusers, misusers evidenced significantly more attenuated HRV responses to opioid, pain, and natural reward cues presented during the dot probe task. These significant between-groups differences in HRV were largest during attention to natural reward cues, but became non-significant in a sensitivity analysis controlling for opioid dosing. In addition, non-misusers evidenced an AB toward natural reward cues, whereas misusers did not. Findings suggest that opioid misusers exhibit attentional and autonomic deficits during reward processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Information search with situation-specific reward functions

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Bjorn Meder

2012-03-01

Full Text Available can strongly conflict with the goal of obtaining information for improving payoffs. Two environments with such a conflict were identified through computer optimization. Three subsequent experiments investigated people's search behavior in these environments. Experiments 1 and 2 used a multiple-cue probabilistic category-learning task to convey environmental probabilities. In a subsequent search task subjects could query only a single feature before making a classification decision. The crucial manipulation concerned the search-task reward structure. The payoffs corresponded either to accuracy, with equal rewards associated with the two categories, or to an asymmetric payoff function, with different rewards associated with each category. In Experiment 1, in which learning-task feedback corresponded to the true category, people later preferentially searched the accuracy-maximizing feature, whether or not this would improve monetary rewards. In Experiment 2, an asymmetric reward structure was used during learning. Subjects searched the reward-maximizing feature when asymmetric payoffs were preserved in the search task. However, if search-task payoffs corresponded to accuracy, subjects preferentially searched a feature that was suboptimal for reward and accuracy alike. Importantly, this feature would have been most useful, under the learning-task payoff structure. Experiment 3 found that, if words and numbers are used to convey environmental probabilities, neither reward nor accuracy consistently predicts search. These findings emphasize the necessity of taking into account people's goals and search-and-decision processes during learning, thereby challenging current models of information search.

Blunted striatal responses to favorite-food cues in smokers.

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Jastreboff, Ania M; Sinha, Rajita; Lacadie, Cheryl M; Balodis, Iris M; Sherwin, Robert; Potenza, Marc N

2015-01-01

Although tobacco-smoking is associated with relatively leaner body mass and smoking cessation with weight gain, the brain mechanisms underlying these relationships are not well understood. Smokers compared to non-smokers have shown diminished neural responses to non-tobacco rewarding stimuli (e.g., monetary rewards), but brain responses to favorite-food cues have not been investigated relative to smoking status. We hypothesized that smokers would exhibit diminished neural responses compared to non-smokers in response to favorite-food cues in motivation-reward and emotion-regulating regions of the brain. Twenty-three smokers and 23 non-smokers matched based on body mass index (BMI), age, and gender listened to personalized favorite-food cue, stress, and neutral-relaxing audiotapes during fMRI. During favorite-food cue exposure, smokers versus non-smokers exhibited diminished activations in the caudate, putamen, insula, and thalamus. Neural responses during stress and neutral-relaxing conditions were similar across groups. Subjective food-craving ratings were similar across groups. The relatively diminished neural responses to favorite-food cues in smokers may contribute to lower BMI. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trait Rumination Influences Neural Correlates of the Anticipation but Not the Consumption Phase of Reward Processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natália Kocsel

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Cumulative evidence suggests that trait rumination can be defined as an abstract information processing mode, which leads people to constantly anticipate the likely impact of present events on future events and experiences. A previous study with remitted depressed patients suggested that enhanced rumination tendencies distort brain mechanisms of anticipatory processes associated with reward and loss cues. In the present study, we explored the impact of trait rumination on neural activity during reward and loss anticipation among never-depressed people. We analyzed the data of 37 healthy controls, who performed the monetary incentive delay (MID task which was designed for the simultaneous measurement of the anticipation (motivational and consumption (hedonic phase of reward processing, during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI. Our results show that rumination—after controlling for age, gender, and current mood—significantly influenced neural responses to reward (win cues compared to loss cues. Blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG triangularis, left anterior insula, and left rolandic operculum was positively related to Ruminative Response Scale (RRS scores. We did not detect any significant rumination-related activations associated with win-neutral or loss-neutral cues and with reward or loss consumption. Our results highlight the influence of trait rumination on reward anticipation in a non-depressed sample. They also suggest that for never-depressed ruminators rewarding cues are more salient than loss cues. BOLD response during reward consumption did not relate to rumination, suggesting that rumination mainly relates to processing of the motivational (wanting aspect of reward rather than the hedonic (liking aspect, at least in the absence of pathological mood.

Altered neural processing of reward and punishment in adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder.

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Landes, I; Bakos, S; Kohls, G; Bartling, J; Schulte-Körne, G; Greimel, E

2018-05-01

Altered reward and punishment function has been suggested as an important vulnerability factor for the development of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Prior ERP studies found evidence for neurophysiological dysfunctions in reinforcement processes in adults with MDD. To date, only few ERP studies have examined the neural underpinnings of reinforcement processing in adolescents diagnosed with MDD. The present event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to investigate neurophysiological mechanisms of anticipation and consumption of reward and punishment in adolescents with MDD in one comprehensive paradigm. During ERP recording, 25 adolescents with MDD and 29 healthy controls (12-17 years) completed a Monetary Incentive Delay Task comprising both a monetary reward and a monetary punishment condition. During anticipation, the cue-P3 signaling attentional allocation was recorded. During consumption, the feedback-P3 and Reward Positivity (RewP) were recorded to capture attentional allocation and outcome evaluation, respectively. Compared to controls, adolescents with MDD showed prolonged cue-P3 latencies to reward cues. Furthermore, unlike controls, adolescents with MDD displayed shorter feedback-P3 latencies in the reward versus punishment condition. RewPs did not differ between groups. It remains unanswered whether the observed alterations in adolescent MDD represent a state or trait. Delayed neural processing of reward cues corresponds to the clinical presentation of adolescent MDD with reduced motivational tendencies to obtain rewards. Relatively shorter feedback-P3 latencies in the reward versus punishment condition could indicate a high salience of performance-contingent reward. Frequent exposure of negatively biased adolescents with MDD to performance-contingent rewards might constitute a promising intervention approach. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reward Expectancy Strengthens CA1 Theta and Beta Band Synchronization and Hippocampal-Ventral Striatal Coupling.

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Lansink, Carien S; Meijer, Guido T; Lankelma, Jan V; Vinck, Martin A; Jackson, Jadin C; Pennartz, Cyriel M A

2016-10-12

The use of information from the hippocampal memory system in motivated behavior depends on its communication with the ventral striatum. When an animal encounters cues that signal subsequent reward, its reward expectancy is raised. It is unknown, however, how this process affects hippocampal dynamics and their influence on target structures, such as ventral striatum. We show that, in rats, reward-predictive cues result in enhanced hippocampal theta and beta band rhythmic activity during subsequent action, compared with uncued goal-directed navigation. The beta band component, also labeled theta's harmonic, involves selective hippocampal CA1 cell groups showing frequency doubling of firing periodicity relative to theta rhythmicity and it partitions the theta cycle into segments showing clear versus poor spike timing organization. We found that theta phase precession occurred over a wider range than previously reported. This was apparent from spikes emitted near the peak of the theta cycle exhibiting large "phase precessing jumps" relative to spikes in foregoing cycles. Neither this phenomenon nor the regular manifestation of theta phase precession was affected by reward expectancy. Ventral striatal neuronal firing phase-locked not only to hippocampal theta, but also to beta band activity. Both hippocampus and ventral striatum showed increased synchronization between neuronal firing and local field potential activity during cued compared with uncued goal approaches. These results suggest that cue-triggered reward expectancy intensifies hippocampal output to target structures, such as the ventral striatum, by which the hippocampus may gain prioritized access to systems modulating motivated behaviors. Here we show that temporally discrete cues raising reward expectancy enhance both theta and beta band activity in the hippocampus once goal-directed navigation has been initiated. These rhythmic activities are associated with increased synchronization of neuronal firing

Wild, free-living rufous hummingbirds do not use geometric cues in a spatial task.

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Hornsby, Mark A W; Hurly, T Andrew; Hamilton, Caitlin E; Pritchard, David J; Healy, Susan D

2014-10-01

In the laboratory, many species orient themselves using the geometric properties of an enclosure or array and geometric information is often preferred over visual cues. Whether animals use geometric cues when relocating rewarded locations in the wild, however, has rarely been investigated. We presented free-living rufous hummingbirds with a rectangular array of four artificial flowers to investigate learning of rewarded locations using geometric cues. In one treatment, we rewarded two of four flowers at diagonally opposite corners. In a second treatment, we provided a visual cue to the rewarded flower by connecting the flowers with "walls" consisting of four dowels (three white, one blue) laid on the ground connecting each of the flowers. Neither treatment elicited classical geometry results; instead, hummingbirds typically chose one particular flower over all others. When we exchanged that flower with another, hummingbirds tended to visit the original flower. These results suggest that (1) hummingbirds did not use geometric cues, but instead may have used a visually derived cue on the flowers themselves, and (2) using geometric cues may have been more difficult than using visual characteristics. Although hummingbirds typically prefer spatial over visual information, we hypothesize that they will not use geometric cues over stable visual features but that they make use of small, flower-specific visual cues. Such cues may play a more important role in foraging decisions than previously thought. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contrasting cue-density effects in causal and prediction judgments.

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Vadillo, Miguel A; Musca, Serban C; Blanco, Fernando; Matute, Helena

2011-02-01

Many theories of contingency learning assume (either explicitly or implicitly) that predicting whether an outcome will occur should be easier than making a causal judgment. Previous research suggests that outcome predictions would depart from normative standards less often than causal judgments, which is consistent with the idea that the latter are based on more numerous and complex processes. However, only indirect evidence exists for this view. The experiment presented here specifically addresses this issue by allowing for a fair comparison of causal judgments and outcome predictions, both collected at the same stage with identical rating scales. Cue density, a parameter known to affect judgments, is manipulated in a contingency learning paradigm. The results show that, if anything, the cue-density bias is stronger in outcome predictions than in causal judgments. These results contradict key assumptions of many influential theories of contingency learning.

Junk food advertising moderates the indirect effect of reward sensitivity and food consumption via the urge to eat.

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Kidd, Chloe; Loxton, Natalie J

2018-05-01

The current study aimed to identify how underlying individual differences increases vulnerability to television food advertising. In particular, this study examined how reward sensitivity, a biologically-based predisposition to approach rewards (such as appetitive foods) in the environment, influenced participants' vulnerability to television food advertising and subsequent food consumption. Ninety-eight participants were randomly assigned to a cue condition (food cues versus non-food cues) and then viewed a 30 min documentary interrupted by advertising featuring a mix of food and neutral advertising (food cue condition) or only neutral advertising (non-food cue condition). Participants' reward sensitivity, approach motivation measured as urge to eat, and food consumption were recorded. Moderated mediation regression analyses revealed the positive association between reward sensitivity and food consumption was mediated by an increase in urge to eat, but only when participants were exposed to food advertising. These findings suggest heightened reward sensitivity, exposure to appetitive food cues, and approach motivation are key interacting mechanisms that may lead to maladaptive eating behaviours. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

When theory and biology differ: The relationship between reward prediction errors and expectancy.

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Williams, Chad C; Hassall, Cameron D; Trska, Robert; Holroyd, Clay B; Krigolson, Olave E

2017-10-01

Comparisons between expectations and outcomes are critical for learning. Termed prediction errors, the violations of expectancy that occur when outcomes differ from expectations are used to modify value and shape behaviour. In the present study, we examined how a wide range of expectancy violations impacted neural signals associated with feedback processing. Participants performed a time estimation task in which they had to guess the duration of one second while their electroencephalogram was recorded. In a key manipulation, we varied task difficulty across the experiment to create a range of different feedback expectancies - reward feedback was either very expected, expected, 50/50, unexpected, or very unexpected. As predicted, the amplitude of the reward positivity, a component of the human event-related brain potential associated with feedback processing, scaled inversely with expectancy (e.g., unexpected feedback yielded a larger reward positivity than expected feedback). Interestingly, the scaling of the reward positivity to outcome expectancy was not linear as would be predicted by some theoretical models. Specifically, we found that the amplitude of the reward positivity was about equivalent for very expected and expected feedback, and for very unexpected and unexpected feedback. As such, our results demonstrate a sigmoidal relationship between reward expectancy and the amplitude of the reward positivity, with interesting implications for theories of reinforcement learning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Competition between learned reward and error outcome predictions in anterior cingulate cortex.

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Alexander, William H; Brown, Joshua W

2010-02-15

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is implicated in performance monitoring and cognitive control. Non-human primate studies of ACC show prominent reward signals, but these are elusive in human studies, which instead show mainly conflict and error effects. Here we demonstrate distinct appetitive and aversive activity in human ACC. The error likelihood hypothesis suggests that ACC activity increases in proportion to the likelihood of an error, and ACC is also sensitive to the consequence magnitude of the predicted error. Previous work further showed that error likelihood effects reach a ceiling as the potential consequences of an error increase, possibly due to reductions in the average reward. We explored this issue by independently manipulating reward magnitude of task responses and error likelihood while controlling for potential error consequences in an Incentive Change Signal Task. The fMRI results ruled out a modulatory effect of expected reward on error likelihood effects in favor of a competition effect between expected reward and error likelihood. Dynamic causal modeling showed that error likelihood and expected reward signals are intrinsic to the ACC rather than received from elsewhere. These findings agree with interpretations of ACC activity as signaling both perceptions of risk and predicted reward. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of cue-exposure treatment on neural cue reactivity in alcohol dependence: a randomized trial.

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Vollstädt-Klein, Sabine; Loeber, Sabine; Kirsch, Martina; Bach, Patrick; Richter, Anne; Bühler, Mira; von der Goltz, Christoph; Hermann, Derik; Mann, Karl; Kiefer, Falk

2011-06-01

In alcohol-dependent patients, alcohol-associated cues elicit brain activation in mesocorticolimbic networks involved in relapse mechanisms. Cue-exposure based extinction training (CET) has been shown to be efficacious in the treatment of alcoholism; however, it has remained unexplored whether CET mediates its therapeutic effects via changes of activity in mesolimbic networks in response to alcohol cues. In this study, we assessed CET treatment effects on cue-induced responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a randomized controlled trial, abstinent alcohol-dependent patients were randomly assigned to a CET group (n = 15) or a control group (n = 15). All patients underwent an extended detoxification treatment comprising medically supervised detoxification, health education, and supportive therapy. The CET patients additionally received nine CET sessions over 3 weeks, exposing the patient to his/her preferred alcoholic beverage. Cue-induced fMRI activation to alcohol cues was measured at pretreatment and posttreatment. Compared with pretreatment, fMRI cue-reactivity reduction was greater in the CET relative to the control group, especially in the anterior cingulate gyrus and the insula, as well as limbic and frontal regions. Before treatment, increased cue-induced fMRI activation was found in limbic and reward-related brain regions and in visual areas. After treatment, the CET group showed less activation than the control group in the left ventral striatum. The study provides first evidence that an exposure-based psychotherapeutic intervention in the treatment of alcoholism impacts on brain areas relevant for addiction memory and attentional focus to alcohol-associated cues and affects mesocorticolimbic reward pathways suggested to be pathophysiologically involved in addiction. Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Distinct representations for shifts of spatial attention and changes of reward contingencies in the human brain.

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Tosoni, Annalisa; Shulman, Gordon L; Pope, Anna L W; McAvoy, Mark P; Corbetta, Maurizio

2013-06-01

Success in a dynamically changing world requires both rapid shifts of attention to the location of important objects and the detection of changes in motivational contingencies that may alter future behavior. Here we addressed the relationship between these two processes by measuring the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal during a visual search task in which the location and the color of a salient cue respectively indicated where a rewarded target would appear and the monetary gain (large or small) associated with its detection. While cues that either shifted or maintained attention were presented every 4 to 8 sec, the reward magnitude indicated by the cue changed roughly every 30 sec, allowing us to distinguish a change in expected reward magnitude from a maintained state of expected reward magnitude. Posterior cingulate cortex was modulated by cues signaling an increase in expected reward magnitude, but not by cues for shifting versus maintaining spatial attention. Dorsal fronto-parietal regions in precuneus and frontal eye field (FEF) also showed increased BOLD activity for changes in expected reward magnitude from low to high, but in addition showed large independent modulations for shifting versus maintaining attention. In particular, the differential activation for shifting versus maintaining attention was not affected by expected reward magnitude. These results indicate that BOLD activations for shifts of attention and increases in expected reward magnitude are largely separate. Finally, visual cortex showed sustained spatially selective signals that were significantly enhanced when greater reward magnitude was expected, but this reward-related modulation was not observed in spatially selective regions of dorsal fronto-parietal cortex. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adapting to the destitute situations: poverty cues lead to short-term choice.

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Liu, Lei; Feng, Tingyong; Suo, Tao; Lee, Kang; Li, Hong

2012-01-01

Why do some people live for the present, whereas others save for the future? The evolutionary framework of life history theory predicts that preference for delay of gratification should be influenced by social economic status (SES). However, here we propose that the decision to choose alternatives in immediate and delayed gratification in poverty environments may have a psychological dimension. Specifically, the perception of environmental poverty cues may induce people alike to favor choices with short-term, likely smaller benefit than choices with long-term, greater benefit. The present study was conducted to explore how poverty and affluence cues affected individuals' intertemporal choices. In our first two experiments, individuals exposed explicitly (Experiment 1) and implicitly (Experiment 2) to poverty pictures (the poverty cue) were induced to prefer immediate gratification compared with those exposed to affluence pictures (the affluence cue). Furthermore, by the manipulation of temporary perceptions of poverty and affluence status using a lucky draw game; individuals in the poverty state were more impulsive in a manner, which made them pursue immediate gratification in intertemporal choices (Experiment 3). Thus, poverty cues can lead to short-term choices. Decision makers chose more frequently the sooner-smaller reward over the later-larger reward as they were exposed to the poverty cue. This indicates that it is that just the feeling of poverty influences intertemporal choice - the actual reality of poverty (restricted resources, etc.) is not necessary to get the effect. Furthermore, our findings emphasize that it is a change of the poverty-affluence status, not a trait change, can influence individual preference in intertemporal choice.

Who, what, where, when (and maybe even why)? How the experience of sexual reward connects sexual desire, preference, and performance.

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Pfaus, James G; Kippin, Tod E; Coria-Avila, Genaro A; Gelez, Hélène; Afonso, Veronica M; Ismail, Nafissa; Parada, Mayte

2012-02-01

Although sexual behavior is controlled by hormonal and neurochemical actions in the brain, sexual experience induces a degree of plasticity that allows animals to form instrumental and Pavlovian associations that predict sexual outcomes, thereby directing the strength of sexual responding. This review describes how experience with sexual reward strengthens the development of sexual behavior and induces sexually-conditioned place and partner preferences in rats. In both male and female rats, early sexual experience with partners scented with a neutral or even noxious odor induces a preference for scented partners in subsequent choice tests. Those preferences can also be induced by injections of morphine or oxytocin paired with a male rat's first exposure to scented females, indicating that pharmacological activation of opioid or oxytocin receptors can "stand in" for the sexual reward-related neurochemical processes normally activated by sexual stimulation. Conversely, conditioned place or partner preferences can be blocked by the opioid receptor antagonist naloxone. A somatosensory cue (a rodent jacket) paired with sexual reward comes to elicit sexual arousal in male rats, such that paired rats with the jacket off show dramatic copulatory deficits. We propose that endogenous opioid activation forms the basis of sexual reward, which also sensitizes hypothalamic and mesolimbic dopamine systems in the presence of cues that predict sexual reward. Those systems act to focus attention on, and activate goal-directed behavior toward, reward-related stimuli. Thus, a critical period exists during an individual's early sexual experience that creates a "love map" or Gestalt of features, movements, feelings, and interpersonal interactions associated with sexual reward.

Effects of an acute therapeutic or rewarding dose of amphetamine on acquisition of Pavlovian autoshaping and ventral striatal dopamine signaling.

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Schuweiler, D R; Athens, J M; Thompson, J M; Vazhayil, S T; Garris, P A

2018-01-15

Rewarding doses of amphetamine increase the amplitude, duration, and frequency of dopamine transients in the ventral striatum. Debate continues at the behavioral level about which component of reward, learning or incentive salience, is signaled by these dopamine transients and thus altered in addiction. The learning hypothesis proposes that rewarding drugs result in pathological overlearning of drug-predictive cues, while the incentive sensitization hypothesis suggests that rewarding drugs result in sensitized attribution of incentive salience to drug-predictive cues. Therapeutic doses of amphetamine, such as those used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, are hypothesized to enhance the ventral striatal dopamine transients that are critical for reward-related learning and to enhance Pavlovian learning. However, the effects of therapeutic doses of amphetamine on Pavlovian learning are poorly understood, and the effects on dopamine transients are completely unknown. We determined the effects of an acute pre-training therapeutic or rewarding amphetamine injection on the acquisition of Pavlovian autoshaping in the intact rat. We also determined the effects of these doses on electrically evoked transient-like dopamine signals using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry in the anesthetized rat. The rewarding dose enhanced the amplitude and duration of DA signals, caused acute task disengagement, impaired learning for several days, and triggered incentive sensitization. The therapeutic dose produced smaller enhancements in DA signals but did not have similar behavioral effects. These results underscore the necessity of more studies using therapeutic doses, and suggest a hybrid learning/incentive sensitization model may be required to explain the development of addiction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prediction-error in the context of real social relationships modulates reward system activity.

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Poore, Joshua C; Pfeifer, Jennifer H; Berkman, Elliot T; Inagaki, Tristen K; Welborn, Benjamin L; Lieberman, Matthew D

2012-01-01

The human reward system is sensitive to both social (e.g., validation) and non-social rewards (e.g., money) and is likely integral for relationship development and reputation building. However, data is sparse on the question of whether implicit social reward processing meaningfully contributes to explicit social representations such as trust and attachment security in pre-existing relationships. This event-related fMRI experiment examined reward system prediction-error activity in response to a potent social reward-social validation-and this activity's relation to both attachment security and trust in the context of real romantic relationships. During the experiment, participants' expectations for their romantic partners' positive regard of them were confirmed (validated) or violated, in either positive or negative directions. Primary analyses were conducted using predefined regions of interest, the locations of which were taken from previously published research. Results indicate that activity for mid-brain and striatal reward system regions of interest was modulated by social reward expectation violation in ways consistent with prior research on reward prediction-error. Additionally, activity in the striatum during viewing of disconfirmatory information was associated with both increases in post-scan reports of attachment anxiety and decreases in post-scan trust, a finding that follows directly from representational models of attachment and trust.

Motor Planning under Unpredictable Reward: Modulations of Movement Vigor and Primate Striatum Activity

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Ioan eOpris

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Although reward probability is an important factor that shapes animal behavior, it is not well understood however, how the primate brain translates reward expectation into the vigor of movement (reaction time and speed. To address this question, we trained two monkeys in a reaction time task that required wrist movements in response to vibrotactile and visual stimuli, with a variable reward schedule. Correct performance was rewarded in 75 % of the trials. Monkeys were certain that they would be rewarded only in the trials immediately following withheld rewards. In these trials, the animals responded sooner and moved faster. Single-unit recordings from the dorsal striatum revealed that modulations in striatal neurons reflected such modulations of movement vigor. First, in the trials with certain rewards, striatal neurons modulated their firing rates earlier. Second, magnitudes of changes in neuronal firing rates depended on whether or not monkeys were certain about the reward. Third, these modulations depended on the sensory modality of the cue (visual vs. vibratory and/or movement direction (flexions vs. extensions. We conclude that dorsal striatum may be a part of the mechanism responsible for the modulation of movement vigor in response to changes of reward predictability.

Reward-prospect interacts with trial-by-trial preparation for potential distraction.

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Marini, Francesco; van den Berg, Berry; Woldorff, Marty G

2015-02-01

When attending for impending visual stimuli, cognitive systems prepare to identify relevant information while ignoring irrelevant, potentially distracting input. Recent work (Marini et al., 2013) showed that a supramodal distracter-filtering mechanism is invoked in blocked designs involving expectation of possible distracter stimuli, although this entails a cost ( distraction-filtering cost ) on speeded performance when distracters are expected but not presented. Here we used an arrow-flanker task to study whether an analogous cost, potentially reflecting the recruitment of a specific distraction-filtering mechanism, occurs dynamically when potential distraction is cued trial-to-trial ( cued distracter-expectation cost ). In order to promote the maximal utilization of cue information by participants, in some experimental conditions the cue also signaled the possibility of earning a monetary reward for fast and accurate performance. This design also allowed us to investigate the interplay between anticipation for distracters and anticipation of reward, which is known to engender attentional preparation. Only in reward contexts did participants show a cued distracter-expectation cost, which was larger with higher reward prospect and when anticipation for both distracters and reward were manipulated trial-to-trial. Thus, these results indicate that reward prospect interacts with the distracter expectation during trial-by-trial preparatory processes for potential distraction. These findings highlight how reward guides cue-driven attentional preparation.

Optogenetic activation of dorsal raphe serotonin neurons enhances patience for future rewards.

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Miyazaki, Kayoko W; Miyazaki, Katsuhiko; Tanaka, Kenji F; Yamanaka, Akihiro; Takahashi, Aki; Tabuchi, Sawako; Doya, Kenji

2014-09-08

Serotonin is a neuromodulator that is involved extensively in behavioral, affective, and cognitive functions in the brain. Previous recording studies of the midbrain dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) revealed that the activation of putative serotonin neurons correlates with the levels of behavioral arousal [1], rhythmic motor outputs [2], salient sensory stimuli [3-6], reward, and conditioned cues [5-8]. The classic theory on serotonin states that it opposes dopamine and inhibits behaviors when aversive events are predicted [9-14]. However, the therapeutic effects of serotonin signal-enhancing medications have been difficult to reconcile with this theory [15, 16]. In contrast, a more recent theory states that serotonin facilitates long-term optimal behaviors and suppresses impulsive behaviors [17-21]. To test these theories, we developed optogenetic mice that selectively express channelrhodopsin in serotonin neurons and tested how the activation of serotonergic neurons in the DRN affects animal behavior during a delayed reward task. The activation of serotonin neurons reduced the premature cessation of waiting for conditioned cues and food rewards. In reward omission trials, serotonin neuron stimulation prolonged the time animals spent waiting. This effect was observed specifically when the animal was engaged in deciding whether to keep waiting and was not due to motor inhibition. Control experiments showed that the prolonged waiting times observed with optogenetic stimulation were not due to behavioral inhibition or the reinforcing effects of serotonergic activation. These results show, for the first time, that the timed activation of serotonin neurons during waiting promotes animals' patience to wait for a delayed reward. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Human prosaccades and antisaccades under risk: effects of penalties and rewards on visual selection and the value of actions.

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Ross, M; Lanyon, L J; Viswanathan, J; Manoach, D S; Barton, J J S

2011-11-24

Monkey studies report greater activity in the lateral intraparietal area and more efficient saccades when targets coincide with the location of prior reward cues, even when cue location does not indicate which responses will be rewarded. This suggests that reward can modulate spatial attention and visual selection independent of the "action value" of the motor response. Our goal was first to determine whether reward modulated visual selection similarly in humans, and next, to discover whether reward and penalty differed in effect, if cue effects were greater for cognitively demanding antisaccades, and if financial consequences that were contingent on stimulus location had spatially selective effects. We found that motivational cues reduced all latencies, more for reward than penalty. There was an "inhibition-of-return"-like effect at the location of the cue, but unlike the results in monkeys, cue valence did not modify this effect in prosaccades, and the inhibition-of-return effect was slightly increased rather than decreased in antisaccades. When financial consequences were contingent on target location, locations without reward or penalty consequences lost the benefits seen in noncontingent trials, whereas locations with consequences maintained their gains. We conclude that unlike monkeys, humans show reward effects not on visual selection but on the value of actions. The human saccadic system has both the capacity to enhance responses to multiple locations simultaneously, and the flexibility to focus motivational enhancement only on locations with financial consequences. Reward is more effective than penalty, and both interact with the additional attentional demands of the antisaccade task. Copyright © 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Episodic Memory Encoding Interferes with Reward Learning and Decreases Striatal Prediction Errors

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Braun, Erin Kendall; Daw, Nathaniel D.

2014-01-01

Learning is essential for adaptive decision making. The striatum and its dopaminergic inputs are known to support incremental reward-based learning, while the hippocampus is known to support encoding of single events (episodic memory). Although traditionally studied separately, in even simple experiences, these two types of learning are likely to co-occur and may interact. Here we sought to understand the nature of this interaction by examining how incremental reward learning is related to concurrent episodic memory encoding. During the experiment, human participants made choices between two options (colored squares), each associated with a drifting probability of reward, with the goal of earning as much money as possible. Incidental, trial-unique object pictures, unrelated to the choice, were overlaid on each option. The next day, participants were given a surprise memory test for these pictures. We found that better episodic memory was related to a decreased influence of recent reward experience on choice, both within and across participants. fMRI analyses further revealed that during learning the canonical striatal reward prediction error signal was significantly weaker when episodic memory was stronger. This decrease in reward prediction error signals in the striatum was associated with enhanced functional connectivity between the hippocampus and striatum at the time of choice. Our results suggest a mechanism by which memory encoding may compete for striatal processing and provide insight into how interactions between different forms of learning guide reward-based decision making. PMID:25378157

Prediction-error in the context of real social relationships modulates reward system activity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua ePoore

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The human reward system is sensitive to both social (e.g., validation and non-social rewards (e.g., money and is likely integral for relationship development and reputation building. However, data is sparse on the question of whether implicit social reward processing meaningfully contributes to explicit social representations such as trust and attachment security in pre-existing relationships. This event-related fMRI experiment examined reward system prediction-error activity in response to a potent social reward—social validation—and this activity’s relation to both attachment security and trust in the context of real romantic relationships. During the experiment, participants’ expectations for their romantic partners’ positive regard of them were confirmed (validated or violated, in either positive or negative directions. Primary analyses were conducted using predefined regions of interest, the locations of which were taken from previously published research. Results indicate that activity for mid-brain and striatal reward system regions of interest was modulated by social reward expectation violation in ways consistent with prior research on reward prediction-error. Additionally, activity in the striatum during viewing of disconfirmatory information was associated with both increases in post-scan reports of attachment anxiety and decreases in post-scan trust, a finding that follows directly from representational models of attachment and trust.

Reward Prediction Errors in Drug Addiction and Parkinson's Disease: from Neurophysiology to Neuroimaging.

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García-García, Isabel; Zeighami, Yashar; Dagher, Alain

2017-06-01

Surprises are important sources of learning. Cognitive scientists often refer to surprises as "reward prediction errors," a parameter that captures discrepancies between expectations and actual outcomes. Here, we integrate neurophysiological and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results addressing the processing of reward prediction errors and how they might be altered in drug addiction and Parkinson's disease. By increasing phasic dopamine responses, drugs might accentuate prediction error signals, causing increases in fMRI activity in mesolimbic areas in response to drugs. Chronic substance dependence, by contrast, has been linked with compromised dopaminergic function, which might be associated with blunted fMRI responses to pleasant non-drug stimuli in mesocorticolimbic areas. In Parkinson's disease, dopamine replacement therapies seem to induce impairments in learning from negative outcomes. The present review provides a holistic overview of reward prediction errors across different pathologies and might inform future clinical strategies targeting impulsive/compulsive disorders.

An fMRI study of nicotine-deprived smokers' reactivity to smoking cues during novel/exciting activity.

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Xiaomeng Xu

Full Text Available Engaging in novel/exciting ("self-expanding" activities activates the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, a brain reward pathway also associated with the rewarding effects of nicotine. This suggests that self-expanding activities can potentially substitute for the reward from nicotine. We tested this model among nicotine-deprived smokers who, during fMRI scanning, played a series of two-player cooperative games with a relationship partner. Games were randomized in a 2 (self-expanding vs. not x 2 (cigarette cue present vs. absent design. Self-expansion conditions yielded significantly greater activation in a reward region (caudate than did non-self-expansion conditions. Moreover, when exposed to smoking cues during the self-expanding versus the non-self-expanding cooperative games, smokers showed less activation in a cigarette cue-reactivity region, a priori defined [temporo-parietal junction (TPJ] from a recent meta-analysis of cue-reactivity. In smoking cue conditions, increases in excitement associated with the self-expanding condition (versus the non-self-expanding condition were also negatively correlated with TPJ activation. These results support the idea that a self-expanding activity promoting reward activation attenuates cigarette cue-reactivity among nicotine-deprived smokers. Future research could focus on the parameters of self-expanding activities that produce this effect, as well as test the utility of self-expansion in clinical interventions for smoking cessation.

BOLD responses in reward regions to hypothetical and imaginary monetary rewards.

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Miyapuram, Krishna P; Tobler, Philippe N; Gregorios-Pippas, Lucy; Schultz, Wolfram

2012-01-16

Monetary rewards are uniquely human. Because money is easy to quantify and present visually, it is the reward of choice for most fMRI studies, even though it cannot be handed over to participants inside the scanner. A typical fMRI study requires hundreds of trials and thus small amounts of monetary rewards per trial (e.g. 5p) if all trials are to be treated equally. However, small payoffs can have detrimental effects on performance due to their limited buying power. Hypothetical monetary rewards can overcome the limitations of smaller monetary rewards but it is less well known whether predictors of hypothetical rewards activate reward regions. In two experiments, visual stimuli were associated with hypothetical monetary rewards. In Experiment 1, we used stimuli predicting either visually presented or imagined hypothetical monetary rewards, together with non-rewarding control pictures. Activations to reward predictive stimuli occurred in reward regions, namely the medial orbitofrontal cortex and midbrain. In Experiment 2, we parametrically varied the amount of visually presented hypothetical monetary reward keeping constant the amount of actually received reward. Graded activation in midbrain was observed to stimuli predicting increasing hypothetical rewards. The results demonstrate the efficacy of using hypothetical monetary rewards in fMRI studies. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of the dorsal raphé nucleus in reward-seeking behavior

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Kae eNakamura

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Pharmacological experiments have shown that the modulation of brain serotonin levels has a strong impact on value-based decision making. Anatomical and physiological evidence also revealed that the dorsal raphé nucleus (DRN, a major source of serotonin, and the dopamine system receive common inputs from brain regions associated with appetitive and aversive information processing. The serotonin and dopamine systems also have reciprocal functional influences on each other. However, the specific mechanism by which serotonin affects value-based decision making is not clear.To understand the information carried by the DRN for reward-seeking behavior, we measured single neuron activity in the primate DRN during the performance of saccade tasks to obtain different amounts of a reward. We found that DRN neuronal activity was characterized by tonic modulation that was altered by the expected and received reward value. Consistent reward-dependent modulation across different task periods suggested that DRN activity kept track of the reward value throughout a trial. The DRN was also characterized by modulation of its activity in the opposite direction by different neuronal subgroups, one firing strongly for the prediction and receipt of large rewards, with the other firing strongly for small rewards. Conversely, putative dopamine neurons showed positive phasic responses to reward-indicating cues and the receipt of an unexpected reward amount, which supports the reward prediction error signal hypothesis of dopamine.I suggest that the tonic reward monitoring signal of the DRN, possibly together with its interaction with the dopamine system, reports a continuous level of motivation throughout the performance of a task. Such a signal may provide reward context information to the targets of DRN projections, where it may be integrated further with incoming motivationally salient information.

Rare Neural Correlations Implement Robotic Conditioning with Delayed Rewards and Disturbances

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Soltoggio, Andrea; Lemme, Andre; Reinhart, Felix; Steil, Jochen J.

2013-01-01

Neural conditioning associates cues and actions with following rewards. The environments in which robots operate, however, are pervaded by a variety of disturbing stimuli and uncertain timing. In particular, variable reward delays make it difficult to reconstruct which previous actions are responsible for following rewards. Such an uncertainty is handled by biological neural networks, but represents a challenge for computational models, suggesting the lack of a satisfactory theory for robotic neural conditioning. The present study demonstrates the use of rare neural correlations in making correct associations between rewards and previous cues or actions. Rare correlations are functional in selecting sparse synapses to be eligible for later weight updates if a reward occurs. The repetition of this process singles out the associating and reward-triggering pathways, and thereby copes with distal rewards. The neural network displays macro-level classical and operant conditioning, which is demonstrated in an interactive real-life human-robot interaction. The proposed mechanism models realistic conditioning in humans and animals and implements similar behaviors in neuro-robotic platforms. PMID:23565092

Cue-induced striatal dopamine release in Parkinson's disease-associated impulsive-compulsive behaviours.

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O'Sullivan, Sean S; Wu, Kit; Politis, Marios; Lawrence, Andrew D; Evans, Andrew H; Bose, Subrata K; Djamshidian, Atbin; Lees, Andrew J; Piccini, Paola

2011-04-01

Impulsive-compulsive behaviours are a significant source of morbidity for patients with Parkinson's disease receiving dopaminergic therapy. The development of these behaviours may reflect sensitization of the neural response to non-drug rewards, similar to that proposed for sensitization to drug rewards in addiction. Here, by using (11)C-raclopride positron emission tomography imaging, we investigated the effects of reward-related cues and L-dopa challenge in patients with Parkinson's disease with and without impulsive-compulsive behaviours on striatal levels of synaptic dopamine. Eighteen patients (11 with and seven without impulsive-compulsive behaviours) underwent three (11)C-raclopride positron emission tomography scans. The impulsive-compulsive behaviours included hypersexuality, binge eating, punding, compulsive use of dopamine replacement therapy, compulsive buying and pathological gambling, with eight patients exhibiting more than one impulsive-compulsive behaviour. There were no significant differences in baseline dopamine D2 receptor availability between the Parkinson's disease groups. No differences were found when comparing the percentage change of raclopride binding potential between the two Parkinson's disease groups following L-dopa challenge with neutral cues. The group with Parkinson's disease with impulsive-compulsive behaviours had a greater reduction of ventral striatum (11)C-raclopride binding potential following reward-related cue exposure, relative to neutral cue exposure, following L-dopa challenge (16.3% compared with 5.8% in Parkinson's disease controls, P = 0.016). The heightened response of striatal reward circuitry to heterogeneous reward-related visual cues among a group of patients with different impulsive-compulsive behaviours is consistent with a global sensitization to appetitive behaviours with dopaminergic therapy in vulnerable individuals. Our findings are relevant for the broader debate on the relation between impulsive

Anger and selective attention to reward and punishment in children.

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He, Jie; Jin, Xinyi; Zhang, Meng; Huang, Xiang; Shui, Rende; Shen, Mowei

2013-07-01

Anger is a negative emotion associated with approach motivation and may influence children's attention preference. Three experiments examined the effect of anger on the attentional biases accompanying reward versus punishment cues in Chinese 5- and 6-year-olds. Experiment 1 tested children who were prone to report angry feelings in an unfair game. Experiment 2 measured children who were rated by parents and teachers for temperamental anger. Experiment 3 explored children who reported angry feelings in a frustrating attention task with rigged and noncontingent feedback after controlling for temperament anger. Results suggested that both the angry and anger-prone children were faster to engage attention toward the reward cues than toward the punishment cues in the three experiments. Furthermore, the angry children in the frustrating attention task (and those with poor attention focusing by parental report) were slower in disengaging attention away from the reward versus punishment cues (especially after negative feedback). Results support the approach motivation of anger, which can facilitate children's attention toward the appetitive approach-related information. The findings are discussed in terms of the adaptive and maladaptive function of anger. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Distributed hippocampal patterns that discriminate reward context are associated with enhanced associative binding.

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Wolosin, Sasha M; Zeithamova, Dagmar; Preston, Alison R

2013-11-01

Recent research indicates that reward-based motivation impacts medial temporal lobe (MTL) encoding processes, leading to enhanced memory for rewarded events. In particular, previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of motivated learning have shown that MTL activation is greater for highly rewarded events, with the degree of reward-related activation enhancement tracking the corresponding behavioral memory advantage. These studies, however, do not directly address leading theoretical perspectives that propose such reward-based enhancements in MTL encoding activation reflect enhanced discrimination of the motivational context of specific events. In this study, a high-value or low-value monetary cue preceded a pair of objects, indicating the future reward for successfully remembering the pair. Using representational similarity analysis and high-resolution fMRI, we show that MTL activation patterns are more similar for encoding trials preceded by the same versus different reward cues, indicating a distributed code in this region that distinguishes between motivational contexts. Moreover, we show that activation patterns in hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex (PHc) that differentiate reward conditions during anticipatory cues and object pairs relate to successful associative memory. Additionally, the degree to which patterns differentiate reward contexts in dentate gyrus/CA2,3 and PHc is related to individual differences in reward modulation of memory. Collectively, these findings suggest that distributed activation patterns in the human hippocampus and PHc reflect the rewards associated with individual events. Furthermore, we show that these activation patterns-which discriminate between reward conditions--may influence memory through the incorporation of information about motivational contexts into stored memory representations. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Spatiotemporal neural characterization of prediction error valence and surprise during reward learning in humans.

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Fouragnan, Elsa; Queirazza, Filippo; Retzler, Chris; Mullinger, Karen J; Philiastides, Marios G

2017-07-06

Reward learning depends on accurate reward associations with potential choices. These associations can be attained with reinforcement learning mechanisms using a reward prediction error (RPE) signal (the difference between actual and expected rewards) for updating future reward expectations. Despite an extensive body of literature on the influence of RPE on learning, little has been done to investigate the potentially separate contributions of RPE valence (positive or negative) and surprise (absolute degree of deviation from expectations). Here, we coupled single-trial electroencephalography with simultaneously acquired fMRI, during a probabilistic reversal-learning task, to offer evidence of temporally overlapping but largely distinct spatial representations of RPE valence and surprise. Electrophysiological variability in RPE valence correlated with activity in regions of the human reward network promoting approach or avoidance learning. Electrophysiological variability in RPE surprise correlated primarily with activity in regions of the human attentional network controlling the speed of learning. Crucially, despite the largely separate spatial extend of these representations our EEG-informed fMRI approach uniquely revealed a linear superposition of the two RPE components in a smaller network encompassing visuo-mnemonic and reward areas. Activity in this network was further predictive of stimulus value updating indicating a comparable contribution of both signals to reward learning.

Episodic memory encoding interferes with reward learning and decreases striatal prediction errors.

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Wimmer, G Elliott; Braun, Erin Kendall; Daw, Nathaniel D; Shohamy, Daphna

2014-11-05

Learning is essential for adaptive decision making. The striatum and its dopaminergic inputs are known to support incremental reward-based learning, while the hippocampus is known to support encoding of single events (episodic memory). Although traditionally studied separately, in even simple experiences, these two types of learning are likely to co-occur and may interact. Here we sought to understand the nature of this interaction by examining how incremental reward learning is related to concurrent episodic memory encoding. During the experiment, human participants made choices between two options (colored squares), each associated with a drifting probability of reward, with the goal of earning as much money as possible. Incidental, trial-unique object pictures, unrelated to the choice, were overlaid on each option. The next day, participants were given a surprise memory test for these pictures. We found that better episodic memory was related to a decreased influence of recent reward experience on choice, both within and across participants. fMRI analyses further revealed that during learning the canonical striatal reward prediction error signal was significantly weaker when episodic memory was stronger. This decrease in reward prediction error signals in the striatum was associated with enhanced functional connectivity between the hippocampus and striatum at the time of choice. Our results suggest a mechanism by which memory encoding may compete for striatal processing and provide insight into how interactions between different forms of learning guide reward-based decision making. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3414901-12$15.00/0.

Impulsive reactions to food-cues predict subsequent food craving.

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Meule, Adrian; Lutz, Annika P C; Vögele, Claus; Kübler, Andrea

2014-01-01

Low inhibitory control has been associated with overeating and addictive behaviors. Inhibitory control can modulate cue-elicited craving in social or alcohol-dependent drinkers, and trait impulsivity may also play a role in food-cue reactivity. The current study investigated food-cue affected response inhibition and its relationship to food craving using a stop-signal task with pictures of food and neutral stimuli. Participants responded slower to food pictures as compared to neutral pictures. Reaction times in response to food pictures positively predicted scores on the Food Cravings Questionnaire - State (FCQ-S) after the task and particularly scores on its hunger subscale. Lower inhibitory performance in response to food pictures predicted higher FCQ-S scores and particularly those related to a desire for food and lack of control over consumption. Task performance was unrelated to current dieting or other measures of habitual eating behaviors. Results support models on interactive effects of top-down inhibitory control processes and bottom-up hedonic signals in the self-regulation of eating behavior, such that low inhibitory control specifically in response to appetitive stimuli is associated with increased craving, which may ultimately result in overeating. © 2013.

The prelimbic cortex directs attention toward predictive cues during fear learning.

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Sharpe, Melissa J; Killcross, Simon

2015-06-01

The prelimbic cortex is argued to promote conditioned fear expression, at odds with appetitive research implicating this region in attentional processing. Consistent with an attentional account, we report that the effect of prelimbic lesions on fear expression depends on the degree of competition between contextual and discrete cues. Further, when competition from contextual cues is low, we found that PL inactivation resulted in animals expressing fear toward irrelevant discrete cues; an effect selective to inactivation during the learning phase and not during retrieval. These data demonstrate that the prelimbic cortex modulates attention toward cues to preferentially direct fear responding on the basis of their predictive value. © 2015 Sharpe and Killcross; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.

Dopamine-signalled reward predictions generated by competitive excitation and inhibition in a spiking neural network model

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Paul eChorley

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Dopaminergic neurons in the mammalian substantia nigra displaycharacteristic phasic responses to stimuli which reliably predict thereceipt of primary rewards. These responses have been suggested toencode reward prediction-errors similar to those used in reinforcementlearning. Here, we propose a model of dopaminergic activity in whichprediction error signals are generated by the joint action ofshort-latency excitation and long-latency inhibition, in a networkundergoing dopaminergic neuromodulation of both spike-timing dependentsynaptic plasticity and neuronal excitability. In contrast toprevious models, sensitivity to recent events is maintained by theselective modification of specific striatal synapses, efferent tocortical neurons exhibiting stimulus-specific, temporally extendedactivity patterns. Our model shows, in the presence of significantbackground activity, (i a shift in dopaminergic response from rewardto reward predicting stimuli, (ii preservation of a response tounexpected rewards, and (iii a precisely-timed below-baseline dip inactivity observed when expected rewards are omitted.

BAS-drive trait modulates dorsomedial striatum activity during reward response-outcome associations.

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Costumero, Víctor; Barrós-Loscertales, Alfonso; Fuentes, Paola; Rosell-Negre, Patricia; Bustamante, Juan Carlos; Ávila, César

2016-09-01

According to the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, behavioral studies have found that individuals with stronger reward sensitivity easily detect cues of reward and establish faster associations between instrumental responses and reward. Neuroimaging studies have shown that processing anticipatory cues of reward is accompanied by stronger ventral striatum activity in individuals with stronger reward sensitivity. Even though establishing response-outcome contingencies has been consistently associated with dorsal striatum, individual differences in this process are poorly understood. Here, we aimed to study the relation between reward sensitivity and brain activity while processing response-reward contingencies. Forty-five participants completed the BIS/BAS questionnaire and performed a gambling task paradigm in which they received monetary rewards or punishments. Overall, our task replicated previous results that have related processing high reward outcomes with activation of striatum and medial frontal areas, whereas processing high punishment outcomes was associated with stronger activity in insula and middle cingulate. As expected, the individual differences in the activity of dorsomedial striatum correlated positively with BAS-Drive. Our results agree with previous studies that have related the dorsomedial striatum with instrumental performance, and suggest that the individual differences in this area may form part of the neural substrate responsible for modulating instrumental conditioning by reward sensitivity.

Conditioned Object Preference: An Alternative Approach to Measuring Reward Learning in Rats

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Kennedy, Bruce C.; Kohli, Maulika; Maertens, Jamie J.; Marell, Paulina S.; Gewirtz, Jonathan C.

2016-01-01

Pavlovian conditioned approach behavior can be directed as much toward discrete cues as it is toward the environmental contexts in which those cues are encountered. The current experiments characterized a tendency of rats to approach object cues whose prior exposure had been paired with reward (conditioned object preference, COP). To demonstrate…

Female hummingbirds do not relocate rewards using colour cues

OpenAIRE

Tello Ramos, Maria Cristina; Hurly, T. Andrew; Healy, Susan D.

2014-01-01

This research was supported by CONACYT (The Mexican National Council for Science and Technology) grant number: 310717, the University of Lethbridge and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (grant number: RGPIN 121496-2003) and the University of St Andrew's Russell Trust Award. Males generally outperform females in spatial tasks. This difference in spatial performance may reflect differences in cue preference because males often use both spatial cues 9distance and...

Intense passionate love attenuates cigarette cue-reactivity in nicotine-deprived smokers: an FMRI study.

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Xiaomeng Xu

Full Text Available Self-expanding experiences like falling in love or engaging in novel, exciting and interesting activities activate the same brain reward mechanism (mesolimbic dopamine pathway that reinforces drug use and abuse, including tobacco smoking. This suggests the possibility that reward from smoking is substitutable by self-expansion (through competition with the same neural system, potentially aiding cessation efforts. Using a model of self-expansion in the context of romantic love, the present fMRI experiment examined whether, among nicotine-deprived smokers, relationship self-expansion is associated with deactivation of cigarette cue-reactivity regions. Results indicated that among participants who were experiencing moderate levels of craving, cigarette cue-reactivity regions (e.g., cuneus and posterior cingulate cortex showed significantly less activation during self-expansion conditions compared with control conditions. These results provide evidence that rewards from one domain (self-expansion can act as a substitute for reward from another domain (nicotine to attenuate cigarette cue reactivity.

Intense passionate love attenuates cigarette cue-reactivity in nicotine-deprived smokers: an FMRI study.

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Xu, Xiaomeng; Wang, Jin; Aron, Arthur; Lei, Wei; Westmaas, J Lee; Weng, Xuchu

2012-01-01

Self-expanding experiences like falling in love or engaging in novel, exciting and interesting activities activate the same brain reward mechanism (mesolimbic dopamine pathway) that reinforces drug use and abuse, including tobacco smoking. This suggests the possibility that reward from smoking is substitutable by self-expansion (through competition with the same neural system), potentially aiding cessation efforts. Using a model of self-expansion in the context of romantic love, the present fMRI experiment examined whether, among nicotine-deprived smokers, relationship self-expansion is associated with deactivation of cigarette cue-reactivity regions. Results indicated that among participants who were experiencing moderate levels of craving, cigarette cue-reactivity regions (e.g., cuneus and posterior cingulate cortex) showed significantly less activation during self-expansion conditions compared with control conditions. These results provide evidence that rewards from one domain (self-expansion) can act as a substitute for reward from another domain (nicotine) to attenuate cigarette cue reactivity.

Altered neural reward and loss processing and prediction error signalling in depression

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Ubl, Bettina; Kuehner, Christine; Kirsch, Peter; Ruttorf, Michaela

2015-01-01

Dysfunctional processing of reward and punishment may play an important role in depression. However, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown heterogeneous results for reward processing in fronto-striatal regions. We examined neural responsivity associated with the processing of reward and loss during anticipation and receipt of incentives and related prediction error (PE) signalling in depressed individuals. Thirty medication-free depressed persons and 28 healthy controls performed an fMRI reward paradigm. Regions of interest analyses focused on neural responses during anticipation and receipt of gains and losses and related PE-signals. Additionally, we assessed the relationship between neural responsivity during gain/loss processing and hedonic capacity. When compared with healthy controls, depressed individuals showed reduced fronto-striatal activity during anticipation of gains and losses. The groups did not significantly differ in response to reward and loss outcomes. In depressed individuals, activity increases in the orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens during reward anticipation were associated with hedonic capacity. Depressed individuals showed an absence of reward-related PEs but encoded loss-related PEs in the ventral striatum. Depression seems to be linked to blunted responsivity in fronto-striatal regions associated with limited motivational responses for rewards and losses. Alterations in PE encoding might mirror blunted reward- and enhanced loss-related associative learning in depression. PMID:25567763

Intentional preparation of auditory attention-switches: Explicit cueing and sequential switch-predictability.

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Seibold, Julia C; Nolden, Sophie; Oberem, Josefa; Fels, Janina; Koch, Iring

2018-06-01

In an auditory attention-switching paradigm, participants heard two simultaneously spoken number-words, each presented to one ear, and decided whether the target number was smaller or larger than 5 by pressing a left or right key. An instructional cue in each trial indicated which feature had to be used to identify the target number (e.g., female voice). Auditory attention-switch costs were found when this feature changed compared to when it repeated in two consecutive trials. Earlier studies employing this paradigm showed mixed results when they examined whether such cued auditory attention-switches can be prepared actively during the cue-stimulus interval. This study systematically assessed which preconditions are necessary for the advance preparation of auditory attention-switches. Three experiments were conducted that controlled for cue-repetition benefits, modality switches between cue and stimuli, as well as for predictability of the switch-sequence. Only in the third experiment, in which predictability for an attention-switch was maximal due to a pre-instructed switch-sequence and predictable stimulus onsets, active switch-specific preparation was found. These results suggest that the cognitive system can prepare auditory attention-switches, and this preparation seems to be triggered primarily by the memorised switching-sequence and valid expectations about the time of target onset.

Fear Conditioning Effects on Sensitivity to Drug Reward

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-01

motivational responses and self-administration behaviors (Robbins et al., 2008). Pavlovian conditioning mechanisms link unconditioned drug responses...model. Induction of fear conditioning is followed by measurement of sensitivity to drug reward using a conditioned place preference (CPP) model to...morphine. Conditioned drug reward is a relevant model in addiction because environmental cues (e.g. a barroom) induce craving and persistent

Under the influence: Effects of adolescent ethanol exposure and anxiety on motivation for uncertain gambling-like cues in male and female rats.

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Hellberg, Samantha N; Levit, Jeremy D; Robinson, Mike J F

2018-01-30

Gambling disorder (GD) frequently co-occurs with alcohol use and anxiety disorders, suggesting possible shared mechanisms. Recent research suggests reward uncertainty may powerfully enhance attraction towards reward cues. Here, we examined the effects of adolescent ethanol exposure, anxiety, and reward uncertainty on cue-triggered motivation. Male and female adolescent rats were given free access to ethanol or control jello for 20days. Following withdrawal, rats underwent autoshaping on a certain (100%-1) or uncertain (50%-1-2-3) reward contingency, followed by single-session conditioned reinforcement and progressive ratio tasks, and 7days of omission training, during which lever pressing resulted in omission of reward. Finally, anxiety levels were quantified on the elevated plus maze. Here, we found that uncertainty narrowed cue attraction by significantly increasing the ratio of sign-tracking to goal-tracking, particularly amongst control jello and high anxiety animals, but not in animals exposed to ethanol during adolescence. In addition, attentional bias towards the lever cue was more persistent under uncertain conditions following omission training. We also found that females consumed more ethanol, and that uncertainty mitigated the anxiolytic effects of ethanol exposure observed in high ethanol intake animals under certainty conditions. Our results further support that reward uncertainty biases attraction towards reward cues, suggesting also that heightened anxiety may enhance vulnerability to the effects of reward uncertainty. Chronic, elevated alcohol consumption may contribute to heightened anxiety levels, while high anxiety may promote the over-attribution of incentive value to reward cues, highlighting possible mechanisms that may drive concurrent anxiety, heavy drinking, and problematic gambling. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pattern of access determines influence of junk food diet on cue sensitivity and palatability.

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Kosheleff, Alisa R; Araki, Jingwen; Hsueh, Jennifer; Le, Andrew; Quizon, Kevin; Ostlund, Sean B; Maidment, Nigel T; Murphy, Niall P

2018-04-01

Like drug addiction, cues associated with palatable foods can trigger food-seeking, even when sated. However, whether susceptibility to the motivating influence of food-related cues is a predisposing factor in overeating or a consequence of poor diet is difficult to determine in humans. Using a rodent model, we explored whether a highly palatable 'junk food' diet impacts responses to reward-paired cues in a Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer test, using sweetened condensed milk (SCM) as the reward. The hedonic impact of SCM consumption was also assessed by analyzing licking microstructure. To probe the effects of pattern and duration of junk food exposure, we provided rats with either regular chow ad libitum (controls) or chow plus access to junk food for either 2 or 24 h per day for 1, 3, or 6 weeks. We also examined how individual susceptibility to weight gain related to these measures. Rats provided 24 h access to the junk food diet were insensitive to the motivational effects of a SCM-paired cue when tested sated even though their hedonic experience upon reward consumption was similar to controls. In contrast, rats provided restricted, 2 h access to junk food exhibited a cue generalization phenotype under sated conditions, lever-pressing with increased vigor in response to both a SCM-paired cue, and a cue not previously paired with reward. Hedonic response was also significantly higher in these animals relative to controls. These data demonstrate that the pattern of junk food exposure differentially alters the hedonic impact of palatable foods and susceptibility to the motivating influence of cues in the environment to promote food-seeking actions when sated, which may be consequential for understanding overeating and obesity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of reward on the accuracy and dynamics of smooth pursuit eye movements.

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Brielmann, Aenne A; Spering, Miriam

2015-08-01

Reward modulates behavioral choices and biases goal-oriented behavior, such as eye or hand movements, toward locations or stimuli associated with higher rewards. We investigated reward effects on the accuracy and timing of smooth pursuit eye movements in 4 experiments. Eye movements were recorded in participants tracking a moving visual target on a computer monitor. Before target motion onset, a monetary reward cue indicated whether participants could earn money by tracking accurately, or whether the trial was unrewarded (Experiments 1 and 2, n = 11 each). Reward significantly improved eye-movement accuracy across different levels of task difficulty. Improvements were seen even in the earliest phase of the eye movement, within 70 ms of tracking onset, indicating that reward impacts visual-motor processing at an early level. We obtained similar findings when reward was not precued but explicitly associated with the pursuit target (Experiment 3, n = 16); critically, these results were not driven by stimulus prevalence or other factors such as preparation or motivation. Numerical cues (Experiment 4, n = 9) were not effective. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Regional brain activation supporting cognitive control in the context of reward is associated with treated adolescents’ marijuana problem severity at follow-up: A preliminary study

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Tammy Chung

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This preliminary study examined the extent to which regional brain activation during a reward cue antisaccade (AS task was associated with 6-month treatment outcome in adolescent substance users. Antisaccade performance provides a sensitive measure of executive function and cognitive control, and generally improves with reward cues. We hypothesized that when preparing to execute an AS, greater activation in regions associated with cognitive and oculomotor control supporting AS, particularly during reward cue trials, would be associated with lower substance use severity at 6-month follow-up. Adolescents (n = 14, ages 14–18 recruited from community-based outpatient treatment completed an fMRI reward cue AS task (reward and neutral conditions, and provided follow-up data. Results indicated that AS errors decreased in reward, compared to neutral, trials. AS behavioral performance, however, was not associated with treatment outcome. As hypothesized, activation in regions of interest (ROIs associated with cognitive (e.g., ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and oculomotor control (e.g., supplementary eye field during reward trials were inversely correlated with marijuana problem severity at 6-months. ROI activation during neutral trials was not associated with outcomes. Results support the role of motivational (reward cue factors to enhance cognitive control processes, and suggest a potential brain-based correlate of youth treatment outcome.

Reward rate optimization in two-alternative decision making: empirical tests of theoretical predictions.

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Simen, Patrick; Contreras, David; Buck, Cara; Hu, Peter; Holmes, Philip; Cohen, Jonathan D

2009-12-01

The drift-diffusion model (DDM) implements an optimal decision procedure for stationary, 2-alternative forced-choice tasks. The height of a decision threshold applied to accumulating information on each trial determines a speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) for the DDM, thereby accounting for a ubiquitous feature of human performance in speeded response tasks. However, little is known about how participants settle on particular tradeoffs. One possibility is that they select SATs that maximize a subjective rate of reward earned for performance. For the DDM, there exist unique, reward-rate-maximizing values for its threshold and starting point parameters in free-response tasks that reward correct responses (R. Bogacz, E. Brown, J. Moehlis, P. Holmes, & J. D. Cohen, 2006). These optimal values vary as a function of response-stimulus interval, prior stimulus probability, and relative reward magnitude for correct responses. We tested the resulting quantitative predictions regarding response time, accuracy, and response bias under these task manipulations and found that grouped data conformed well to the predictions of an optimally parameterized DDM.

Reward action in the initiation of smooth pursuit eye movements

OpenAIRE

Joshua, Mati; Lisberger, Stephen G.

2012-01-01

Reward has a powerful influence on motor behavior. To probe how and where reward systems alter motor behavior, we studied smooth pursuit eye movements in monkeys trained to associate the color of a visual cue with the size of the reward to be issued at the end of the target motion. When the tracking task presented two different colored targets that moved orthogonally, monkeys biased the initiation of pursuit towards the direction of motion of the target that led to larger reward. The bias was...

Variation in reward quality and pollinator attraction: the consumer does not always get it right.

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Carr, David E; Haber, Ariela I; LeCroy, Kathryn A; Lee, De'Ashia E; Link, Rosabeth I

2015-04-09

Nearly all bees rely on pollen as the sole protein source for the development of their larvae. The central importance of pollen for the bee life cycle should exert strong selection on their ability to locate the most rewarding sources of pollen. Despite this importance, very few studies have examined the influence of intraspecific variation in pollen rewards on the foraging decisions of bees. Previous studies have demonstrated that inbreeding reduces viability and hence protein content in Mimulus guttatus (seep monkeyflower) pollen and that bees strongly discriminate against inbred in favour of outbred plants. We examined whether variation in pollen viability could explain this preference using a series of choice tests with living plants, artificial plants and olfactometer tests using the bumble bee Bombus impatiens. We found that B. impatiens preferred to visit artificial plants provisioned with fertile anthers over those provisioned with sterile anthers. They also preferred fertile anthers when provided only olfactory cues. These bumble bees were unable to discriminate among live plants from subpopulations differing dramatically in pollen viability, however. They preferred outbred plants even when those plants were from subpopulations with pollen viability as low as the inbred populations. Their preference for outbred plants was evident even when only olfactory cues were available. Our data showed that bumble bees are able to differentiate between anthers that provide higher rewards when cues are isolated from the rest of the flower. When confronted with cues from the entire flower, their choices are independent of the quality of the pollen reward, suggesting that they are responding more strongly to cues unassociated with rewards than to those correlated with rewards. If so, this suggests that a sensory bias or some level of deception may be involved with advertisement to pollinators in M. guttatus. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of

The Effect of Reward on Orienting and Reorienting in Exogenous Cueing

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Bucker, B.; Theeuwes, J.

2014-01-01

It is thought that reward-induced motivation influences perceptual, attentional, and cognitive control processes to facilitate behavioral performance. In this study, we investigated the effect of reward-induced motivation on exogenous attention orienting and inhibition of return (IOR). Attention was

Cognitive capacity limitations and Need for Cognition differentially predict reward-induced cognitive effort expenditure.

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Sandra, Dasha A; Otto, A Ross

2018-03-01

While psychological, economic, and neuroscientific accounts of behavior broadly maintain that people minimize expenditure of cognitive effort, empirical work reveals how reward incentives can mobilize increased cognitive effort expenditure. Recent theories posit that the decision to expend effort is governed, in part, by a cost-benefit tradeoff whereby the potential benefits of mental effort can offset the perceived costs of effort exertion. Taking an individual differences approach, the present study examined whether one's executive function capacity, as measured by Stroop interference, predicts the extent to which reward incentives reduce switch costs in a task-switching paradigm, which indexes additional expenditure of cognitive effort. In accordance with the predictions of a cost-benefit account of effort, we found that a low executive function capacity-and, relatedly, a low intrinsic motivation to expend effort (measured by Need for Cognition)-predicted larger increase in cognitive effort expenditure in response to monetary reward incentives, while individuals with greater executive function capacity-and greater intrinsic motivation to expend effort-were less responsive to reward incentives. These findings suggest that an individual's cost-benefit tradeoff is constrained by the perceived costs of exerting cognitive effort. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Introduction: Addiction and Brain Reward and Anti-Reward Pathways

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Gardner, Eliot L.

2013-01-01

��bio-psycho-social” model of etiology holds very well for addiction. Addiction appears to correlate with a hypo-dopaminergic dysfunctional state within the reward circuitry of the brain. Neuroimaging studies in humans add credence to this hypothesis. Credible evidence also implicates serotonergic, opioid, endocannabinoid, GABAergic, and glutamatergic mechanisms in addiction. Critically, drug addiction progresses from occasional recreational use to impulsive use to habitual compulsive use. This correlates with a progression from reward-driven to habit-driven drug-seeking behavior. This behavioral progression correlates with a neuroanatomical progression from ventral striatal (nucleus accumbens) to dorsal striatal control over drug-seeking behavior. The three classical sets of craving and relapse triggers are a) re-exposure to addictive drugs, b) stress, and c) re-exposure to environmental cues (“people, places, things”) previously associated with drug-taking behavior. Drug-triggered relapse involves the nucleus accumbens and the neurotransmitter dopamine. Stress-triggered relapse involves a) the central nucleus of the amygdala, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and the neurotransmitter CRF; and b) the lateral tegmental noradrenergic nuclei of the brain stem and the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. Cue-triggered relapse involves the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the neurotransmitter glutamate. Knowledge of the neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, and neuropharmacology of addictive drug action in the brain is currently producing a variety of strategies for pharmacotherapeutic treatment of drug addiction, some of which appear promising. PMID:21508625

Stress and reward processing in bipolar disorder: an fMRI study

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Berghorst, Lisa H; Kumar, Poornima; Greve, Doug N; Deckersbach, Thilo; Ongur, Dost; Dutra, Sunny; Pizzagalli, Diego A

2016-01-01

Objectives A link between negative life stress and the onset of mood episodes in bipolar disorder (BD) has been established, but processes underlying such a link remain unclear. Growing evidence suggests that stress can negatively affect reward processing and related neurobiological substrates, indicating that a dysregulated reward system may provide a partial explanation. The aim of this study was to test the impact of stress on reward-related neural functioning in BD. Methods Thirteen euthymic or mildly depressed individuals with BD and 15 controls performed a Monetary Incentive Delay task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging during no-stress and stress (negative psychosocial stressor involving poor performance feedback and threat of monetary deductions) conditions. Results In hypothesis-driven region-of- interest-based analyses, a significant group by condition interaction emerged in the amygdala during reward anticipation. Relative to controls, while anticipating a potential reward, subjects with BD were characterized by amygdalar hyperactivation in the no-stress condition but hypoactivation during stress. Moreover, relative to controls, subjects with BD had significantly larger amygdala volumes. After controlling for structural differences, the effects of stress on amygdalar function remained, whereas groups no longer differed during the no-stress condition. During reward consumption, a group by condition interaction emerged in the putamen due to increased putamen activation to rewards in participants with BD during stress, but an opposite pattern in controls. Conclusions Overall, findings highlight possible impairments in using reward-predicting cues to adaptively engage in goal-directed actions in BD, combined with stress-induced hypersensitivity to reward consumption. Potential clinical implications are discussed. PMID:27870507

The role of reward and reward uncertainty in episodic memory

OpenAIRE

Mason, Alice; Farrell, Simon; Howard-Jones, Paul; Ludwig, Casimir

2017-01-01

Declarative memory has been found to be sensitive to reward-related changes in the environment. The reward signal can be broken down into information regarding the expected value of the reward, reward uncertainty and the prediction error. Research has established that high as opposed to low reward values enhance declarative memory. Research in neuroscience suggests that high uncertainty activates the reward system, which could lead to enhanced learning and memory. Here we present the results ...

Dopamine reward prediction errors reflect hidden state inference across time

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Starkweather, Clara Kwon; Babayan, Benedicte M.; Uchida, Naoshige; Gershman, Samuel J.

2017-01-01

Midbrain dopamine neurons signal reward prediction error (RPE), or actual minus expected reward. The temporal difference (TD) learning model has been a cornerstone in understanding how dopamine RPEs could drive associative learning. Classically, TD learning imparts value to features that serially track elapsed time relative to observable stimuli. In the real world, however, sensory stimuli provide ambiguous information about the hidden state of the environment, leading to the proposal that TD learning might instead compute a value signal based on an inferred distribution of hidden states (a ‘belief state’). In this work, we asked whether dopaminergic signaling supports a TD learning framework that operates over hidden states. We found that dopamine signaling exhibited a striking difference between two tasks that differed only with respect to whether reward was delivered deterministically. Our results favor an associative learning rule that combines cached values with hidden state inference. PMID:28263301

Genetic moderation of the association between regulatory focus and reward responsiveness: a proof-of-concept study.

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Goetz, Elena L; Hariri, Ahmad R; Pizzagalli, Diego A; Strauman, Timothy J

2013-02-01

Recent studies implicate individual differences in regulatory focus as contributing to self-regulatory dysfunction, particularly not responding to positive outcomes. How such individual differences emerge, however, is unclear. We conducted a proof-of-concept study to examine the moderating effects of genetically driven variation in dopamine signaling, a key modulator of neural reward circuits, on the association between regulatory focus and reward cue responsiveness. Healthy Caucasians (N=59) completed a measure of chronic regulatory focus and a probabilistic reward task. A common functional genetic polymorphism impacting prefrontal dopamine signaling (COMT rs4680) was evaluated. Response bias, the participants' propensity to modulate behavior as a function of reward, was predicted by an interaction of regulatory focus and COMT genotype. Specifically, self-perceived success at achieving promotion goals predicted total response bias, but only for individuals with the COMT genotype (Val/Val) associated with relatively increased phasic dopamine signaling and cognitive flexibility. The combination of success in promotion goal pursuit and Val/Val genotype appears to facilitate responding to reward opportunities in the environment. This study is among the first to integrate an assessment of self-regulatory style with an examination of genetic variability that underlies responsiveness to positive outcomes in goal pursuit.

Predicting Emotional Responses to Horror Films from Cue-Specific Affect.

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Neuendorf, Kimberly A.; Sparks, Glenn G.

1988-01-01

Assesses individuals' fear and enjoyment reactions to horror films, applying theories of cognition and affect that predict emotional responses to a stimulus on the basis of prior affect toward specific cues included in that stimulus. (MM)

PKMζ maintains drug reward and aversion memory in the basolateral amygdala and extinction memory in the infralimbic cortex.

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He, Ying-Ying; Xue, Yan-Xue; Wang, Ji-Shi; Fang, Qin; Liu, Jian-Feng; Xue, Li-Fen; Lu, Lin

2011-09-01

The intense associative memories that develop between drug-paired contextual cues and rewarding stimuli or the drug withdrawal-associated aversive feeling have been suggested to contribute to the high rate of relapse. Various studies have elucidated the mechanisms underlying the formation and expression of drug-related cue memories, but how this mechanism is maintained is unknown. Protein kinase M ζ (PKMζ) was recently shown to be necessary and sufficient for long-term potentiation maintenance and memory storage. In the present study, we used conditioned place preference (CPP) and aversion (CPA) to examine whether PKMζ maintains both morphine-associated reward memory and morphine withdrawal-associated aversive memory in the basolateral amygdala (BLA). We also investigate the role of PKMζ in the infralimbic cortex in the extinction memory of morphine reward-related cues and morphine withdrawal-related aversive cues. We found that intra-BLA but not central nucleus of the amygdala injection of the selective PKMζ inhibitor ZIP 1 day after CPP and CPA training impaired the expression of CPP and CPA 1 day later, and the effect of ZIP on memory lasted at least 2 weeks. Inhibiting PKMζ activity in the infralimbic cortex, but not prelimbic cortex, disrupted the expression of the extinction memory of CPP and CPA. These results indicate that PKMζ in the BLA is required for the maintenance of associative morphine reward memory and morphine withdrawal-associated aversion memory, and PKMζ in the infralimbic cortex is required for the maintenance of extinction memory of morphine reward-related cues and morphine withdrawal-related aversive cues.

Ethanol-induced conditioned taste avoidance: reward or aversion?

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Liu, Chuang; Showalter, John; Grigson, Patricia Sue

2009-03-01

Rats avoid intake of a palatable taste cue when paired with all drugs of abuse tested. Evidence suggests that, at least for morphine and cocaine, rats avoid the taste cue because they are anticipating the rewarding properties of the drug. Thus, the suppressive effects of a rewarding sucrose solution and cocaine, but not those of the putatively aversive agent, lithium chloride (LiCl), are exaggerated in drug-sensitive Lewis rats. Likewise, the suppressive effects of sucrose and morphine, but not those of LiCl, are eliminated by bilateral lesions of the gustatory thalamus. Unlike morphine and cocaine, it is less clear whether rewarding or aversive drug properties are responsible for ethanol-induced suppression of intake of a taste cue. The present set of studies tests whether, like cocaine, ethanol-induced suppression of intake of a taste cue also is greater in the drug-sensitive Lewis rats and whether the suppressive effects of the drug are prevented by bilateral lesions of the taste thalamus. In Experiment 1, fluid-deprived Lewis and Fischer rats were given 5-minute access to 0.15% saccharin and then injected with saline or a range of doses of ethanol (0.5, 0.75, 1.0, or 1.5 g/kg). There was a total of 6 such pairings. In Experiments 2 and 3, Sprague-Dawley rats received bilateral electrophysiologically guided lesions of the gustatory thalamus. After recovery, suppression of intake of the saccharin cue was evaluated following repeated daily pairings with either a high (1.5 g/kg) or a low (0.75 g/kg) dose of ethanol. Ethanol-induced suppression of intake of the saccharin conditioned stimulus (CS) did not differ between the drug-sensitive Lewis rats relative to the less-sensitive Fischer rats. Lesions of the taste thalamus, however, prevented the suppressive effect of the 0.75 g/kg dose of the drug, but had no impact on the suppressive effect of the 1.5 g/kg dose of ethanol. The results suggest that the suppressive effects of ethanol on CS intake are mediated by both

Reversal of alcohol dependence-induced deficits in cue-guided behavior via mGluR2/3 signaling in mice.

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Barker, Jacqueline M; Lench, Daniel H; Chandler, L Judson

2016-01-01

Alcohol use disorders are associated with deficits in adaptive behavior. While some behavioral impairments that are associated with alcohol use disorders may predate exposure to drugs of abuse, others may result directly from exposure to drugs of abuse, including alcohol. Identifying a causal role for how alcohol exposure leads to these impairments will enable further investigation of the neurobiological mechanisms by which it acts to dysregulate adaptive behavior. In the present study, we examined the effects of chronic intermittent ethanol exposure (CIE) on the use of reward-paired cues to guide consummatory behaviors in a mouse model, and further, how manipulations of mGluR2/3 signaling-known to be dysregulated after chronic alcohol exposure-may alter the expression of this behavior. Adult male C57B/6J mice were trained to self-administer 10 % ethanol and exposed to CIE via vapor inhalation. After CIE exposure, mice were trained in a Pavlovian task wherein a cue (tone) was paired with the delivery of a 10 % sucrose unconditioned stimulus. The use of the reward-paired cue to guide licking behavior was determined across training. The effect of systemic mGluR2/3 manipulation on discrimination between cue-on and cue-off intervals was assessed by administration of the mGluR2/3 agonist LY379268 or the antagonist LY341495 prior to a testing session. Exposure to CIE resulted in reductions in discrimination between cue-on and cue-off intervals, with CIE-exposed mice exhibiting significantly lower consummatory behavior during reward-paired cues than air controls. In addition, systemic administration of an mGluR2/3 agonist restored the use of reward-paired cues in CIE-exposed animals without impacting behavior in air controls. Conversely, administration of an mGluR2/3 antagonist mimicked the effects of CIE on cue-guided licking behavior, indicating that mGluR2/3 signaling can bidirectionally regulate the ability to use reward-paired cues to guide behavior. Together

A configural dominant account of contextual cueing: Configural cues are stronger than colour cues.

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Kunar, Melina A; John, Rebecca; Sweetman, Hollie

2014-01-01

Previous work has shown that reaction times to find a target in displays that have been repeated are faster than those for displays that have never been seen before. This learning effect, termed "contextual cueing" (CC), has been shown using contexts such as the configuration of the distractors in the display and the background colour. However, it is not clear how these two contexts interact to facilitate search. We investigated this here by comparing the strengths of these two cues when they appeared together. In Experiment 1, participants searched for a target that was cued by both colour and distractor configural cues, compared with when the target was only predicted by configural information. The results showed that the addition of a colour cue did not increase contextual cueing. In Experiment 2, participants searched for a target that was cued by both colour and distractor configuration compared with when the target was only cued by colour. The results showed that adding a predictive configural cue led to a stronger CC benefit. Experiments 3 and 4 tested the disruptive effects of removing either a learned colour cue or a learned configural cue and whether there was cue competition when colour and configural cues were presented together. Removing the configural cue was more disruptive to CC than removing colour, and configural learning was shown to overshadow the learning of colour cues. The data support a configural dominant account of CC, where configural cues act as the stronger cue in comparison to colour when they are presented together.

Floral reward, advertisement and attractiveness to honey bees in dioecious Salix caprea.

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Dötterl, Stefan; Glück, Ulrike; Jürgens, Andreas; Woodring, Joseph; Aas, Gregor

2014-01-01

In dioecious, zoophilous plants potential pollinators have to be attracted to both sexes and switch between individuals of both sexes for pollination to occur. It often has been suggested that males and females require different numbers of visits for maximum reproductive success because male fertility is more likely limited by access to mates, whereas female fertility is rather limited by resource availability. According to sexual selection theory, males therefore should invest more in pollinator attraction (advertisement, reward) than females. However, our knowledge on the sex specific investment in floral rewards and advertisement, and its effects on pollinator behaviour is limited. Here, we use an approach that includes chemical, spectrophotometric, and behavioural studies i) to elucidate differences in floral nectar reward and advertisement (visual, olfactory cues) in dioecious sallow, Salix caprea, ii) to determine the relative importance of visual and olfactory floral cues in attracting honey bee pollinators, and iii) to test for differential attractiveness of female and male inflorescence cues to honey bees. Nectar amount and sugar concentration are comparable, but sugar composition varies between the sexes. Olfactory sallow cues are more attractive to honey bees than visual cues; however, a combination of both cues elicits the strongest behavioural responses in bees. Male flowers are due to the yellow pollen more colourful and emit a higher amount of scent than females. Honey bees prefer the visual but not the olfactory display of males over those of females. In all, the data of our multifaceted study are consistent with the sexual selection theory and provide novel insights on how the model organism honey bee uses visual and olfactory floral cues for locating host plants.

Floral reward, advertisement and attractiveness to honey bees in dioecious Salix caprea.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Dötterl

Full Text Available In dioecious, zoophilous plants potential pollinators have to be attracted to both sexes and switch between individuals of both sexes for pollination to occur. It often has been suggested that males and females require different numbers of visits for maximum reproductive success because male fertility is more likely limited by access to mates, whereas female fertility is rather limited by resource availability. According to sexual selection theory, males therefore should invest more in pollinator attraction (advertisement, reward than females. However, our knowledge on the sex specific investment in floral rewards and advertisement, and its effects on pollinator behaviour is limited. Here, we use an approach that includes chemical, spectrophotometric, and behavioural studies i to elucidate differences in floral nectar reward and advertisement (visual, olfactory cues in dioecious sallow, Salix caprea, ii to determine the relative importance of visual and olfactory floral cues in attracting honey bee pollinators, and iii to test for differential attractiveness of female and male inflorescence cues to honey bees. Nectar amount and sugar concentration are comparable, but sugar composition varies between the sexes. Olfactory sallow cues are more attractive to honey bees than visual cues; however, a combination of both cues elicits the strongest behavioural responses in bees. Male flowers are due to the yellow pollen more colourful and emit a higher amount of scent than females. Honey bees prefer the visual but not the olfactory display of males over those of females. In all, the data of our multifaceted study are consistent with the sexual selection theory and provide novel insights on how the model organism honey bee uses visual and olfactory floral cues for locating host plants.

Attentional bias for food cues in advertising among overweight and hungry children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Folkvord, F.; Anschutz, D.J.; Buijzen, M.A.

2015-01-01

Attentional bias theory suggests that an increased motivation to receive or avoid a rewarding substance elevates automatic selective attention toward cues that are related to that specific substance. Until now, no study has examined attentional bias toward food cues in food advertisements, even

Ventral striatum activation to prosocial rewards predicts longitudinal declines in adolescent risk taking.

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Telzer, Eva H; Fuligni, Andrew J; Lieberman, Matthew D; Galván, Adriana

2013-01-01

Adolescence is a period of intensified emotions and an increase in motivated behaviors and passions. Evidence from developmental neuroscience suggests that this heightened emotionality occurs, in part, due to a peak in functional reactivity to rewarding stimuli, which renders adolescents more oriented toward reward-seeking behaviors. Most prior work has focused on how reward sensitivity may create vulnerabilities, leading to increases in risk taking. Here, we test whether heightened reward sensitivity may potentially be an asset for adolescents when engaged in prosocial activities. Thirty-two adolescents were followed over a one-year period to examine whether ventral striatum activation to prosocial rewards predicts decreases in risk taking over a year. Results show that heightened ventral striatum activation to prosocial stimuli relates to longitudinal declines in risk taking. Therefore, the very same neural region that has conferred vulnerability for adolescent risk taking may also be protective against risk taking. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dopamine in the nucleus accumbens core, but not shell, increases during signaled food reward and decreases during delayed extinction.

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Biesdorf, C; Wang, A-L; Topic, B; Petri, D; Milani, H; Huston, J P; de Souza Silva, M A

2015-09-01

Microdialysis studies in rat have generally shown that appetitive stimuli release dopamine (DA) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell and core. Here we examined the release of DA in the NAc during delivery of reward (food) and during extinction of food reward in the freely moving animal by use of in vivo microdialysis and HPLC. Fifty-two male Wistar rats were trained to receive food reward associated with appearance of cue-lights in a Skinner-box during in vivo microdialysis. Different behavioral protocols were used to assess the effects of extinction on DA and its metabolites. Results Exp. 1: (a) During a 20-min period of cued reward delivery, DA increased significantly in the NAc core, but not shell subregion; (b) for the next 60min period half of the rats underwent immediate extinction (with the CS light presented during non-reward) and the other half did not undergo extinction to the cue lights (CS was not presented during non-reward). DA remained significantly increased in both groups, providing no evidence for a decrease in DA during extinction in either NAc core or shell regions. (c) In half of the animals of the group that was not subjected to extinction, the cue lights were turned on for 30min, thus, initiating extinction to cue CS at a 1h delay from the period of reward. In this group DA in the NAc core, but not shell, significantly decreased. Behavioral analysis showed that while grooming is an indicator of extinction-induced behavior, glances toward the cue-lights (sign tracking) are an index of resistance to extinction. Results Exp. 2: (a) As in Exp. 1, during a 30-min period of cued reward delivery, DA levels again increased significantly in the NAc core but not in the NAc shell. (b) When extinction (the absence of reward with the cue lights presented) was administered 24h after the last reward session, DA again significantly decreased in the NAc core, but not in the NAc shell. (a) These results confirm the importance of DA release in the NAc for

Vicarious Reinforcement In Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steve W. C. Chang

2011-03-01

Full Text Available What happens to others profoundly influences our own behavior. Such other-regarding outcomes can drive observational learning, as well as motivate cooperation, charity, empathy, and even spite. Vicarious reinforcement may serve as one of the critical mechanisms mediating the influence of other-regarding outcomes on behavior and decision-making in groups. Here we show that rhesus macaques spontaneously derive vicarious reinforcement from observing rewards given to another monkey, and that this reinforcement can motivate them to subsequently deliver or withhold rewards from the other animal. We exploited Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning to associate rewards to self (M1 and/or rewards to another monkey (M2 with visual cues. M1s made more errors in the instrumental trials when cues predicted reward to M2 compared to when cues predicted reward to M1, but made even more errors when cues predicted reward to no one. In subsequent preference tests between pairs of conditioned cues, M1s preferred cues paired with reward to M2 over cues paired with reward to no one. By contrast, M1s preferred cues paired with reward to self over cues paired with reward to both monkeys simultaneously. Rates of attention to M2 strongly predicted the strength and valence of vicarious reinforcement. These patterns of behavior, which were absent in nonsocial control trials, are consistent with vicarious reinforcement based upon sensitivity to observed, or counterfactual, outcomes with respect to another individual. Vicarious reward may play a critical role in shaping cooperation and competition, as well as motivating observational learning and group coordination in rhesus macaques, much as it does in humans. We propose that vicarious reinforcement signals mediate these behaviors via homologous neural circuits involved in reinforcement learning and decision-making.

Vicarious reinforcement in rhesus macaques (macaca mulatta).

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Steve W C; Winecoff, Amy A; Platt, Michael L

2011-01-01

What happens to others profoundly influences our own behavior. Such other-regarding outcomes can drive observational learning, as well as motivate cooperation, charity, empathy, and even spite. Vicarious reinforcement may serve as one of the critical mechanisms mediating the influence of other-regarding outcomes on behavior and decision-making in groups. Here we show that rhesus macaques spontaneously derive vicarious reinforcement from observing rewards given to another monkey, and that this reinforcement can motivate them to subsequently deliver or withhold rewards from the other animal. We exploited Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning to associate rewards to self (M1) and/or rewards to another monkey (M2) with visual cues. M1s made more errors in the instrumental trials when cues predicted reward to M2 compared to when cues predicted reward to M1, but made even more errors when cues predicted reward to no one. In subsequent preference tests between pairs of conditioned cues, M1s preferred cues paired with reward to M2 over cues paired with reward to no one. By contrast, M1s preferred cues paired with reward to self over cues paired with reward to both monkeys simultaneously. Rates of attention to M2 strongly predicted the strength and valence of vicarious reinforcement. These patterns of behavior, which were absent in non-social control trials, are consistent with vicarious reinforcement based upon sensitivity to observed, or counterfactual, outcomes with respect to another individual. Vicarious reward may play a critical role in shaping cooperation and competition, as well as motivating observational learning and group coordination in rhesus macaques, much as it does in humans. We propose that vicarious reinforcement signals mediate these behaviors via homologous neural circuits involved in reinforcement learning and decision-making.

Ghrelin enhances cue-induced bar pressing for high fat food.

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St-Onge, Veronique; Watts, Alexander; Abizaid, Alfonso

2016-02-01

Ghrelin is an orexigenic hormone produced by the stomach that acts on growth hormone secretagogue receptors (GHSRs) both peripherally and centrally. The presence of GHSRs in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) suggests that ghrelin signaling at this level may increase the incentive value of palatable foods as well as other natural and artificial rewards. The present investigation sought to determine if ghrelin plays a role in relapse to such foods following a period of abstinence. To achieve this, thirty-six male Long Evans rats were trained to press a lever to obtain a high fat chocolate food reward on a fixed ratio schedule of 1. Following an extinction period during which lever presses were not reinforced, rats were implanted with a cannula connected to a minipump that continuously delivered ghrelin, a GHSR antagonist ([d-Lys-3]-GHRP-6), or saline in the VTA for 14days. One week later, food reward-associated cues, food reward priming, and an overnight fast were used to induce reinstatement of the lever pressing response. Our results indicate that intra-VTA ghrelin enhances cue-induced reinstatement of responses for palatable food pellets. To the extent that the reinstatement paradigm is considered a valid model of relapse in humans, this suggests that ghrelin signaling facilitates relapse to preferred foods in response to food cues through GHSR signaling in the VTA. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A reward-centred model of anorexia nervosa: a focussed narrative review of the neurological and psychophysiological literature.

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O'Hara, Caitlin B; Campbell, Iain C; Schmidt, Ulrike

2015-05-01

This focussed narrative review examines neurobiological and psychophysiological evidence supporting a role for altered reward processes in the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN). In AN, there does not appear to be a generalised inability to experience reward. Rather, data suggest that a reluctance to gain weight leads to an aversive appraisal of food- and taste-related stimuli. As a result, cues compatible with this aberrant mode of thinking become rewarding for the individual. Evidence also suggests that attribution of motivational salience to such cues promotes anorectic behaviours. These findings are consistent with models in which interactions between cognition and reward are important in eliciting the anorectic "habit". A model is proposed which is consistent with elements of other theoretical frameworks, but differs in that its emphasis is towards neural overlaps between AN and addiction. It is consistent with AN being a reward-based learned behaviour in which aberrant cognitions related to eating and shape alter functioning of central reward systems. It proposes that the primary neural problem responsible for the development, maintenance, and treatment resistance is centred in the striatal reward system. This helps shift the emphasis of aetiological models towards reward processing, particularly in the context of illness-compatible cues. Furthermore, it suggests that continuing to explore the utility and valued nature of AN in the patient's life would be a useful inclusion in treatment and prevention models. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Psychogenic and neural visual-cue response in PD dopamine dysregulation syndrome.

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Loane, Clare; Wu, Kit; O'Sullivan, Sean S; Lawrence, Andrew D; Woodhead, Zoe; Lees, Andrew J; Piccini, Paola; Politis, Marios

2015-11-01

Dopamine dysregulation syndrome (DDS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients refers to the compulsive use of dopaminergic replacement therapy and has serious psycho-social consequences. Mechanisms underlying DDS are not clear although has been linked to dysfunctional brain reward networks. With fMRI, we investigate behavioral and neural response to drug-cues in six PD DDS patients and 12 PD control patients in both the ON and OFF medication state. Behavioral measures of liking, wanting and subjectively 'feeling ON medication' were also collected. Behaviorally, PD DDS patients feel less ON and want their drugs more at baseline compared to PD controls. Following drug-cue exposure, PD DDS patients feel significantly more ON medication, which correlates with significant increases in reward related regions. The results demonstrate that exposure to drug-cues increases the subjective feeling of being 'ON' medication which corresponds to dysfunctional activation in reward related regions in PD DDS patients. These findings should be extended in future studies. Visual stimuli being sufficient to elicit behavioral response through neuroadaptations could have direct implications to the management of addictive behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Utilization of reward-prospect enhances preparatory attention and reduces stimulus conflict.

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van den Berg, Berry; Krebs, Ruth M; Lorist, Monicque M; Woldorff, Marty G

2014-06-01

The prospect of gaining money is an incentive widely at play in the real world. Such monetary motivation might have particularly strong influence when the cognitive system is challenged, such as when needing to process conflicting stimulus inputs. Here, we employed manipulations of reward-prospect and attentional-preparation levels in a cued-Stroop stimulus conflict task, along with the high temporal resolution of electrical brain recordings, to provide insight into the mechanisms by which reward-prospect and attention interact and modulate cognitive task performance. In this task, the cue indicated whether or not the participant needed to prepare for an upcoming Stroop stimulus and, if so, whether there was the potential for monetary reward (dependent on performance on that trial). Both cued attention and cued reward-prospect enhanced preparatory neural activity, as reflected by increases in the hallmark attention-related negative-polarity ERP slow wave (contingent negative variation [CNV]) and reductions in oscillatory Alpha activity, which was followed by enhanced processing of the subsequent Stroop stimulus. In addition, similar modulations of preparatory neural activity (larger CNVs and reduced Alpha) predicted shorter versus longer response times (RTs) to the subsequent target stimulus, consistent with such modulations reflecting trial-to-trial variations in attention. Particularly striking were the individual differences in the utilization of reward-prospect information. In particular, the size of the reward effects on the preparatory neural activity correlated across participants with the degree to which reward-prospect both facilitated overall task performance (shorter RTs) and reduced conflict-related behavioral interference. Thus, the prospect of reward appears to recruit attentional preparation circuits to enhance processing of task-relevant target information.

How does reward compete with goal-directed and stimulus-driven shifts of attention?

Science.gov (United States)

Bourgeois, Alexia; Neveu, Rémi; Bayle, Dimitri J; Vuilleumier, Patrik

2017-01-01

In order to behave adaptively, attention can be directed in space either voluntarily (i.e. endogenously) according to strategic goals, or involuntarily (i.e. exogenously) through reflexive capture by salient or novel events. The emotional or motivational values of stimuli can also influence attentional orienting. However, little is known about how reward-related effects compete or interact with endogenous and exogenous attention mechanisms. Here we designed a visual search paradigm in which goal-driven and stimulus-driven shifts of attention were manipulated by classic spatial cueing procedures, while an irrelevant, but previously rewarded stimulus also appeared as a distractor and hence competed with both types of spatial attention during search. Our results demonstrated that stimuli previously associated with a high monetary reward received higher attentional priority in the subsequent visual search task, even though these stimuli and reward were no longer task-relevant, mitigating the attentional orienting induced by both endogenous and exogenous cues.

Measuring and modeling the interaction among reward size, delay to reward, and satiation level on motivation in monkeys.

Science.gov (United States)

Minamimoto, Takafumi; La Camera, Giancarlo; Richmond, Barry J

2009-01-01

Motivation is usually inferred from the likelihood or the intensity with which behavior is carried out. It is sensitive to external factors (e.g., the identity, amount, and timing of a rewarding outcome) and internal factors (e.g., hunger or thirst). We trained macaque monkeys to perform a nonchoice instrumental task (a sequential red-green color discrimination) while manipulating two external factors: reward size and delay-to-reward. We also inferred the state of one internal factor, level of satiation, by monitoring the accumulated reward. A visual cue indicated the forthcoming reward size and delay-to-reward in each trial. The fraction of trials completed correctly by the monkeys increased linearly with reward size and was hyperbolically discounted by delay-to-reward duration, relations that are similar to those found in free operant and choice tasks. The fraction of correct trials also decreased progressively as a function of the satiation level. Similar (albeit noiser) relations were obtained for reaction times. The combined effect of reward size, delay-to-reward, and satiation level on the proportion of correct trials is well described as a multiplication of the effects of the single factors when each factor is examined alone. These results provide a quantitative account of the interaction of external and internal factors on instrumental behavior, and allow us to extend the concept of subjective value of a rewarding outcome, usually confined to external factors, to account also for slow changes in the internal drive of the subject.

Working Memory Load Strengthens Reward Prediction Errors.

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Collins, Anne G E; Ciullo, Brittany; Frank, Michael J; Badre, David

2017-04-19

Reinforcement learning (RL) in simple instrumental tasks is usually modeled as a monolithic process in which reward prediction errors (RPEs) are used to update expected values of choice options. This modeling ignores the different contributions of different memory and decision-making systems thought to contribute even to simple learning. In an fMRI experiment, we investigated how working memory (WM) and incremental RL processes interact to guide human learning. WM load was manipulated by varying the number of stimuli to be learned across blocks. Behavioral results and computational modeling confirmed that learning was best explained as a mixture of two mechanisms: a fast, capacity-limited, and delay-sensitive WM process together with slower RL. Model-based analysis of fMRI data showed that striatum and lateral prefrontal cortex were sensitive to RPE, as shown previously, but, critically, these signals were reduced when the learning problem was within capacity of WM. The degree of this neural interaction related to individual differences in the use of WM to guide behavioral learning. These results indicate that the two systems do not process information independently, but rather interact during learning. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Reinforcement learning (RL) theory has been remarkably productive at improving our understanding of instrumental learning as well as dopaminergic and striatal network function across many mammalian species. However, this neural network is only one contributor to human learning and other mechanisms such as prefrontal cortex working memory also play a key role. Our results also show that these other players interact with the dopaminergic RL system, interfering with its key computation of reward prediction errors. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/374332-11$15.00/0.

Rewards modulate saccade latency but not exogenous spatial attention.

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Dunne, Stephen; Ellison, Amanda; Smith, Daniel T

2015-01-01

The eye movement system is sensitive to reward. However, whilst the eye movement system is extremely flexible, the extent to which changes to oculomotor behavior induced by reward paradigms persist beyond the training period or transfer to other oculomotor tasks is unclear. To address these issues we examined the effects of presenting feedback that represented small monetary rewards to spatial locations on the latency of saccadic eye movements, the time-course of learning and extinction of the effects of rewarding saccades on exogenous spatial attention and oculomotor inhibition of return. Reward feedback produced a relative facilitation of saccadic latency in a stimulus driven saccade task which persisted for three blocks of extinction trials. However, this hemifield-specific effect failed to transfer to peripheral cueing tasks. We conclude that rewarding specific spatial locations is unlikely to induce long-term, systemic changes to the human oculomotor or attention systems.

Rewards modulate saccade latency but not exogenous spatial attention.

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Stephen eDunne

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The eye movement system is sensitive to reward. However, whilst the eye movement system is extremely flexible, the extent to which changes to oculomotor behaviour induced by reward paradigms persist beyond the training period or transfer to other oculomotor tasks is unclear. To address these issues we examined the effects of presenting feedback that represented small monetary rewards to spatial locations on the latency of saccadic eye movements, the time-course of learning and extinction of the effects of rewarding saccades on exogenous spatial attention and oculomotor IOR. Reward feedback produced a relative facilitation of saccadic latency in a stimulus driven saccade task which persisted for 3 blocks of extinction trials. However this hemifield-specific effect failed to transfer to peripheral cueing tasks. We conclude that rewarding specific spatial locations is unlikely to induce long-term, systemic changes to the human oculomotor or attention systems.

Gaze-contingent reinforcement learning reveals incentive value of social signals in young children and adults.

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Vernetti, Angélina; Smith, Tim J; Senju, Atsushi

2017-03-15

While numerous studies have demonstrated that infants and adults preferentially orient to social stimuli, it remains unclear as to what drives such preferential orienting. It has been suggested that the learned association between social cues and subsequent reward delivery might shape such social orienting. Using a novel, spontaneous indication of reinforcement learning (with the use of a gaze contingent reward-learning task), we investigated whether children and adults' orienting towards social and non-social visual cues can be elicited by the association between participants' visual attention and a rewarding outcome. Critically, we assessed whether the engaging nature of the social cues influences the process of reinforcement learning. Both children and adults learned to orient more often to the visual cues associated with reward delivery, demonstrating that cue-reward association reinforced visual orienting. More importantly, when the reward-predictive cue was social and engaging, both children and adults learned the cue-reward association faster and more efficiently than when the reward-predictive cue was social but non-engaging. These new findings indicate that social engaging cues have a positive incentive value. This could possibly be because they usually coincide with positive outcomes in real life, which could partly drive the development of social orienting. © 2017 The Authors.

First-Pass Processing of Value Cues in the Ventral Visual Pathway.

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Sasikumar, Dennis; Emeric, Erik; Stuphorn, Veit; Connor, Charles E

2018-02-19

Real-world value often depends on subtle, continuously variable visual cues specific to particular object categories, like the tailoring of a suit, the condition of an automobile, or the construction of a house. Here, we used microelectrode recording in behaving monkeys to test two possible mechanisms for category-specific value-cue processing: (1) previous findings suggest that prefrontal cortex (PFC) identifies object categories, and based on category identity, PFC could use top-down attentional modulation to enhance visual processing of category-specific value cues, providing signals to PFC for calculating value, and (2) a faster mechanism would be first-pass visual processing of category-specific value cues, immediately providing the necessary visual information to PFC. This, however, would require learned mechanisms for processing the appropriate cues in a given object category. To test these hypotheses, we trained monkeys to discriminate value in four letter-like stimulus categories. Each category had a different, continuously variable shape cue that signified value (liquid reward amount) as well as other cues that were irrelevant. Monkeys chose between stimuli of different reward values. Consistent with the first-pass hypothesis, we found early signals for category-specific value cues in area TE (the final stage in monkey ventral visual pathway) beginning 81 ms after stimulus onset-essentially at the start of TE responses. Task-related activity emerged in lateral PFC approximately 40 ms later and consisted mainly of category-invariant value tuning. Our results show that, for familiar, behaviorally relevant object categories, high-level ventral pathway cortex can implement rapid, first-pass processing of category-specific value cues. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of napping on memory for future-relevant stimuli: Prioritization among multiple salience cues.

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Bennion, Kelly A; Payne, Jessica D; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

2016-06-01

Prior research has demonstrated that sleep enhances memory for future-relevant information, including memory for information that is salient due to emotion, reward, or knowledge of a later memory test. Although sleep has been shown to prioritize information with any of these characteristics, the present study investigates the novel question of how sleep prioritizes information when multiple salience cues exist. Participants encoded scenes that were future-relevant based on emotion (emotional vs. neutral), reward (rewarded vs. unrewarded), and instructed learning (intentionally vs. incidentally encoded), preceding a delay consisting of a nap, an equivalent time period spent awake, or a nap followed by wakefulness (to control for effects of interference). Recognition testing revealed that when multiple dimensions of future relevance co-occur, sleep prioritizes top-down, goal-directed cues (instructed learning, and to a lesser degree, reward) over bottom-up, stimulus-driven characteristics (emotion). Further, results showed that these factors interact; the effect of a nap on intentionally encoded information was especially strong for neutral (relative to emotional) information, suggesting that once one cue for future relevance is present, there are diminishing returns with additional cues. Sleep may binarize information based on whether it is future-relevant or not, preferentially consolidating memory for the former category. Potential neural mechanisms underlying these selective effects and the implications of this research for educational and vocational domains are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Cue-induced craving in patients with cocaine use disorder predicts cognitive control deficits toward cocaine cues.

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DiGirolamo, Gregory J; Smelson, David; Guevremont, Nathan

2015-08-01

Cue-induced craving is a clinically important aspect of cocaine addiction influencing ongoing use and sobriety. However, little is known about the relationship between cue-induced craving and cognitive control toward cocaine cues. While studies suggest that cocaine users have an attentional bias toward cocaine cues, the present study extends this research by testing if cocaine use disorder patients (CDPs) can control their eye movements toward cocaine cues and whether their response varied by cue-induced craving intensity. Thirty CDPs underwent a cue exposure procedure to dichotomize them into high and low craving groups followed by a modified antisaccade task in which subjects were asked to control their eye movements toward either a cocaine or neutral drug cue by looking away from the suddenly presented cue. The relationship between breakdowns in cognitive control (as measured by eye errors) and cue-induced craving (changes in self-reported craving following cocaine cue exposure) was investigated. CDPs overall made significantly more errors toward cocaine cues compared to neutral cues, with higher cravers making significantly more errors than lower cravers even though they did not differ significantly in addiction severity, impulsivity, anxiety, or depression levels. Cue-induced craving was the only specific and significant predictor of subsequent errors toward cocaine cues. Cue-induced craving directly and specifically relates to breakdowns of cognitive control toward cocaine cues in CDPs, with higher cravers being more susceptible. Hence, it may be useful identifying high cravers and target treatment toward curbing craving to decrease the likelihood of a subsequent breakdown in control. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effects of Experimental Manipulation of Sleep Duration on Neural Response to Food Cues.

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Demos, Kathryn E; Sweet, Lawrence H; Hart, Chantelle N; McCaffery, Jeanne M; Williams, Samantha E; Mailloux, Kimberly A; Trautvetter, Jennifer; Owens, Max M; Wing, Rena R

2017-11-01

Despite growing literature on neural food cue responsivity in obesity, little is known about how the brain processes food cues following partial sleep deprivation and whether short sleep leads to changes similar to those observed in obesity. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test the hypothesis that short sleep leads to increased reward-related and decreased inhibitory control-related processing of food cues.In a within-subject design, 30 participants (22 female, mean age = 36.7 standard deviation = 10.8 years, body mass index range 20.4-40.7) completed four nights of 6 hours/night time-in-bed (TIB; short sleep) and four nights of 9 hours/night TIB (long sleep) in random counterbalanced order in their home environments. Following each sleep condition, participants completed an fMRI scan while viewing food and nonfood images.A priori region of interest analyses revealed increased activity to food in short versus long sleep in regions of reward processing (eg, nucleus accumbens/putamen) and sensory/motor signaling (ie, right paracentral lobule, an effect that was most pronounced in obese individuals). Contrary to the hypothesis, whole brain analyses indicated greater food cue responsivity during short sleep in an inhibitory control region (right inferior frontal gyrus) and ventral medial prefrontal cortex, which has been implicated in reward coding and decision-making (false discovery rate corrected q = 0.05).These findings suggest that sleep restriction leads to both greater reward and control processing in response to food cues. Future research is needed to understand the dynamic functional connectivity between these regions during short sleep and whether the interplay between these neural processes determines if one succumbs to food temptation. © Sleep Research Society 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

Testing a cue outside the training context increases attention to the contexts and impairs performance in human predictive learning.

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Aristizabal, José A; Ramos-Álvarez, Manuel M; Callejas-Aguilera, José E; Rosas, Juan M

2017-12-01

One experiment in human predictive learning explored the impact of a context change on attention to contexts and predictive ratings controlled by the cue. In Context A: cue X was paired with an outcome four times, while cue Y was presented without an outcome four times in Context B:. In both contexts filler cues were presented without the outcome. During the test, target cues X and Y were presented either in the context where they were trained, or in the alternative context. With the context change expectation of the outcome X, expressed as predictive ratings, decreased in the presence of X and increased in the presence of Y. Looking at the contexts, expressed as a percentage of the overall gaze dwell time on a trial, was high across the four training trials, and increased with the context change. Results suggest that the presentation of unexpected information leads to increases in attention to contextual cues. Implications for contextual control of behavior are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Predictive models of glucose control: roles for glucose-sensing neurones

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Kosse, C.; Gonzalez, A.; Burdakov, D.

2018-01-01

The brain can be viewed as a sophisticated control module for stabilizing blood glucose. A review of classical behavioural evidence indicates that central circuits add predictive (feedforward/anticipatory) control to the reactive (feedback/compensatory) control by peripheral organs. The brain/cephalic control is constructed and engaged, via associative learning, by sensory cues predicting energy intake or expenditure (e.g. sight, smell, taste, sound). This allows rapidly measurable sensory information (rather than slowly generated internal feedback signals, e.g. digested nutrients) to control food selection, glucose supply for fight-or-flight responses or preparedness for digestion/absorption. Predictive control is therefore useful for preventing large glucose fluctuations. We review emerging roles in predictive control of two classes of widely projecting hypothalamic neurones, orexin/hypocretin (ORX) and melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) cells. Evidence is cited that ORX neurones (i) are activated by sensory cues (e.g. taste, sound), (ii) drive hepatic production, and muscle uptake, of glucose, via sympathetic nerves, (iii) stimulate wakefulness and exploration via global brain projections and (iv) are glucose-inhibited. MCH neurones are (i) glucose-excited, (ii) innervate learning and reward centres to promote synaptic plasticity, learning and memory and (iii) are critical for learning associations useful for predictive control (e.g. using taste to predict nutrient value of food). This evidence is unified into a model for predictive glucose control. During associative learning, inputs from some glucose-excited neurones may promote connections between the ‘fast’ senses and reward circuits, constructing neural shortcuts for efficient action selection. In turn, glucose-inhibited neurones may engage locomotion/exploration and coordinate the required fuel supply. Feedback inhibition of the latter neurones by glucose would ensure that glucose fluxes they

Predictive models of glucose control: roles for glucose-sensing neurones.

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Kosse, C; Gonzalez, A; Burdakov, D

2015-01-01

The brain can be viewed as a sophisticated control module for stabilizing blood glucose. A review of classical behavioural evidence indicates that central circuits add predictive (feedforward/anticipatory) control to the reactive (feedback/compensatory) control by peripheral organs. The brain/cephalic control is constructed and engaged, via associative learning, by sensory cues predicting energy intake or expenditure (e.g. sight, smell, taste, sound). This allows rapidly measurable sensory information (rather than slowly generated internal feedback signals, e.g. digested nutrients) to control food selection, glucose supply for fight-or-flight responses or preparedness for digestion/absorption. Predictive control is therefore useful for preventing large glucose fluctuations. We review emerging roles in predictive control of two classes of widely projecting hypothalamic neurones, orexin/hypocretin (ORX) and melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) cells. Evidence is cited that ORX neurones (i) are activated by sensory cues (e.g. taste, sound), (ii) drive hepatic production, and muscle uptake, of glucose, via sympathetic nerves, (iii) stimulate wakefulness and exploration via global brain projections and (iv) are glucose-inhibited. MCH neurones are (i) glucose-excited, (ii) innervate learning and reward centres to promote synaptic plasticity, learning and memory and (iii) are critical for learning associations useful for predictive control (e.g. using taste to predict nutrient value of food). This evidence is unified into a model for predictive glucose control. During associative learning, inputs from some glucose-excited neurones may promote connections between the 'fast' senses and reward circuits, constructing neural shortcuts for efficient action selection. In turn, glucose-inhibited neurones may engage locomotion/exploration and coordinate the required fuel supply. Feedback inhibition of the latter neurones by glucose would ensure that glucose fluxes they stimulate

Frontal cortex electrophysiology in reward- and punishment-related feedback processing during advice-guided decision making: An interleaved EEG-DC stimulation study.

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Wischnewski, Miles; Bekkering, Harold; Schutter, Dennis J L G

2018-04-01

During decision making, individuals are prone to rely on external cues such as expert advice when the outcome is not known. However, the electrophysiological correlates associated with outcome uncertainty and the use of expert advice are not completely understood. The feedback-related negativity (FRN), P3a, and P3b are event-related brain potentials (ERPs) linked to dissociable stages of feedback and attentional processing during decision making. Even though these ERPs are influenced by both reward- and punishment-related feedback, it remains unclear how extrinsic information during uncertainty modulates these brain potentials. In this study, the effects of advice cues on decision making were investigated in two separate experiments. In the first experiment, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in healthy volunteers during a decision-making task in which the participants received reward or punishment feedback preceded by novice, amateur, or expert advice. The results showed that the P3a component was significantly influenced by the subjective predictive value of an advice cue, whereas the FRN and P3b were unaffected by the advice cues. In the second, sham-controlled experiment, cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) was administered in conjunction with EEG in order to explore the direct contributions of the frontal cortex to these brain potentials. Results showed no significant change in either advice-following behavior or decision times. However, ctDCS did decrease FRN amplitudes as compared to sham, with no effect on the P3a or P3b. Together, these findings suggest that advice information may act primarily on attention allocation during feedback processing, whereas the electrophysiological correlates of the detection and updating of internal prediction models are not affected.

Cocaine-conditioned odor cues without chronic exposure: Implications for the development of addiction vulnerability

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Steven B. Lowen

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Adolescents are highly vulnerable to addiction and are four times more likely to become addicted at first exposure than at any other age. The dopamine D1 receptor, which is typically overexpressed in the normal adolescent prefrontal cortex, is involved in drug cue responses and is associated with relapse in animal models. In human drug addicts, imaging methods have detected increased activation in response to drug cues in reward- and habit-associated brain regions. These same methods can be applied more quantitatively to rodent models. Here, changes in neuronal activation in response to cocaine-conditioned cues were observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging in juvenile rats that were made to over-express either D1 receptors or green fluorescent protein by viral-mediated transduction. Reduced activation was observed in the amygdala and dopamine cell body regions in the low cue-preferring/control juvenile rats in response to cocaine cues. In contrast, increased activation was observed in the dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, and dopamine cell bodies in high cue-preferring/D1 juveniles. The increase in cue salience that is mediated by increased D1 receptor density, rather than excessive cocaine experience, appears to underlie the transition from aversion to reward in cue-induced neural response and may form the basis for habit-forming vulnerability.

Cocaine-conditioned odor cues without chronic exposure: Implications for the development of addiction vulnerability.

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Lowen, Steven B; Rohan, Michael L; Gillis, Timothy E; Thompson, Britta S; Wellons, Clara B W; Andersen, Susan L

2015-01-01

Adolescents are highly vulnerable to addiction and are four times more likely to become addicted at first exposure than at any other age. The dopamine D1 receptor, which is typically overexpressed in the normal adolescent prefrontal cortex, is involved in drug cue responses and is associated with relapse in animal models. In human drug addicts, imaging methods have detected increased activation in response to drug cues in reward- and habit-associated brain regions. These same methods can be applied more quantitatively to rodent models. Here, changes in neuronal activation in response to cocaine-conditioned cues were observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging in juvenile rats that were made to over-express either D1 receptors or green fluorescent protein by viral-mediated transduction. Reduced activation was observed in the amygdala and dopamine cell body regions in the low cue-preferring/control juvenile rats in response to cocaine cues. In contrast, increased activation was observed in the dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, and dopamine cell bodies in high cue-preferring/D1 juveniles. The increase in cue salience that is mediated by increased D1 receptor density, rather than excessive cocaine experience, appears to underlie the transition from aversion to reward in cue-induced neural response and may form the basis for habit-forming vulnerability.

Reward inference by primate prefrontal and striatal neurons.

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Pan, Xiaochuan; Fan, Hongwei; Sawa, Kosuke; Tsuda, Ichiro; Tsukada, Minoru; Sakagami, Masamichi

2014-01-22

The brain contains multiple yet distinct systems involved in reward prediction. To understand the nature of these processes, we recorded single-unit activity from the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and the striatum in monkeys performing a reward inference task using an asymmetric reward schedule. We found that neurons both in the LPFC and in the striatum predicted reward values for stimuli that had been previously well experienced with set reward quantities in the asymmetric reward task. Importantly, these LPFC neurons could predict the reward value of a stimulus using transitive inference even when the monkeys had not yet learned the stimulus-reward association directly; whereas these striatal neurons did not show such an ability. Nevertheless, because there were two set amounts of reward (large and small), the selected striatal neurons were able to exclusively infer the reward value (e.g., large) of one novel stimulus from a pair after directly experiencing the alternative stimulus with the other reward value (e.g., small). Our results suggest that although neurons that predict reward value for old stimuli in the LPFC could also do so for new stimuli via transitive inference, those in the striatum could only predict reward for new stimuli via exclusive inference. Moreover, the striatum showed more complex functions than was surmised previously for model-free learning.

Signed reward prediction errors drive declarative learning.

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Esther De Loof

Full Text Available Reward prediction errors (RPEs are thought to drive learning. This has been established in procedural learning (e.g., classical and operant conditioning. However, empirical evidence on whether RPEs drive declarative learning-a quintessentially human form of learning-remains surprisingly absent. We therefore coupled RPEs to the acquisition of Dutch-Swahili word pairs in a declarative learning paradigm. Signed RPEs (SRPEs; "better-than-expected" signals during declarative learning improved recognition in a follow-up test, with increasingly positive RPEs leading to better recognition. In addition, classic declarative memory mechanisms such as time-on-task failed to explain recognition performance. The beneficial effect of SRPEs on recognition was subsequently affirmed in a replication study with visual stimuli.

Signed reward prediction errors drive declarative learning.

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De Loof, Esther; Ergo, Kate; Naert, Lien; Janssens, Clio; Talsma, Durk; Van Opstal, Filip; Verguts, Tom

2018-01-01

Reward prediction errors (RPEs) are thought to drive learning. This has been established in procedural learning (e.g., classical and operant conditioning). However, empirical evidence on whether RPEs drive declarative learning-a quintessentially human form of learning-remains surprisingly absent. We therefore coupled RPEs to the acquisition of Dutch-Swahili word pairs in a declarative learning paradigm. Signed RPEs (SRPEs; "better-than-expected" signals) during declarative learning improved recognition in a follow-up test, with increasingly positive RPEs leading to better recognition. In addition, classic declarative memory mechanisms such as time-on-task failed to explain recognition performance. The beneficial effect of SRPEs on recognition was subsequently affirmed in a replication study with visual stimuli.

A Simple Network Architecture Accounts for Diverse Reward Time Responses in Primary Visual Cortex.

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Huertas, Marco A; Hussain Shuler, Marshall G; Shouval, Harel Z

2015-09-16

Many actions performed by animals and humans depend on an ability to learn, estimate, and produce temporal intervals of behavioral relevance. Exemplifying such learning of cued expectancies is the observation of reward-timing activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) of rodents, wherein neural responses to visual cues come to predict the time of future reward as behaviorally experienced in the past. These reward-timing responses exhibit significant heterogeneity in at least three qualitatively distinct classes: sustained increase or sustained decrease in firing rate until the time of expected reward, and a class of cells that reach a peak in firing at the expected delay. We elaborate upon our existing model by including inhibitory and excitatory units while imposing simple connectivity rules to demonstrate what role these inhibitory elements and the simple architectures play in sculpting the response dynamics of the network. We find that simply adding inhibition is not sufficient for obtaining the different distinct response classes, and that a broad distribution of inhibitory projections is necessary for obtaining peak-type responses. Furthermore, although changes in connection strength that modulate the effects of inhibition onto excitatory units have a strong impact on the firing rate profile of these peaked responses, the network exhibits robustness in its overall ability to predict the expected time of reward. Finally, we demonstrate how the magnitude of expected reward can be encoded at the expected delay in the network and how peaked responses express this reward expectancy. Heterogeneity in single-neuron responses is a common feature of neuronal systems, although sometimes, in theoretical approaches, it is treated as a nuisance and seldom considered as conveying a different aspect of a signal. In this study, we focus on the heterogeneous responses in the primary visual cortex of rodents trained with a predictable delayed reward time. We describe under what

Acute stress-induced cortisol elevations mediate reward system activity during subconscious processing of sexual stimuli.

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Oei, Nicole Y L; Both, Stephanie; van Heemst, Diana; van der Grond, Jeroen

2014-01-01

Stress is thought to alter motivational processes by increasing dopamine (DA) secretion in the brain's "reward system", and its key region, the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). However, stress studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), mainly found evidence for stress-induced decreases in NAcc responsiveness toward reward cues. Results from both animal and human PET studies indicate that the stress hormone cortisol may be crucial in the interaction between stress and dopaminergic actions. In the present study we therefore investigated whether cortisol mediated the effect of stress on DA-related responses to -subliminal-presentation of reward cues using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), which is known to reliably enhance cortisol levels. Young healthy males (n = 37) were randomly assigned to the TSST or control condition. After stress induction, brain activation was assessed using fMRI during a backward-masking paradigm in which potentially rewarding (sexual), emotionally negative and neutral stimuli were presented subliminally, masked by pictures of inanimate objects. A region of interest analysis showed that stress decreased activation in the NAcc in response to masked sexual cues (voxel-corrected, pcortisol levels were related to stronger NAcc activation, showing that cortisol acted as a suppressor variable in the negative relation between stress and NAcc activation. The present findings indicate that cortisol is crucially involved in the relation between stress and the responsiveness of the reward system. Although generally stress decreases activation in the NAcc in response to rewarding stimuli, high stress-induced cortisol levels suppress this relation, and are associated with stronger NAcc activation. Individuals with a high cortisol response to stress might on one hand be protected against reductions in reward sensitivity, which has been linked to anhedonia and depression, but they may ultimately be more vulnerable to increased reward

Reward-seeking behavior and addiction: cause or cog?

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Arias-Carrión, Oscar; Salama, Mohamed

2012-09-01

Although dopaminergic system represents the cornerstone in rewarding, other neurotransmitters can modulate both the reward system and the psychomotor effects of addictive drugs. Many hypotheses have been proposed for a better understanding of the reward system and its role in drug addiction. However, after many years of investigation, no single theory can completely explain the neural basis of drug addiction. Recent reports introduce novel neurotransmitters into the game e.g. dynorphins, orexins, histamine, gheralin and galanin. The interacting functions of these neurotransmitters have shown that the reward system and its role in drug dependence, is far more complicated than was thought before. Individual variations exist regarding response to drug exposure, vulnerability for addiction and the effects of different cues on reward systems. Consequently, genetic variations of neurotransmission are thought to influence reward processing that in turn may affect distinctive social behavior and susceptibility to addiction. However, the individual variations can not be based mainly on genetics; environmental factors seem to play a role too. Here we discuss the current knowledge about the orquestic regulation of different neurotransmitters on reward-seeking behavior and their potential effect on drug addiction.

Drug-sensitive reward in crayfish: an invertebrate model system for the study of SEEKING, reward, addiction, and withdrawal.

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Huber, Robert; Panksepp, Jules B; Nathaniel, Thomas; Alcaro, Antonio; Panksepp, Jaak

2011-10-01

In mammals, rewarding properties of drugs depend on their capacity to activate appetitive motivational states. With the underlying mechanisms strongly conserved in evolution, invertebrates have recently emerged as a powerful new model in addiction research. In crayfish natural reward has proven surprisingly sensitive to human drugs of abuse, opening an unlikely avenue of research into the basic biological mechanisms of drug addiction. In a series of studies we first examined the presence of natural reward systems in crayfish, then characterized its sensitivity to a wide range of human drugs of abuse. A conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm was used to demonstrate that crayfish seek out those environments that had previously been paired with the psychostimulants cocaine and amphetamine, and the opioid morphine. The administration of amphetamine exerted its effects at a number of sites, including the stimulation of circuits for active exploratory behaviors (i.e., SEEKING). A further study examined morphine-induced reward, extinction and reinstatement in crayfish. Repeated intra-circulatory infusions of morphine served as a reward when paired with distinct visual or tactile cues. Morphine-induced CPP was extinguished after repeated saline injections. Following this extinction phase, morphine-experienced crayfish were once again challenged with the drug. The priming injections of morphine reinstated CPP at all tested doses, suggesting that morphine-induced CPP is unrelenting. In an exploration of drug-associated behavioral sensitization in crayfish we concurrently mapped measures of locomotion and rewarding properties of morphine. Single and repeated intra-circulatory infusions of morphine resulted in persistent locomotory sensitization, even 5 days following the infusion. Moreover, a single dose of morphine was sufficient to induce long-term behavioral sensitization. CPP for morphine and context-dependent cues could not be disrupted over a drug free period of 5

Health interest modulates brain reward responses to a perceived low-caloric beverage in females.

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van Rijn, Inge; Wegman, Joost; Aarts, Esther; de Graaf, Cees; Smeets, Paul A M

2017-01-01

Health labels are omnipresent in the supermarket. Such labels give rise to expectations about the product experience and may change flavor perception and perceived reward value. Consumers vary in their degree of health interest and may be differentially affected by such labels. However, how health interest influences neural reward responses to anticipation and receipt of heath-labeled foods is not known. This study assessed to what extent brain responses induced by anticipation and receipt of a beverage with different levels of perceived caloric content are associated with health interest. Twenty-five females completed an fMRI motivational taste-task in which they were presented with a low-caloric cue or a high-caloric cue and subsequently worked for sips of lemonade by moving a joystick. If they responded correctly and in time, they received the lemonade as a reward. Because of the 2 cue types, participants believed they were receiving 2 different lemonades, a high-caloric (HC-receipt) and a low-caloric (LC-receipt) one. Health interest was assessed with the General health interest subscale of the Health and Taste Attitude Scales. Health interest scores correlated significantly (r = .65) with LC-versus HC-receipt activation in the dorsal striatum (putamen), a region involved in encoding food reward. These findings suggest that the reward value of a healthy product compared to its unhealthy counterpart increases with health interest. This provides more insight into the working mechanism of government campaigns that focus on increasing health interest to encourage the formation of healthy eating habits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Led into temptation? Rewarding brand logos bias the neural encoding of incidental economic decisions.

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Murawski, Carsten; Harris, Philip G; Bode, Stefan; Domínguez D, Juan F; Egan, Gary F

2012-01-01

Human decision-making is driven by subjective values assigned to alternative choice options. These valuations are based on reward cues. It is unknown, however, whether complex reward cues, such as brand logos, may bias the neural encoding of subjective value in unrelated decisions. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we subliminally presented brand logos preceding intertemporal choices. We demonstrated that priming biased participants' preferences towards more immediate rewards in the subsequent temporal discounting task. This was associated with modulations of the neural encoding of subjective values of choice options in a network of brain regions, including but not restricted to medial prefrontal cortex. Our findings demonstrate the general susceptibility of the human decision making system to apparently incidental contextual information. We conclude that the brain incorporates seemingly unrelated value information that modifies decision making outside the decision-maker's awareness.

Reward guides vision when it's your thing: trait reward-seeking in reward-mediated visual priming.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clayton Hickey

Full Text Available Reward-related mesolimbic dopamine is thought to play an important role in guiding animal behaviour, biasing approach towards potentially beneficial environmental stimuli and away from objects unlikely to garner positive outcome. This is considered to result in part from an impact on perceptual and attentional processes: dopamine initiates a series of cognitive events that result in the priming of reward-associated perceptual features. We have provided behavioural and electrophysiological evidence that this mechanism guides human vision in search, an effect we refer to as reward priming. We have also demonstrated that there is substantial individual variability in this effect. Here we show that behavioural differences in reward priming are predicted remarkably well by a personality index that captures the degree to which a person's behaviour is driven by reward outcome. Participants with reward-seeking personalities are found to be those who allocate visual resources to objects characterized by reward-associated visual features. These results add to a rapidly developing literature demonstrating the crucial role reward plays in attentional control. They additionally illustrate the striking impact personality traits can have on low-level cognitive processes like perception and selective attention.

The neural dynamics of reward value and risk coding in the human orbitofrontal cortex.

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Li, Yansong; Vanni-Mercier, Giovanna; Isnard, Jean; Mauguière, François; Dreher, Jean-Claude

2016-04-01

The orbitofrontal cortex is known to carry information regarding expected reward, risk and experienced outcome. Yet, due to inherent limitations in lesion and neuroimaging methods, the neural dynamics of these computations has remained elusive in humans. Here, taking advantage of the high temporal definition of intracranial recordings, we characterize the neurophysiological signatures of the intact orbitofrontal cortex in processing information relevant for risky decisions. Local field potentials were recorded from the intact orbitofrontal cortex of patients suffering from drug-refractory partial epilepsy with implanted depth electrodes as they performed a probabilistic reward learning task that required them to associate visual cues with distinct reward probabilities. We observed three successive signals: (i) around 400 ms after cue presentation, the amplitudes of the local field potentials increased with reward probability; (ii) a risk signal emerged during the late phase of reward anticipation and during the outcome phase; and (iii) an experienced value signal appeared at the time of reward delivery. Both the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex encoded risk and reward probability while the lateral orbitofrontal cortex played a dominant role in coding experienced value. The present study provides the first evidence from intracranial recordings that the human orbitofrontal cortex codes reward risk both during late reward anticipation and during the outcome phase at a time scale of milliseconds. Our findings offer insights into the rapid mechanisms underlying the ability to learn structural relationships from the environment. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Reward sensitivity, attentional bias, and executive control in early adolescent alcohol use.

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van Hemel-Ruiter, Madelon E; de Jong, Peter J; Ostafin, Brian D; Wiers, Reinout W

2015-01-01

This study examined whether attentional bias for alcohol stimuli was associated with alcohol use in young adolescents, and whether the frequently demonstrated relationship between reward sensitivity and adolescent alcohol use would be partly mediated by attentional bias for alcohol cues. In addition, this study investigated the potential moderating role of executive control (EC), and tested whether the relationship between alcohol-related attentional bias and alcohol use was especially present in young adolescents with weak EC. Participants were 86 adolescents (mean age=14.86), who completed a Visual Probe Task (VPT) as an index of attentional bias, a flanker-task based Attention Network Task (ANT) as an index of EC, the sensitivity of punishment and sensitivity of reward questionnaire (SPSRQ) as an index of reward sensitivity, and an alcohol use questionnaire. High reward sensitivity, high alcohol-related attentional bias, and weak EC were all related to alcohol use. The relationship between reward sensitivity and alcohol use was not mediated by alcohol-related attentional bias. As hypothesized, attentional bias was only associated with alcohol use in participants with weak EC. Together, the present findings are consistent with the view that high reward sensitivity and low EC may be considered as risk factors for adolescent alcohol use. The independent contribution of reward sensitivity and attentional bias might suggest that adolescents who are highly reward sensitive and display an attentional bias for alcohol cues are at even higher risk for excessive alcohol use and developing alcohol abuse problems. Future research using a longitudinal approach would allow an examination of these risk factors on subsequent alcohol use. Treatment implications are discussed, including the importance of strengthening EC and reducing the rewarding value of alcohol use. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inhibition of histone deacetylase 3 via RGFP966 facilitates cortical plasticity underlying unusually accurate auditory associative cue memory for excitatory and inhibitory cue-reward associations.

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Shang, Andrea; Bylipudi, Sooraz; Bieszczad, Kasia M

2018-05-31

Epigenetic mechanisms are key for regulating long-term memory (LTM) and are known to exert control on memory formation in multiple systems of the adult brain, including the sensory cortex. One epigenetic mechanism is chromatin modification by histone acetylation. Blocking the action of histone de-acetylases (HDACs) that normally negatively regulate LTM by repressing transcription, has been shown to enable memory formation. Indeed, HDAC-inhibition appears to facilitate memory by altering the dynamics of gene expression events important for memory consolidation. However less understood are the ways in which molecular-level consolidation processes alter subsequent memory to enhance storage or facilitate retrieval. Here we used a sensory perspective to investigate whether the characteristics of memory formed with HDAC inhibitors are different from naturally-formed memory. One possibility is that HDAC inhibition enables memory to form with greater sensory detail than normal. Because the auditory system undergoes learning-induced remodeling that provides substrates for sound-specific LTM, we aimed to identify behavioral effects of HDAC inhibition on memory for specific sound features using a standard model of auditory associative cue-reward learning, memory, and cortical plasticity. We found that three systemic post-training treatments of an HDAC3-inhibitor (RGPF966, Abcam Inc.) in rats in the early phase of training facilitated auditory discriminative learning, changed auditory cortical tuning, and increased the specificity for acoustic frequency formed in memory of both excitatory (S+) and inhibitory (S-) associations for at least 2 weeks. The findings support that epigenetic mechanisms act on neural and behavioral sensory acuity to increase the precision of associative cue memory, which can be revealed by studying the sensory characteristics of long-term associative memory formation with HDAC inhibitors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Nucleus Accumbens Acetylcholine Receptors Modulate Dopamine and Motivation.

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Collins, Anne L; Aitken, Tara J; Greenfield, Venuz Y; Ostlund, Sean B; Wassum, Kate M

2016-11-01

Environmental reward-predictive cues can motivate reward-seeking behaviors. Although this influence is normally adaptive, it can become maladaptive in disordered states, such as addiction. Dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core (NAc) is known to mediate the motivational impact of reward-predictive cues, but little is known about how other neuromodulatory systems contribute to cue-motivated behavior. Here, we examined the role of the NAc cholinergic receptor system in cue-motivated behavior using a Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer task designed to assess the motivating influence of a reward-predictive cue over an independently-trained instrumental action. Disruption of NAc muscarinic acetylcholine receptor activity attenuated, whereas blockade of nicotinic receptors augmented cue-induced invigoration of reward seeking. We next examined a potential dopaminergic mechanism for this behavioral effect by combining fast-scan cyclic voltammetry with local pharmacological acetylcholine receptor manipulation. The data show evidence of opposing modulation of cue-evoked dopamine release, with muscarinic and nicotinic receptor antagonists causing suppression and augmentation, respectively, consistent with the behavioral effects of these manipulations. In addition to demonstrating cholinergic modulation of naturally-evoked and behaviorally-relevant dopamine signaling, these data suggest that NAc cholinergic receptors may gate the expression of cue-motivated behavior through modulation of phasic dopamine release.

Led into temptation? Rewarding brand logos bias the neural encoding of incidental economic decisions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carsten Murawski

Full Text Available Human decision-making is driven by subjective values assigned to alternative choice options. These valuations are based on reward cues. It is unknown, however, whether complex reward cues, such as brand logos, may bias the neural encoding of subjective value in unrelated decisions. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI study, we subliminally presented brand logos preceding intertemporal choices. We demonstrated that priming biased participants' preferences towards more immediate rewards in the subsequent temporal discounting task. This was associated with modulations of the neural encoding of subjective values of choice options in a network of brain regions, including but not restricted to medial prefrontal cortex. Our findings demonstrate the general susceptibility of the human decision making system to apparently incidental contextual information. We conclude that the brain incorporates seemingly unrelated value information that modifies decision making outside the decision-maker's awareness.

Reward Inference by Primate Prefrontal and Striatal Neurons

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Pan, Xiaochuan; Fan, Hongwei; Sawa, Kosuke; Tsuda, Ichiro; Tsukada, Minoru; Sakagami, Masamichi

2014-01-01

The brain contains multiple yet distinct systems involved in reward prediction. To understand the nature of these processes, we recorded single-unit activity from the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and the striatum in monkeys performing a reward inference task using an asymmetric reward schedule. We found that neurons both in the LPFC and in the striatum predicted reward values for stimuli that had been previously well experienced with set reward quantities in the asymmetric reward task. Im...

Dopamine mediates testosterone-induced social reward in male Syrian hamsters.

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Bell, Margaret R; Sisk, Cheryl L

2013-03-01

Adolescent maturation of responses to social stimuli is essential for adult-typical sociosexual behavior. Naturally occurring developmental changes in male Syrian hamster responses to a salient social cue, female hamster vaginal secretions (VS), provide a good model system for investigating neuroendocrine mechanisms of adolescent change in social reward. Sexually naïve adult, but not juvenile, males show a conditioned place preference (CPP) to VS, indicating that VS is not rewarding before puberty. In this series of experiments, the authors examined the roles of testosterone and dopamine receptor activation in mediating the adolescent gain in positive valence of VS. Experiment 1 showed that testosterone replacement is necessary for gonadectomized adult hamsters to form a CPP to VS. Experiment 2 showed that testosterone treatment is sufficient for juvenile hamsters to form a CPP to VS, and that the dopamine receptor antagonist haloperidol blocks formation of a CPP to VS in these animals. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that the disruption of VS CPP with low doses of haloperidol is the result of a reduction in the attractive properties of VS and not attributable to aversive properties of haloperidol. Together, these studies demonstrate that the unconditioned rewarding properties of a social cue necessary for successful adult sociosexual interactions come about as the result of the pubertal increase in circulating testosterone in male hamsters. Furthermore, this social reward can be prevented by dopamine receptor antagonism, indicating that hypothalamic and/or mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic circuits are targets for hormonal activation of social reward.

Dopamine prediction errors in reward learning and addiction: from theory to neural circuitry

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Keiflin, Ronald; Janak, Patricia H.

2015-01-01

Summary Midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons are proposed to signal reward prediction error (RPE), a fundamental parameter in associative learning models. This RPE hypothesis provides a compelling theoretical framework for understanding DA function in reward learning and addiction. New studies support a causal role for DA-mediated RPE activity in promoting learning about natural reward; however, this question has not been explicitly tested in the context of drug addiction. In this review, we integrate theoretical models with experimental findings on the activity of DA systems, and on the causal role of specific neuronal projections and cell types, to provide a circuit-based framework for probing DA-RPE function in addiction. By examining error-encoding DA neurons in the neural network in which they are embedded, hypotheses regarding circuit-level adaptations that possibly contribute to pathological error-signaling and addiction can be formulated and tested. PMID:26494275

Dopamine Prediction Errors in Reward Learning and Addiction: From Theory to Neural Circuitry.

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Keiflin, Ronald; Janak, Patricia H

2015-10-21

Midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons are proposed to signal reward prediction error (RPE), a fundamental parameter in associative learning models. This RPE hypothesis provides a compelling theoretical framework for understanding DA function in reward learning and addiction. New studies support a causal role for DA-mediated RPE activity in promoting learning about natural reward; however, this question has not been explicitly tested in the context of drug addiction. In this review, we integrate theoretical models with experimental findings on the activity of DA systems, and on the causal role of specific neuronal projections and cell types, to provide a circuit-based framework for probing DA-RPE function in addiction. By examining error-encoding DA neurons in the neural network in which they are embedded, hypotheses regarding circuit-level adaptations that possibly contribute to pathological error signaling and addiction can be formulated and tested. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent development of context-dependent stimulus-reward association memory and its neural correlates.

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Voss, Joel L; O'Neil, Jonathan T; Kharitonova, Maria; Briggs-Gowan, Margaret J; Wakschlag, Lauren S

2015-01-01

Expression of learned stimulus-reward associations based on context is essential for regulation of behavior to meet situational demands. Contextual regulation improves during development, although the developmental progression of relevant neural and cognitive processes is not fully specified. We therefore measured neural correlates of flexible, contextual expression of stimulus-reward associations in pre/early-adolescent children (ages 9-13 years) and young adults (ages 19-22 years). After reinforcement learning using standard parameters, a contextual reversal manipulation was used whereby contextual cues indicated that stimulus-reward associations were the same as previously reinforced for some trials (consistent trials) or were reversed on other trials (inconsistent trials). Subjects were thus required to respond according to original stimulus-reward associations vs. reversed associations based on trial-specific contextual cues. Children and young adults did not differ in reinforcement learning or in relevant functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) correlates. In contrast, adults outperformed children during contextual reversal, with better performance specifically for inconsistent trials. fMRI signals corresponding to this selective advantage included greater activity in lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), hippocampus, and dorsal striatum for young adults relative to children. Flexible expression of stimulus-reward associations based on context thus improves via adolescent development, as does recruitment of brain regions involved in reward learning and contextual expression of memory. HighlightsEarly-adolescent children and young adults were equivalent in reinforcement learning.Adults outperformed children in contextual expression of stimulus-reward associations.Adult advantages correlated with increased activity of relevant brain regions.Specific neurocognitive developmental changes support better contextual regulation.

Nicotine Withdrawal Induces Neural Deficits in Reward Processing.

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Oliver, Jason A; Evans, David E; Addicott, Merideth A; Potts, Geoffrey F; Brandon, Thomas H; Drobes, David J

2017-06-01

Nicotine withdrawal reduces neurobiological responses to nonsmoking rewards. Insight into these reward deficits could inform the development of targeted interventions. This study examined the effect of withdrawal on neural and behavioral responses during a reward prediction task. Smokers (N = 48) attended two laboratory sessions following overnight abstinence. Withdrawal was manipulated by having participants smoke three regular nicotine (0.6 mg yield; satiation) or very low nicotine (0.05 mg yield; withdrawal) cigarettes. Electrophysiological recordings of neural activity were obtained while participants completed a reward prediction task that involved viewing four combinations of predictive and reward-determining stimuli: (1) Unexpected Reward; (2) Predicted Reward; (3) Predicted Punishment; (4) Unexpected Punishment. The task evokes a medial frontal negativity that mimics the phasic pattern of dopaminergic firing in ventral tegmental regions associated with reward prediction errors. Nicotine withdrawal decreased the amplitude of the medial frontal negativity equally across all trial types (p nicotine dependence (p Nicotine withdrawal had equivocal impact across trial types, suggesting reward processing deficits are unlikely to stem from changes in phasic dopaminergic activity during prediction errors. Effects on tonic activity may be more pronounced. Pharmacological interventions directly targeting the dopamine system and behavioral interventions designed to increase reward motivation and responsiveness (eg, behavioral activation) may aid in mitigating withdrawal symptoms and potentially improving smoking cessation outcomes. Findings from this study indicate nicotine withdrawal impacts reward processing signals that are observable in smokers' neural activity. This may play a role in the subjective aversive experience of nicotine withdrawal and potentially contribute to smoking relapse. Interventions that address abnormal responding to both pleasant and

Attentional Bias Predicts Increased Reward Salience and Risk Taking in Bipolar Disorder.

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Mason, Liam; Trujillo-Barreto, Nelson J; Bentall, Richard P; El-Deredy, Wael

2016-02-15

There is amassing evidence that risky decision-making in bipolar disorder is related to reward-based differences in frontostriatal regions. However, the roles of early attentional and later cognitive processes remain unclear, limiting theoretical understanding and development of targeted interventions. Twenty euthymic bipolar disorder and 19 matched control participants played a Roulette task in which they won and lost money. Event-related potentials and source analysis were used to quantify predominantly sensory-attentional (N1), motivational salience (feedback-related negativities [FRN]), and cognitive appraisal (P300) stages of processing. We predicted that the bipolar disorder group would show increased N1, consistent with increased attentional orienting, and reduced FRN, consistent with a bias to perceive outcomes more favorably. As predicted, the bipolar disorder group showed increased N1 and reduced FRN but no differences in P300. N1 amplitude was additionally associated with real-life risk taking, and N1 source activity was reduced in visual cortex but increased activity in precuneus, frontopolar, and premotor cortex, compared to those of controls. These findings demonstrate an early attentional bias to reward that potentially drives risk taking by priming approach behavior and elevating reward salience in the frontostriatal pathway. Although later cognitive appraisals of these inputs may be relatively intact in remission, interventions targeting attention orienting may also be effective in long-term reduction of relapse. Copyright © 2016 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-stimulating rats combine subjective reward magnitude and subjective reward rate multiplicatively.

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Leon, M I; Gallistel, C R

1998-07-01

For rats that bar pressed for intracranial electrical stimulation in a 2-lever matching paradigm with concurrent variable interval schedules of reward, the authors found that the time allocation ratio is based on a multiplicative combination of the ratio of subjective reward magnitudes and the ratio of the rates of reward. Multiplicative combining was observed in a range covering approximately 2 orders of magnitude in the ratio of the rates of reward from about 1:10 to 10:1) and an order of magnitude change in the size of rewards. After determining the relation between the pulse frequency of stimulation and subjective reward magnitude, the authors were able to predict from knowledge of the subjective magnitudes of the rewards and the obtained relative rates of reward the subject's time allocation ratio over a range in which it varied by more than 3 orders of magnitude.

Methylphenidate and brain activity in a reward/conflict paradigm: role of the insula in task performance.

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Ivanov, Iliyan; Liu, Xun; Clerkin, Suzanne; Schulz, Kurt; Fan, Jin; Friston, Karl; London, Edythe D; Schwartz, Jeffrey; Newcorn, Jeffrey H

2014-06-01

Psychostimulants, such as methylphenidate, are thought to improve information processing in motivation-reward and attention-activation networks by enhancing the effects of more relevant signals and suppressing those of less relevant ones; however the nature of such reciprocal influences remains poorly understood. To explore this question, we tested the effect of methylphenidate on performance and associated brain activity in the Anticipation, Conflict, Reward (ACR) task. Sixteen healthy adult volunteers, ages 21-45, were scanned twice using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as they performed the ACR task under placebo and methylphenidate conditions. A three-way repeated measures analysis of variance, with cue (reward vs. non-reward), target (congruent vs. incongruent) and medication condition (methylphenidate vs. placebo) as the factors, was used to analyze behaviors on the task. Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals, reflecting task-related neural activity, were evaluated using linear contrasts. Participants exhibited significantly greater accuracy in the methylphenidate condition than the placebo condition. Compared with placebo, the methylphenidate condition also was associated with lesser task-related activity in components of attention-activation systems irrespective of the reward cue, and less task-related activity in components of the reward-motivation system, particularly the insula, during reward trials irrespective of target difficulty. These results suggest that methylphenidate enhances task performance by improving efficiency of information processing in both reward-motivation and in attention-activation systems. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Factors predicting emotional cue-responding behaviors of nurses in Taiwan: An observational study.

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Lin, Mei-Feng; Lee, An-Yu; Chou, Cheng-Chen; Liu, Tien-Yu; Tang, Chia-Chun

2017-10-01

Responding to emotional cues is an essential element of therapeutic communication. The purpose of this study is to examine nurses' competence of responding to emotional cues (CRE) and related factors while interacting with standardized patients with cancer. This is an exploratory and predictive correlational study. A convenience sample of registered nurses who have passed the probationary period in southern Taiwan was recruited to participate in 15-minute videotaped interviews with standardized patients. The Medical Interview Aural Rating Scale was used to describe standardized patients' emotional cues and to measure nurses' CRE. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to evaluate nurses' anxiety level before the conversation. We used descriptive statistics to describe the data and stepwise regression to examine the predictors of nurses' CRE. A total of 110 nurses participated in the study. Regardless of the emotional cue level, participants predominately responded to cues with inappropriate distancing strategies. Prior formal communication training, practice unit, length of nursing practice, and educational level together explain 36.3% variances of the nurses' CRE. This study is the first to explore factors related to Taiwanese nurses' CRE. Compared to nurses in other countries, Taiwanese nurses tended to respond to patients' emotional cues with more inappropriate strategies. We also identified significant predictors of CRE that show the importance of communication training. Future research and education programs are needed to enhance nurses' CRE and to advocate for emotion-focused communication. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effect of reference frames and number of cues available on the spatial orientation of males and females in a virtual memory task.

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Cánovas, Rosa; García, Rubén Fernández; Cimadevilla, Jose Manuel

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of the number of cues and cue location in human spatial learning. To assess their importance, subjects performed variants of a virtual task called "The Boxes Room". Participants were trained to locate, in a computer-generated environment with 16 boxes, the rewarded boxes through 8 trials. In experiment I, the number of distal cues available was zero, one, two or the standard arrangement (seven cues). In experiment II, place navigation was compared based on distal landmarks (extra-maze cues placed on the walls) and proximal landmarks (proximal cues placed between the boxes). The results of experiment I demonstrated that one cue in the room is enough to obtain a good performance in the task. Experiment II showed that groups using proximal cues were slower and less accurate than groups using distal cues. In addition, our data suggest that men are better navigators than women, as they found the rewarded boxes sooner and committed fewer errors in both studies. These results indicate that performance can change depending on the number and location of available cues. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pervasive competition between threat and reward in the brain.

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Choi, Jong Moon; Padmala, Srikanth; Spechler, Philip; Pessoa, Luiz

2014-06-01

In the current functional MRI study, we investigated interactions between reward and threat processing. Visual cues at the start of each trial informed participants about the chance of winning monetary reward and/or receiving a mild aversive shock. We tested two competing hypothesis: according to the 'salience hypothesis', in the condition involving both reward and threat, enhanced activation would be observed because of increased salience; according to the 'competition hypothesis', the processing of reward and threat would trade-off against each other, leading to reduced activation. Analysis of skin conductance data during a delay phase revealed an interaction between reward and threat processing, such that the effect of reward was reduced during threat and the effect of threat was reduced during reward. Analysis of imaging data during the same task phase revealed interactions between reward and threat processing in several regions, including the midbrain/ventral tegmental area, caudate, putamen, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, anterior insula, middle frontal gyrus and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Taken together, our findings reveal conditions during which reward and threat trade-off against each other across multiple sites. Such interactions are suggestive of competitive processes and may reflect the organization of opponent systems in the brain. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Food and drug cues activate similar brain regions: a meta-analysis of functional MRI studies.

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Tang, D W; Fellows, L K; Small, D M; Dagher, A

2012-06-06

In healthy individuals, food cues can trigger hunger and feeding behavior. Likewise, smoking cues can trigger craving and relapse in smokers. Brain imaging studies report that structures involved in appetitive behaviors and reward, notably the insula, striatum, amygdala and orbital frontal cortex, tend to be activated by both visual food and smoking cues. Here, by carrying out a meta-analysis of human neuro-imaging studies, we investigate the neural network activated by: 1) food versus neutral cues (14 studies, 142 foci) 2) smoking versus neutral cues (15 studies, 176 foci) 3) smoking versus neutral cues when correlated with craving scores (7 studies, 108 foci). PubMed was used to identify cue-reactivity imaging studies that compared brain response to visual food or smoking cues to neutral cues. Fourteen articles were identified for the food meta-analysis and fifteen articles were identified for the smoking meta-analysis. Six articles were identified for the smoking cue correlated with craving analysis. Meta-analyses were carried out using activation likelihood estimation. Food cues were associated with increased blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response in the left amygdala, bilateral insula, bilateral orbital frontal cortex, and striatum. Smoking cues were associated with increased BOLD signal in the same areas, with the exception of the insula. However, the smoking meta-analysis of brain maps correlating cue-reactivity with subjective craving did identify the insula, suggesting that insula activation is only found when craving levels are high. The brain areas identified here are involved in learning, memory and motivation, and their cue-induced activity is an index of the incentive salience of the cues. Using meta-analytic techniques to combine a series of studies, we found that food and smoking cues activate comparable brain networks. There is significant overlap in brain regions responding to conditioned cues associated with natural and drug rewards

Blunted striatal response to monetary reward anticipation during smoking abstinence predicts lapse during a contingency-managed quit attempt.

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Sweitzer, Maggie M; Geier, Charles F; Denlinger, Rachel; Forbes, Erika E; Raiff, Bethany R; Dallery, Jesse; McClernon, F J; Donny, Eric C

2016-03-01

Tobacco smoking is associated with dysregulated reward processing within the striatum, characterized by hypersensitivity to smoking rewards and hyposensitivity to non-smoking rewards. This bias toward smoking reward at the expense of alternative rewards is further exacerbated by deprivation from smoking, which may contribute to difficulty maintaining abstinence during a quit attempt. We examined whether abstinence-induced changes in striatal processing of rewards predicted lapse likelihood during a quit attempt supported by contingency management (CM), in which abstinence from smoking was reinforced with money. Thirty-six non-treatment-seeking smokers participated in two functional MRI (fMRI) sessions, one following 24-h abstinence and one following smoking as usual. During each scan, participants completed a rewarded guessing task designed to elicit striatal activation in which they could earn smoking and monetary rewards delivered after the scan. Participants then engaged in a 3-week CM-supported quit attempt. As previously reported, 24-h abstinence was associated with increased striatal activation in anticipation of smoking reward and decreased activation in anticipation of monetary reward. Individuals exhibiting greater decrements in right striatal activation to monetary reward during abstinence (controlling for activation during non-abstinence) were more likely to lapse during CM (p reward. These results are consistent with a growing number of studies indicating the specific importance of disrupted striatal processing of non-drug reward in nicotine dependence and highlight the importance of individual differences in abstinence-induced deficits in striatal function for smoking cessation.

Functional states of rat cortical circuits during the unpredictable availability of a reward-related cue.

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Fernández-Lamo, Iván; Sánchez-Campusano, Raudel; Gruart, Agnès; Delgado-García, José M

2016-11-21

Proper performance of acquired abilities can be disturbed by the unexpected occurrence of external changes. Rats trained with an operant conditioning task (to press a lever in order to obtain a food pellet) using a fixed-ratio (1:1) schedule were subsequently placed in a Skinner box in which the lever could be removed randomly. Field postsynaptic potentials (fPSPs) were chronically evoked in perforant pathway-hippocampal CA1 (PP-CA1), CA1-subiculum (CA1-SUB), CA1-medial prefrontal cortex (CA1-mPFC), mPFC-nucleus accumbens (mPFC-NAc), and mPFC-basolateral amygdala (mPFC-BLA) synapses during lever IN and lever OUT situations. While lever presses were accompanied by a significant increase in fPSP slopes at the five synapses, the unpredictable absence of the lever were accompanied by decreased fPSP slopes in all, except PP-CA1 synapses. Spectral analysis of local field potentials (LFPs) recorded when the animal approached the corresponding area in the lever OUT situation presented lower spectral powers than during lever IN occasions for all recording sites, apart from CA1. Thus, the unpredictable availability of a reward-related cue modified the activity of cortical and subcortical areas related with the acquisition of operant learning tasks, suggesting an immediate functional reorganization of these neural circuits to address the changed situation and to modify ongoing behaviors accordingly.

Dimensions of temperament modulate cue-controlled behavior: a study on Pavlovian to instrumental transfer in horses (Equus caballus.

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Léa Lansade

Full Text Available Pavlovian to instrumental transfer (PIT is a central factor in how cues influence animal behavior. PIT refers to the capacity of a Pavlovian cue that predicts a reward to elicit or increase a response intended to obtain the same reward. In the present study, using an equine model, we assessed whether PIT occurs in hoofed domestic animals and whether its efficacy can be modulated by temperamental dimensions. To study PIT, horses were submitted to Pavlovian conditioning whereby an auditory-visual stimulus was repeatedly followed by food delivery. Then, horses were submitted to instrumental conditioning during which they learned to touch with their noses an object signaled by the experimenter in order to obtain the same reward. During the PIT test, the Pavlovian conditioned stimulus was presented to the animal in the absence of reward. At the end of the experiment, a battery of behavioral tests was performed on all animals to assess five temperamental dimensions and investigate their relationships with instrumental performance. The results indicate that PIT can be observed in horses and that its efficacy is greatly modulated by individual temperament. Indeed, individuals with a specific pattern of temperamental dimensions (i.e., higher levels of gregariousness, fearfulness, and sensory sensitivity exhibited the strongest PIT. The demonstration of the existence of PIT in domesticated animals (i.e., horses is important for the optimization of its use by humans and the improvement of training methods. Moreover, because PIT may be implicated in psychological phenomena, including addictive behaviors, the observation of relationships between specific temperamental dimensions and PIT efficacy may aid in identifying predisposing temperamental attributes.

Memory for location and visual cues in white-eared hummingbirds Hylocharis leucotis

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Guillermo PÉREZ, Carlos LARA, José VICCON-PALE, Martha SIGNORET-POILLON

2011-08-01

Full Text Available In nature hummingbirds face floral resources whose availability, quality and quantity can vary spatially and temporally. Thus, they must constantly make foraging decisions about which patches, plants and flowers to visit, partly as a function of the nectar reward. The uncertainty of these decisions would possibly be reduced if an individual could remember locations or use visual cues to avoid revisiting recently depleted flowers. In the present study, we carried out field experiments with white-eared hummingbirds Hylocharis leucotis, to evaluate their use of locations or visual cues when foraging on natural flowers Penstemon roseus. We evaluated the use of spatial memory by observing birds while they were foraging between two plants and within a single plant. Our results showed that hummingbirds prefer to use location when foraging in two plants, but they also use visual cues to efficiently locate unvisited rewarded flowers when they feed on a single plant. However, in absence of visual cues, in both experiments birds mainly used the location of previously visited flowers to make subsequent visits. Our data suggest that hummingbirds are capable of learning and employing this flexibility depending on the faced environmental conditions and the information acquired in previous visits [Current Zoology 57 (4: 468–476, 2011].

Prefrontal neurons encode context-based response execution and inhibition in reward seeking and extinction

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Moorman, David E.; Aston-Jones, Gary

2015-01-01

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) guides execution and inhibition of behavior based on contextual demands. In rodents, the dorsal/prelimbic (PL) medial PFC (mPFC) is frequently considered essential for execution of goal-directed behavior (“go”) whereas ventral/infralimbic (IL) mPFC is thought to control behavioral suppression (“stop”). This dichotomy is commonly seen for fear-related behaviors, and for some behaviors related to cocaine seeking. Overall, however, data for reward-directed behaviors are ambiguous, and few recordings of PL/IL activity have been performed to demonstrate single-neuron correlates. We recorded neuronal activity in PL and IL during discriminative stimulus driven sucrose seeking followed by multiple days of extinction of the reward-predicting stimulus. Contrary to a generalized PL-go/IL-stop hypothesis, we found cue-evoked activity in PL and IL during reward seeking and extinction. Upon analyzing this activity based on resultant behavior (lever press or withhold), we found that neurons in both areas encoded contextually appropriate behavioral initiation (during reward seeking) and withholding (during extinction), where context was dictated by response–outcome contingencies. Our results demonstrate that PL and IL signal contextual information for regulation of behavior, irrespective of whether that involves initiation or suppression of behavioral responses, rather than topographically encoding go vs. stop behaviors. The use of context to optimize behavior likely plays an important role in maximizing utility-promoting exertion of activity when behaviors are rewarded and conservation of energy when not. PMID:26170333

Fat and lean tissue accretion in relation to reward motivation in children.

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De Decker, Annelies; De Clercq, Bart; Verbeken, Sandra; Wells, Jonathan C K; Braet, Caroline; Michels, Nathalie; De Henauw, Stefaan; Sioen, Isabelle

2017-01-01

'Reward sensitivity' explains inter-individual differences in the motivation to obtain rewards when reward cues are perceived. This psychobiological trait has been linked to higher consumption of palatable food when exposed to palatable food cues. The current study aims to examine if reward sensitivity explains differences in patterns of fat and lean tissue accretion over time in children. A longitudinal observational study with measurement waves in 2011 (baseline), 2012, 2013, and 2015 was conducted. The sample was a population-based Flemish cohort of children (n = 446, 50% boys and 5.5-12 years at baseline; 38.8% of the baseline sample also participated in 2015). Baseline reward sensitivity of the children was assessed by parent ratings on the Drive subscale of the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Approach System scales. Age- and sex-independent Fat and Lean Mass Index z-scores (zFMI and zLMI respectively) were computed for each study wave based on air-displacement plethysmography. In girls, but not boys, reward sensitivity was positively associated with the baseline zFMI and zLMI (95% confidence intervals of unstandardized estimates: 0.01 to 0.11 and 0.01 to 0.10 respectively, P values 0.01 and 0.02 respectively). Further, reward sensitivity explained 14.8% and 11.6% of the change in girls' zFMI and zLMI respectively over four years: the zFMI and zLMI increased and decreased respectively in high reward sensitive girls (95% confidence intervals of unstandardized estimates: 0.01 to 0.11 and -0.12 to -0.01 respectively, P values 0.01 and 0.02 respectively). Hence, girls high in reward sensitivity had significantly higher adiposity gain over four years parallel with lower increase in lean mass than was expected on the basis of their age and height. These results may help to identify appropriate targets for interventions for obesity prevention. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impaired associative learning with food rewards in obese women.

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Zhang, Zhihao; Manson, Kirk F; Schiller, Daniela; Levy, Ifat

2014-08-04

Obesity is a major epidemic in many parts of the world. One of the main factors contributing to obesity is overconsumption of high-fat and high-calorie food, which is driven by the rewarding properties of these types of food. Previous studies have suggested that dysfunction in reward circuits may be associated with overeating and obesity. The nature of this dysfunction, however, is still unknown. Here, we demonstrate impairment in reward-based associative learning specific to food in obese women. Normal-weight and obese participants performed an appetitive reversal learning task in which they had to learn and modify cue-reward associations. To test whether any learning deficits were specific to food reward or were more general, we used a between-subject design in which half of the participants received food reward and the other half received money reward. Our results reveal a marked difference in associative learning between normal-weight and obese women when food was used as reward. Importantly, no learning deficits were observed with money reward. Multiple regression analyses also established a robust negative association between body mass index and learning performance in the food domain in female participants. Interestingly, such impairment was not observed in obese men. These findings suggest that obesity may be linked to impaired reward-based associative learning and that this impairment may be specific to the food domain. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aversive counterconditioning attenuates reward signalling in the ventral striatum

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Anne Marije Kaag

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Appetitive conditioning refers to the process of learning cue-reward associations and is mediated by the mesocorticolimbic system. Appetitive conditioned responses are difficult to extinguish, especially for highly salient rewards such as food and drugs. We investigate whether aversive counterconditioning can alter reward reinstatement in the ventral striatum in healthy volunteers using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI. In the initial conditioning phase, two different stimuli were reinforced with a monetary reward. In the subsequent counterconditioning phase, one of these stimuli was paired with an aversive shock to the wrist. In the following extinction phase, none of the stimuli were reinforced. In the final reinstatement phase, reward was reinstated by informing the participants that the monetary gain could be doubled. Our fMRI data revealed that reward signalling in the ventral striatum and ventral tegmental area following reinstatement was smaller for the stimulus that was counterconditioned with an electrical shock, compared to the non-counterconditioned stimulus. A functional connectivity analysis showed that aversive counterconditioning strengthened striatal connectivity with the hippocampus and insula. These results suggest that reward signalling in the ventral striatum can be attenuated through aversive counterconditioning, possibly by concurrent retrieval of the aversive association through enhanced connectivity with hippocampus and insula.

Reward and relief dimensions of temptation to drink: construct validity and role in predicting differential benefit from acamprosate and naltrexone.

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Roos, Corey R; Mann, Karl; Witkiewitz, Katie

2017-11-01

Researchers have sought to distinguish between individuals whose alcohol use disorder (AUD) is maintained by drinking to relieve negative affect ('relief drinkers') and those whose AUD is maintained by the rewarding effects of alcohol ('reward drinkers'). As an opioid receptor antagonist, naltrexone may be particularly effective for reward drinkers. Acamprosate, which has been shown to down-regulate the glutamatergic system, may be particularly effective for relief drinkers. This study sought to replicate and extend prior work (PREDICT study; Glöckner-Rist et al. ) by examining dimensions of reward and relief temptation to drink and subtypes of individuals with distinct patterns of reward/relief temptation. We utilized data from two randomized clinical trials for AUD (Project MATCH, n = 1726 and COMBINE study, n = 1383). We also tested whether classes of reward/relief temptation would predict differential response to naltrexone and acamprosate in COMBINE. Results replicated prior work by identifying reward and relief temptation factors, which had excellent reliability and construct validity. Using factor mixture modeling, we identified five distinct classes of reward/relief temptation that replicated across studies. In COMBINE, we found a significant class-by-acamprosate interaction effect. Among those most likely classified in the high relief/moderate reward temptation class, individuals had better drinking outcomes if assigned to acamprosate versus placebo. We did not find a significant class-by-naltrexone interaction effect. Our study questions the orthogonal classification of drinkers into only two types (reward or relief drinkers) and adds to the body of research on moderators of acamprosate, which may inform clinical decision making in the treatment of AUD. © 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging.

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Harb, Mazen R; Sousa, Nuno; Zihl, Joseph; Almeida, Osborne F X

2014-01-01

Eating behavior depends on associations between the sensory and energetic properties of foods. Healthful balance of these factors is a challenge for industrialized societies that have an abundance of food, food choices and food-related cues. Here, we were interested in whether appetitive conditioning changes as a function of age. Operant and pavlovian conditioning experiments (rewarding stimulus was a palatable food) in male mice (aged 3, 6, and 15 months) showed that implicit (non-declarative) memory remains intact during aging. Two other essential components of eating behavior, motivation and hedonic preference for rewarding foods, were also found not to be altered in aging mice. Specifically, hedonic responding by satiated mice to isocaloric foods of differing sensory properties (sucrose, milk) was similar in all age groups; importantly, however, this paradigm disclosed that older animals adjust their energy intake according to energetic need. Based on the assumption that the mechanisms that control feeding are conserved across species, it would appear that overeating and obesity in humans reflects a mismatch between ancient physiological mechanisms and today's cue-laden environment. The implication of the present results showing that aging does not impair the ability to learn stimulus-food associations is that the risk of overeating in response to food cues is maintained through to old age.

Optogenetic stimulation in a computational model of the basal ganglia biases action selection and reward prediction error.

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Berthet, Pierre; Lansner, Anders

2014-01-01

Optogenetic stimulation of specific types of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the striatum has been shown to bias the selection of mice in a two choices task. This shift is dependent on the localisation and on the intensity of the stimulation but also on the recent reward history. We have implemented a way to simulate this increased activity produced by the optical flash in our computational model of the basal ganglia (BG). This abstract model features the direct and indirect pathways commonly described in biology, and a reward prediction pathway (RP). The framework is similar to Actor-Critic methods and to the ventral/dorsal distinction in the striatum. We thus investigated the impact on the selection caused by an added stimulation in each of the three pathways. We were able to reproduce in our model the bias in action selection observed in mice. Our results also showed that biasing the reward prediction is sufficient to create a modification in the action selection. However, we had to increase the percentage of trials with stimulation relative to that in experiments in order to impact the selection. We found that increasing only the reward prediction had a different effect if the stimulation in RP was action dependent (only for a specific action) or not. We further looked at the evolution of the change in the weights depending on the stage of learning within a block. A bias in RP impacts the plasticity differently depending on that stage but also on the outcome. It remains to experimentally test how the dopaminergic neurons are affected by specific stimulations of neurons in the striatum and to relate data to predictions of our model.

Reward Motivation Enhances Task Coding in Frontoparietal Cortex.

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Etzel, Joset A; Cole, Michael W; Zacks, Jeffrey M; Kay, Kendrick N; Braver, Todd S

2016-04-01

Reward motivation often enhances task performance, but the neural mechanisms underlying such cognitive enhancement remain unclear. Here, we used a multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) approach to test the hypothesis that motivation-related enhancement of cognitive control results from improved encoding and representation of task set information. Participants underwent two fMRI sessions of cued task switching, the first under baseline conditions, and the second with randomly intermixed reward incentive and no-incentive trials. Information about the upcoming task could be successfully decoded from cue-related activation patterns in a set of frontoparietal regions typically associated with task control. More critically, MVPA classifiers trained on the baseline session had significantly higher decoding accuracy on incentive than non-incentive trials, with decoding improvement mediating reward-related enhancement of behavioral performance. These results strongly support the hypothesis that reward motivation enhances cognitive control, by improving the discriminability of task-relevant information coded and maintained in frontoparietal brain regions. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Cannabinoid modulation of drug reward and the implications of marijuana legalization.

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Covey, Dan P; Wenzel, Jennifer M; Cheer, Joseph F

2015-12-02

Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug worldwide. Recent trends indicate that this may soon change; not due to decreased marijuana use, but to an amendment in marijuana's illegal status. The cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor mediates marijuana's psychoactive and reinforcing properties. CB1 receptors are also part of the brain endocannabinoid (eCB) system and support numerous forms of learning and memory, including the conditioned reinforcing properties of cues predicting reward or punishment. This is accomplished via eCB-dependent alterations in mesolimbic dopamine function, which plays an obligatory role in reward learning and motivation. Presynaptic CB1 receptors control midbrain dopamine neuron activity and thereby shape phasic dopamine release in target regions, particularly the nucleus accumbens (NAc). By also regulating synaptic input to the NAc, CB1 receptors modulate NAc output onto downstream neurons of the basal ganglia motor circuit, and thereby support goal-directed behaviors. Abused drugs promote short- and long-term adaptations in eCB-regulation of mesolimbic dopamine function, and thereby hijack neural systems related to the pursuit of rewards to promote drug abuse. By pharmacologically targeting the CB1 receptors, marijuana has preferential access to this neuronal system and can potently alter eCB-dependent processing of reward-related stimuli. As marijuana legalization progresses, greater access to this drug should increase the utility of marijuana as a research tool to better understand the eCB system, which has the potential to advance cannabinoid-based treatments for drug addiction. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Situational cues and momentary food environment predict everyday eating behavior in adults with overweight and obesity.

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Elliston, Katherine G; Ferguson, Stuart G; Schüz, Natalie; Schüz, Benjamin

2017-04-01

Individual eating behavior is a risk factor for obesity and highly dependent on internal and external cues. Many studies also suggest that the food environment (i.e., food outlets) influences eating behavior. This study therefore examines the momentary food environment (at the time of eating) and the role of cues simultaneously in predicting everyday eating behavior in adults with overweight and obesity. Intensive longitudinal study using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) over 14 days in 51 adults with overweight and obesity (average body mass index = 30.77; SD = 4.85) with a total of 745 participant days of data. Multiple daily assessments of eating (meals, high- or low-energy snacks) and randomly timed assessments. Cues and the momentary food environment were assessed during both assessment types. Random effects multinomial logistic regression shows that both internal (affect) and external (food availability, social situation, observing others eat) cues were associated with increased likelihood of eating. The momentary food environment predicted meals and snacking on top of cues, with a higher likelihood of high-energy snacks when fast food restaurants were close by (odds ratio [OR] = 1.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.22, 2.93) and a higher likelihood of low-energy snacks in proximity to supermarkets (OR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.38, 3.82). Real-time eating behavior, both in terms of main meals and snacks, is associated with internal and external cues in adults with overweight and obesity. In addition, perceptions of the momentary food environment influence eating choices, emphasizing the importance of an integrated perspective on eating behavior and obesity prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Smoking-Cue Induced Brain Activation In Adolescent Light Smokers

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Rubinstein, Mark L.; Luks, Tracy L.; Moscicki, Anna-Barbara; Dryden, Wendy; Rait, Michelle A.; Simpson, Gregory V.

2010-01-01

Purpose Using fMRI, we examined whether or not adolescents with low levels of nicotine exposure (light smokers) display neural activation in areas shown to be involved with addiction in response to smoking-related stimuli. Design/Setting/Participants Twelve adolescent light smokers (aged 13 to17, smoked 1 to 5 cigarettes per day) and 12 non-smokers (ages 13 to 17, never smoked a cigarette) from the San Francisco Bay Area underwent fMRI scanning. During scanning they viewed blocks of photographic smoking and control cues. Smoking cues consisted of pictures of people smoking cigarettes and smoking-related objects such as lighters and ashtrays. Neutral cues consisted of everyday objects and people engaged in everyday activities. Findings For smokers, smoking cues elicited greater activation than neutral cues in the mesolimbic reward circuit (left anterior cingulate (T=7.88, pbrain regions seen in adult and heavy teen smokers suggests that even at low levels of smoking, adolescents exhibit heightened reactivity to smoking cues. This paper adds to the existing literature suggesting that nicotine dependence may begin with exposure to low levels of nicotine, underscoring the need for early intervention among adolescent smokers. PMID:21185518

Stability of executive function and predictions to adaptive behavior from middle childhood to pre-adolescence

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Madeline eHarms

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The shift from childhood to adolescence is characterized by rapid remodeling of the brain and increased risk-taking behaviors. Current theories hypothesize that developmental enhancements in sensitivity to affective environmental cues in adolescence may undermine executive function (EF and increase the likelihood of problematic behaviors. In the current study, we examined the extent to which EF in childhood predicts EF in early adolescence. We also tested whether individual differences in neural responses to affective cues (rewards/punishments in childhood serve as a biological marker for EF, sensation-seeking, academic performance, and social skills in early adolescence. At age 8, 84 children completed a gambling task while event-related potentials (ERPs were recorded. We examined the extent to which selections resulting in rewards or losses in this task elicited (i the P300, a post-stimulus waveform reflecting the allocation of attentional resources toward a stimulus, and (ii the SPN, a pre-stimulus anticipatory waveform reflecting a neural representation of a hunch about an outcome that originates in insula and ventromedial PFC. Children also completed a Dimensional Change Card-Sort (DCCS and Flanker task to measure EF. At age 12, 78 children repeated the DCCS and Flanker and completed a battery of questionnaires. Flanker and DCCS accuracy at age 8 predicted Flanker and DCCS performance at age 12, respectively. Individual differences in the magnitude of P300 (to losses vs. rewards and SPN (preceding outcomes with a high probability of punishment at age 8 predicted self-reported sensation seeking (lower and teacher-rated academic performance (higher at age 12. We suggest there is stability in EF from age 8 to 12, and that childhood neural sensitivity to reward and punishment predicts individual differences in sensation seeking and adaptive behaviors in children entering adolescence.

Acupuncture inhibits cue-induced heroin craving and brain activation.

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Cai, Xinghui; Song, Xiaoge; Li, Chuanfu; Xu, Chunsheng; Li, Xiliang; Lu, Qi

2012-11-25

Previous research using functional MRI has shown that specific brain regions associated with drug dependence and cue-elicited heroin craving are activated by environmental cues. Craving is an important trigger of heroin relapse, and acupuncture may inhibit craving. In this study, we performed functional MRI in heroin addicts and control subjects. We compared differences in brain activation between the two groups during heroin cue exposure, heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture at the Zusanli point (ST36) without twirling of the needle, and heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture at the Zusanli point with twirling of the needle. Heroin cue exposure elicited significant activation in craving-related brain regions mainly in the frontal lobes and callosal gyri. Acupuncture without twirling did not significantly affect the range of brain activation induced by heroin cue exposure, but significantly changed the extent of the activation in the heroin addicts group. Acupuncture at the Zusanli point with twirling of the needle significantly decreased both the range and extent of activation induced by heroin cue exposure compared with heroin cue exposure plus acupuncture without twirling of the needle. These experimental findings indicate that presentation of heroin cues can induce activation in craving-related brain regions, which are involved in reward, learning and memory, cognition and emotion. Acupuncture at the Zusanli point can rapidly suppress the activation of specific brain regions related to craving, supporting its potential as an intervention for drug craving.

Reward-centricity and attenuated aversions: An adolescent phenotype emerging from studies in laboratory animals.

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Doremus-Fitzwater, Tamara L; Spear, Linda P

2016-11-01

Adolescence is an evolutionarily conserved developmental period, with neural circuits and behaviors contributing to the detection, procurement, and receipt of rewards bearing similarity across species. Studies with laboratory animals suggest that adolescence is typified by a "reward-centric" phenotype-an increased sensitivity to rewards relative to adults. In contrast, adolescent rodents are reportedly less sensitive to the aversive properties of many drugs and naturally aversive stimuli. Alterations within the mesocorticolimbic dopamine and endocannabinoid systems likely contribute to an adolescent reward-sensitive, yet aversion-resistant, phenotype. Although early hypotheses postulated that developmental changes in dopaminergic circuitry would result in a "reward deficiency" syndrome, evidence now suggests the opposite: that adolescents are uniquely poised to seek out hedonic stimuli, experience greater "pleasure" from rewards, and consume rewarding stimuli in excess. Future studies that more clearly define the role of specific brain regions and neurotransmitter systems in the expression of behaviors toward reward- and aversive-related cues and stimuli are necessary to more fully understand an adolescent-proclivity for and vulnerability to rewards and drugs of potential abuse. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Validation and extension of the reward-mountain model.

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Breton, Yannick-André; Mullett, Ada; Conover, Kent; Shizgal, Peter

2013-01-01

The reward-mountain model relates the vigor of reward seeking to the strength and cost of reward. Application of this model provides information about the stage of processing at which manipulations such as drug administration, lesions, deprivation states, and optogenetic interventions act to alter reward seeking. The model has been updated by incorporation of new information about frequency following in the directly stimulated neurons responsible for brain stimulation reward and about the function that maps objective opportunity costs into subjective ones. The behavioral methods for applying the model have been updated and improved as well. To assess the impact of these changes, two related predictions of the model that were supported by earlier work have been retested: (1) altering the duration of rewarding brain stimulation should change the pulse frequency required to produce a reward of half-maximal intensity, and (2) this manipulation should not change the opportunity cost at which half-maximal performance is directed at earning a maximally intense reward. Prediction 1 was supported in all six subjects, but prediction 2 was supported in only three. The latter finding is interpreted to reflect recruitment, at some stimulation sites, of a heterogeneous reward substrate comprising dual, parallel circuits that integrate the stimulation-induced neural signals.

Attentional bias toward high-calorie food-cues and trait motor impulsivity interactively predict weight gain

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Adrian Meule

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Strong bottom-up impulses and weak top-down control may interactively lead to overeating and, consequently, weight gain. In the present study, female university freshmen were tested at the start of the first semester and again at the start of the second semester. Attentional bias toward high- or low-calorie food-cues was assessed using a dot-probe paradigm and participants completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale . Attentional bias and motor impulsivity interactively predicted change in body mass index: motor impulsivity positively predicted weight gain only when participants showed an attentional bias toward high-calorie food-cues. Attentional and non-planning impulsivity were unrelated to weight change. Results support findings showing that weight gain is prospectively predicted by a combination of weak top-down control (i.e. high impulsivity and strong bottom-up impulses (i.e. high automatic motivational drive toward high-calorie food stimuli. They also highlight the fact that only specific aspects of impulsivity are relevant in eating and weight regulation.

Premotor and Motor Cortices Encode Reward.

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Pavan Ramkumar

Full Text Available Rewards associated with actions are critical for motivation and learning about the consequences of one's actions on the world. The motor cortices are involved in planning and executing movements, but it is unclear whether they encode reward over and above limb kinematics and dynamics. Here, we report a categorical reward signal in dorsal premotor (PMd and primary motor (M1 neurons that corresponds to an increase in firing rates when a trial was not rewarded regardless of whether or not a reward was expected. We show that this signal is unrelated to error magnitude, reward prediction error, or other task confounds such as reward consumption, return reach plan, or kinematic differences across rewarded and unrewarded trials. The availability of reward information in motor cortex is crucial for theories of reward-based learning and motivational influences on actions.

The Attraction Effect Modulates Reward Prediction Errors and Intertemporal Choices.

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Gluth, Sebastian; Hotaling, Jared M; Rieskamp, Jörg

2017-01-11

Classical economic theory contends that the utility of a choice option should be independent of other options. This view is challenged by the attraction effect, in which the relative preference between two options is altered by the addition of a third, asymmetrically dominated option. Here, we leveraged the attraction effect in the context of intertemporal choices to test whether both decisions and reward prediction errors (RPE) in the absence of choice violate the independence of irrelevant alternatives principle. We first demonstrate that intertemporal decision making is prone to the attraction effect in humans. In an independent group of participants, we then investigated how this affects the neural and behavioral valuation of outcomes using a novel intertemporal lottery task and fMRI. Participants' behavioral responses (i.e., satisfaction ratings) were modulated systematically by the attraction effect and this modulation was correlated across participants with the respective change of the RPE signal in the nucleus accumbens. Furthermore, we show that, because exponential and hyperbolic discounting models are unable to account for the attraction effect, recently proposed sequential sampling models might be more appropriate to describe intertemporal choices. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that the attraction effect modulates subjective valuation even in the absence of choice. The findings also challenge the prospect of using neuroscientific methods to measure utility in a context-free manner and have important implications for theories of reinforcement learning and delay discounting. Many theories of value-based decision making assume that people first assess the attractiveness of each option independently of each other and then pick the option with the highest subjective value. The attraction effect, however, shows that adding a new option to a choice set can change the relative value of the existing options, which is a violation of the independence

Reward components of feeding behavior are preserved during mouse aging

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Mazen R. Harb

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Eating behavior depends on associations between the sensory and energetic properties of foods. Healthful balance of these factors is a challenge for industrialized societies that have an abundance of food, food choices and food-related cues. Here, we were interested in whether appetitive conditioning changes as a function of age. Operant and pavlovian conditioning experiments (rewarding stimulus was a palatable food in male mice (aged 3, 6 and 15 months showed that implicit (non-declarative memory remains intact during aging. Two other essential components of eating behavior, motivation and hedonic preference for rewarding foods, were also found not to be altered in aging mice. Specifically, hedonic responding by satiated mice to isocaloric foods of differing sensory properties (sucrose, milk was similar in all age groups; importantly, however, this paradigm disclosed that older animals adjust their energy intake according to energetic need. Based on the assumption that the mechanisms that control feeding are conserved across species, it would appear that overeating and obesity in humans reflects a mismatch between ancient physiological mechanisms and today’s cue-laden environment. The implication of the present results showing that aging does not impair the ability to learn stimulus-food associations is that the risk of overeating in response to food cues is maintained through to old age.

Effects of prefrontal cortical inactivation on neural activity in the ventral tegmental area

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Jo, Yong Sang; Lee, Jane; Mizumori, Sheri J.Y.

2013-01-01

Dopamine (DA) cells have been suggested to signal discrepancies between expected and actual rewards in reinforcement learning. DA cells in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) receive direct projections from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a structure that is known as one of the brain areas that represent expected future rewards. To investigate whether the mPFC contributes to generating reward prediction error signals of DA cells, we recorded VTA cells from rats foraging for different amounts of reward in a spatial working memory task. Our results showed that DA cells initially responded after the acquisition of rewards, but over training, they exhibited phasic responses when rats detected sensory cues originating from the rewards before obtaining them. We also observed two separate groups of non-DA cells that were activated in expectation of upcoming rewards or during reward consumption. Bilateral injections of muscimol, a GABAA agonist, into the mPFC significantly decreased the non-DA activity that encoded reward expectation. By contrast, the same manipulation of the mPFC elevated DA responses to reward-predicting cues. However, neither DA nor non-DA responses that were elicited after reward acquisition were affected by mPFC inactivation. These results suggest that the mPFC provides the information about expected rewards to the VTA, and its functional loss elevates DA responses to reward-predicting cues by altering expectations about forthcoming rewards. PMID:23658156

“Liking” and “Wanting” Linked to Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS): Hypothesizing Differential Responsivity in Brain Reward Circuitry

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Blum, Kenneth; Gardner, Eliot; Oscar-Berman, Marlene; Gold, Mark

2012-01-01

In an attempt to resolve controversy regarding the causal contributions of mesolimbic dopamine (DA) systems to reward, we evaluate the three main competing explanatory categories: “liking,” “learning,” and “wanting” [1]. That is, DA may mediate (a) the hedonic impact of reward (liking), (b) learned predictions about rewarding effects (learning), or (c) the pursuit of rewards by attributing incentive salience to reward-related stimuli (wanting). We evaluate these hypotheses, especially as they...

Dynamic shaping of dopamine signals during probabilistic Pavlovian conditioning.

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Hart, Andrew S; Clark, Jeremy J; Phillips, Paul E M

2015-01-01

Cue- and reward-evoked phasic dopamine activity during Pavlovian and operant conditioning paradigms is well correlated with reward-prediction errors from formal reinforcement learning models, which feature teaching signals in the form of discrepancies between actual and expected reward outcomes. Additionally, in learning tasks where conditioned cues probabilistically predict rewards, dopamine neurons show sustained cue-evoked responses that are correlated with the variance of reward and are maximal to cues predicting rewards with a probability of 0.5. Therefore, it has been suggested that sustained dopamine activity after cue presentation encodes the uncertainty of impending reward delivery. In the current study we examined the acquisition and maintenance of these neural correlates using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry in rats implanted with carbon fiber electrodes in the nucleus accumbens core during probabilistic Pavlovian conditioning. The advantage of this technique is that we can sample from the same animal and recording location throughout learning with single trial resolution. We report that dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core contains correlates of both expected value and variance. A quantitative analysis of these signals throughout learning, and during the ongoing updating process after learning in probabilistic conditions, demonstrates that these correlates are dynamically encoded during these phases. Peak CS-evoked responses are correlated with expected value and predominate during early learning while a variance-correlated sustained CS signal develops during the post-asymptotic updating phase. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reward-related behavioral paradigms for addiction research in the mouse: performance of common inbred strains.

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Lauren Lederle

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The mouse has emerged as a uniquely valuable species for studying the molecular and genetic basis of complex behaviors and modeling neuropsychiatric disease states. While valid and reliable preclinical assays for reward-related behaviors are critical to understanding addiction-related processes, and various behavioral procedures have been developed and characterized in rats and primates, there have been relatively few studies using operant-based addiction-relevant behavioral paradigms in the mouse. Here we describe the performance of the C57BL/6J inbred mouse strain on three major reward-related paradigms, and replicate the same procedures in two other commonly used inbred strains (DBA/2J, BALB/cJ. We examined Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT by measuring the ability of an auditory cue associated with food reward to promote an instrumental (lever press response. In a separate experiment, we assessed the acquisition and extinction of a simple stimulus-reward instrumental behavior on a touch screen based task. Reinstatement of this behavior was then examined following either continuous exposure to cues (conditioned reinforcers, CRs associated with reward, brief reward and CR exposure, or brief reward exposure followed by continuous CR exposure. The third paradigm examined sensitivity of an instrumental (lever press response to devaluation of food reward (a probe for outcome insensitive, habitual behavior by repeated pairing with malaise. Results showed that C57BL/6J mice displayed robust PIT, as well as clear extinction and reinstatement, but were insensitive to reinforcer devaluation. DBA/2J mice showed good PIT and (rewarded reinstatement, but were slow to extinguish and did not show reinforcer devaluation or significant CR-reinstatement. BALB/cJ mice also displayed good PIT, extinction and reinstatement, and retained instrumental responding following devaluation, but, unlike the other strains, demonstrated reduced Pavlovian approach

Reward-related behavioral paradigms for addiction research in the mouse: performance of common inbred strains.

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Lederle, Lauren; Weber, Susanna; Wright, Tara; Feyder, Michael; Brigman, Jonathan L; Crombag, Hans S; Saksida, Lisa M; Bussey, Timothy J; Holmes, Andrew

2011-01-10

The mouse has emerged as a uniquely valuable species for studying the molecular and genetic basis of complex behaviors and modeling neuropsychiatric disease states. While valid and reliable preclinical assays for reward-related behaviors are critical to understanding addiction-related processes, and various behavioral procedures have been developed and characterized in rats and primates, there have been relatively few studies using operant-based addiction-relevant behavioral paradigms in the mouse. Here we describe the performance of the C57BL/6J inbred mouse strain on three major reward-related paradigms, and replicate the same procedures in two other commonly used inbred strains (DBA/2J, BALB/cJ). We examined Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) by measuring the ability of an auditory cue associated with food reward to promote an instrumental (lever press) response. In a separate experiment, we assessed the acquisition and extinction of a simple stimulus-reward instrumental behavior on a touch screen based task. Reinstatement of this behavior was then examined following either continuous exposure to cues (conditioned reinforcers, CRs) associated with reward, brief reward and CR exposure, or brief reward exposure followed by continuous CR exposure. The third paradigm examined sensitivity of an instrumental (lever press) response to devaluation of food reward (a probe for outcome insensitive, habitual behavior) by repeated pairing with malaise. Results showed that C57BL/6J mice displayed robust PIT, as well as clear extinction and reinstatement, but were insensitive to reinforcer devaluation. DBA/2J mice showed good PIT and (rewarded) reinstatement, but were slow to extinguish and did not show reinforcer devaluation or significant CR-reinstatement. BALB/cJ mice also displayed good PIT, extinction and reinstatement, and retained instrumental responding following devaluation, but, unlike the other strains, demonstrated reduced Pavlovian approach behavior (food

Addiction and brain reward and antireward pathways.

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Gardner, Eliot L

2011-01-01

etiology holds very well for addiction. Addiction appears to correlate with a hypodopaminergic dysfunctional state within the reward circuitry of the brain. Neuroimaging studies in humans add credence to this hypothesis. Credible evidence also implicates serotonergic, opioid, endocannabinoid, GABAergic and glutamatergic mechanisms in addiction. Critically, drug addiction progresses from occasional recreational use to impulsive use to habitual compulsive use. This correlates with a progression from reward-driven to habit-driven drug-seeking behavior. This behavioral progression correlates with a neuroanatomical progression from ventral striatal (nucleus accumbens) to dorsal striatal control over drug-seeking behavior. The three classical sets of craving and relapse triggers are (a) reexposure to addictive drugs, (b) stress, and (c) reexposure to environmental cues (people, places, things) previously associated with drug-taking behavior. Drug-triggered relapse involves the nucleus accumbens and the neurotransmitter dopamine. Stress-triggered relapse involves (a) the central nucleus of the amygdala, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and the neurotransmitter corticotrophin-releasing factor, and (b) the lateral tegmental noradrenergic nuclei of the brain stem and the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. Cue-triggered relapse involves the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala, the hippocampus and the neurotransmitter glutamate. Knowledge of the neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry and neuropharmacology of addictive drug action in the brain is currently producing a variety of strategies for pharmacotherapeutic treatment of drug addiction, some of which appear promising. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Low social rhythm regularity predicts first onset of bipolar spectrum disorders among at-risk individuals with reward hypersensitivity.

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Alloy, Lauren B; Boland, Elaine M; Ng, Tommy H; Whitehouse, Wayne G; Abramson, Lyn Y

2015-11-01

The social zeitgeber model (Ehlers, Frank, & Kupfer, 1988) suggests that irregular daily schedules or social rhythms provide vulnerability to bipolar spectrum disorders. This study tested whether social rhythm regularity prospectively predicted first lifetime onset of bipolar spectrum disorders in adolescents already at risk for bipolar disorder based on exhibiting reward hypersensitivity. Adolescents (ages 14-19 years) previously screened to have high (n = 138) or moderate (n = 95) reward sensitivity, but no lifetime history of bipolar spectrum disorder, completed measures of depressive and manic symptoms, family history of bipolar disorder, and the Social Rhythm Metric. They were followed prospectively with semistructured diagnostic interviews every 6 months for an average of 31.7 (SD = 20.1) months. Hierarchical logistic regression indicated that low social rhythm regularity at baseline predicted greater likelihood of first onset of bipolar spectrum disorder over follow-up among high-reward-sensitivity adolescents but not moderate-reward-sensitivity adolescents, controlling for follow-up time, gender, age, family history of bipolar disorder, and initial manic and depressive symptoms (β = -.150, Wald = 4.365, p = .037, odds ratio = .861, 95% confidence interval [.748, .991]). Consistent with the social zeitgeber theory, low social rhythm regularity provides vulnerability to first onset of bipolar spectrum disorder among at-risk adolescents. It may be possible to identify adolescents at risk for developing a bipolar spectrum disorder based on exhibiting both reward hypersensitivity and social rhythm irregularity before onset occurs. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of social stimuli content in neuroimaging studies investigating alcohol cue-reactivity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groefsema, M.M.; Engels, R.C.M.E.; Luijten, M.

2016-01-01

Introduction: Cue-reactivity is thought to play a fundamental role in the maintenance of addiction. The incentive sensitization theory proposes that conditioned responses are related to increased sensitivity of the reward-related dopaminergic pathways in the brain. However, neuroimaging studies on

Sleep spindles during a nap correlate with post sleep memory performance for highly rewarded word-pairs.

Science.gov (United States)

Studte, Sara; Bridger, Emma; Mecklinger, Axel

2017-04-01

The consolidation of new associations is thought to depend in part on physiological processes engaged during non-REM (NREM) sleep, such as slow oscillations and sleep spindles. Moreover, NREM sleep is thought to selectively benefit associations that are adaptive for the future. In line with this, the current study investigated whether different reward cues at encoding are associated with changes in sleep physiology and memory retention. Participants' associative memory was tested after learning a list of arbitrarily paired words both before and after taking a 90-min nap. During learning, word-pairs were preceded by a cue indicating either a high or a low reward for correct memory performance at test. The motivation manipulation successfully impacted retention such that memory declined to a greater extent from pre- to post sleep for low rewarded than for high rewarded word-pairs. In line with previous studies, positive correlations between spindle density during NREM sleep and general memory performance pre- and post-sleep were found. In addition to this, however, a selective positive relationship between memory performance for highly rewarded word-pairs at posttest and spindle density during NREM sleep was also observed. These results support the view that motivationally salient memories are preferentially consolidated and that sleep spindles may be an important underlying mechanism for selective consolidation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Possible evidence for re-regulation of HPA axis and brain reward systems over time in treatment in prescription opioid-dependent patients.

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Bunce, Scott C; Harris, Jonathan D; Bixler, Edward O; Taylor, Megan; Muelly, Emilie; Deneke, Erin; Thompson, Kenneth W; Meyer, Roger E

2015-01-01

There is growing evidence for a neuroadaptive model underlying vulnerability to relapse in opioid dependence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical measures hypothesized to mirror elements of allostatic dysregulation in patients dependent on prescription opioids at 2 time points after withdrawal, compared with healthy control participants. Recently withdrawn (n = 7) prescription opioid-dependent patients were compared with the patients in supervised residential care for 2 to 3 months (extended care; n = 7) and healthy controls (n = 7) using drug cue reactivity, affect-modulated startle response tasks, salivary cortisol, and 8 days of sleep actigraphy. Prefrontal cortex was monitored with functional near-infrared spectroscopy during the cue reactivity task. Startle response results indicated reduced hedonic response to natural rewards among patients recently withdrawn from opioids relative to extended care patients. The recently withdrawn patients showed increased activation to pill stimuli in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex relative to extended care patients. Cortisol levels were elevated among recently withdrawn patients and intermediate for extended care relative to healthy controls. Actigraphy indicated disturbed sleep between recently withdrawn patients and extended care patients; extended care patients were similar to controls. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation to drug and natural reward cues, startle responses to natural reward cues, day-time cortisol levels, time in bed, and total time spent sleeping were all correlated with the number of days since last drug use (ie, time in supervised residential treatment). These results suggest possible re-regulation of dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and brain reward systems in prescription opioid-dependent patients over the drug-free period in residential treatment.

Spared internal but impaired external reward prediction error signals in major depressive disorder during reinforcement learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Bakic, Jasmina; Pourtois, Gilles; Jepma, Marieke; Duprat, Romain; De Raedt, Rudi; Baeken, Chris

2017-01-01

Major depressive disorder (MDD) creates debilitating effects on a wide range of cognitive functions, including reinforcement learning (RL). In this study, we sought to assess whether reward processing as such, or alternatively the complex interplay between motivation and reward might potentially account for the abnormal reward-based learning in MDD. A total of 35 treatment resistant MDD patients and 44 age matched healthy controls (HCs) performed a standard probabilistic learning task. RL was titrated using behavioral, computational modeling and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) data. MDD patients showed comparable learning rate compared to HCs. However, they showed decreased lose-shift responses as well as blunted subjective evaluations of the reinforcers used during the task, relative to HCs. Moreover, MDD patients showed normal internal (at the level of error-related negativity, ERN) but abnormal external (at the level of feedback-related negativity, FRN) reward prediction error (RPE) signals during RL, selectively when additional efforts had to be made to establish learning. Collectively, these results lend support to the assumption that MDD does not impair reward processing per se during RL. Instead, it seems to alter the processing of the emotional value of (external) reinforcers during RL, when additional intrinsic motivational processes have to be engaged. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Neural correlates of stress- and food cue-induced food craving in obesity: association with insulin levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Jastreboff, Ania M; Sinha, Rajita; Lacadie, Cheryl; Small, Dana M; Sherwin, Robert S; Potenza, Marc N

2013-02-01

Obesity is associated with alterations in corticolimbic-striatal brain regions involved in food motivation and reward. Stress and the presence of food cues may each motivate eating and engage corticolimibic-striatal neurocircuitry. It is unknown how these factors interact to influence brain responses and whether these interactions are influenced by obesity, insulin levels, and insulin sensitivity. We hypothesized that obese individuals would show greater responses in corticolimbic-striatal neurocircuitry after exposure to stress and food cues and that brain activations would correlate with subjective food craving, insulin levels, and HOMA-IR. Fasting insulin levels were assessed in obese and lean subjects who were exposed to individualized stress and favorite-food cues during functional MRI. Obese, but not lean, individuals exhibited increased activation in striatal, insular, and hypothalamic regions during exposure to favorite-food and stress cues. In obese but not lean individuals, food craving, insulin, and HOMA-IR levels correlated positively with neural activity in corticolimbic-striatal brain regions during favorite-food and stress cues. The relationship between insulin resistance and food craving in obese individuals was mediated by activity in motivation-reward regions including the striatum, insula, and thalamus. These findings demonstrate that obese, but not lean, individuals exhibit increased corticolimbic-striatal activation in response to favorite-food and stress cues and that these brain responses mediate the relationship between HOMA-IR and food craving. Improving insulin sensitivity and in turn reducing corticolimbic-striatal reactivity to food cues and stress may diminish food craving and affect eating behavior in obesity.

Associations between sleep parameters and food reward.

Science.gov (United States)

McNeil, Jessica; Cadieux, Sébastien; Finlayson, Graham; Blundell, John E; Doucet, Éric

2015-06-01

This study examined the effects of acute, isocaloric aerobic and resistance exercise on different sleep parameters, and whether changes in these sleep parameters between sessions were related to next morning food reward. Fourteen men and women (age: 21.9 ± 2.7 years; body mass index: 22.7 ± 1.9 kg m(-) ²) participated in three randomized crossover sessions: aerobic exercise; resistance exercise; and sedentary control. Target exercise energy expenditure was matched at 4 kcal kg(-1) of body weight, and performed at 70% of VO2peak or 70% of 1 repetition-maximal. Sleep was measured (accelerometry) for 22 h following each session. The 'wanting' for visual food cues (validated computer task) was assessed the next morning. There were no differences in sleep parameters and food 'wanting' between conditions. Decreases in sleep duration and earlier wake-times were significantly associated with increased food 'wanting' between sessions (P = 0.001). However, these associations were no longer significant after controlling for elapsed time between wake-time and the food reward task. These findings suggest that shorter sleep durations and earlier wake-times are associated with increased food reward, but these associations are driven by elapsed time between awakening and completion of the food reward task. © 2015 European Sleep Research Society.

Reward, Context, and Human Behaviour

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clare L. Blaukopf

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Animal models of reward processing have revealed an extensive network of brain areas that process different aspects of reward, from expectation and prediction to calculation of relative value. These results have been confirmed and extended in human neuroimaging to encompass secondary rewards more unique to humans, such as money. The majority of the extant literature covers the brain areas associated with rewards whilst neglecting analysis of the actual behaviours that these rewards generate. This review strives to redress this imbalance by illustrating the importance of looking at the behavioural outcome of rewards and the context in which they are produced. Following a brief review of the literature of reward-related activity in the brain, we examine the effect of reward context on actions. These studies reveal how the presence of reward vs. reward and punishment, or being conscious vs. unconscious of reward-related actions, differentially influence behaviour. The latter finding is of particular importance given the extent to which animal models are used in understanding the reward systems of the human mind. It is clear that further studies are needed to learn about the human reaction to reward in its entirety, including any distinctions between conscious and unconscious behaviours. We propose that studies of reward entail a measure of the animal's (human or nonhuman knowledge of the reward and knowledge of its own behavioural outcome to achieve that reward.

Acute stress-induced cortisol elevations mediate reward system activity during subconscious processing of sexual stimuli

OpenAIRE

Oei, Nicole Y. L.; Both, Stephanie; van Heemst, Diana; van der Grond, Jeroen

2014-01-01

Summary Stress is thought to alter motivational processes by increasing dopamine (DA) secretion in the brain’s ‘‘reward system’’, and its key region, the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). However, stress studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), mainly found evidence for stress-induced decreases in NAcc responsiveness toward reward cues. Results from both animal and human PETstudies indicate that the stress hormone cortisol may be crucial in the interaction between st...

Impulsivity in binge eating disorder: food cues elicit increased reward responses and disinhibition.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathrin Schag

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Binge eating disorder (BED represents a distinct eating disorder diagnosis. Current approaches assume increased impulsivity to be one factor leading to binge eating and weight gain. We used eye tracking to investigate both components of impulsivity, namely reward sensitivity and rash-spontaneous behaviour towards food in BED for the first time. METHODS: Overweight and obese people with BED (BED+; n = 25, without BED (BED-; n = 26 and healthy normal-weight controls (NWC; n = 25 performed a free exploration paradigm measuring reward sensitivity (experiment 1 and a modified antisaccade paradigm measuring disinhibited, rash-spontaneous behaviour (experiment 2 using food and nonfood stimuli. Additionally, trait impulsivity was assessed. RESULTS: In experiment 1, all participants located their initial fixations more often on food stimuli and BED+ participants gazed longer on food stimuli in comparison with BED- and NWC participants. In experiment 2, BED+ participants had more difficulties inhibiting saccades towards food and nonfood stimuli compared with both other groups in first saccades, and especially towards food stimuli in second saccades and concerning sequences of first and second saccades. BED- participants did not differ significantly from NWC participants in both experiments. Additionally, eye tracking performance was associated with self-reported reward responsiveness and self-control. CONCLUSIONS: According to these results, food-related reward sensitivity and rash-spontaneous behaviour, as the two components of impulsivity, are increased in BED in comparison with weight-matched and normal-weight controls. This indicates that BED represents a neurobehavioural phenotype of obesity that is characterised by increased impulsivity. Interventions for BED should target these special needs of affected patients.

Calpain-GRIP Signaling in Nucleus Accumbens Core Mediates the Reconsolidation of Drug Reward Memory.

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Liang, Jie; Li, Jia-Li; Han, Ying; Luo, Yi-Xiao; Xue, Yan-Xue; Zhang, Yàn; Zhang, Yán; Zhang, Li-Bo; Chen, Man-Li; Lu, Lin; Shi, Jie

2017-09-13

Exposure to drug-paired cues causes drug memories to be in a destabilized state and interfering with memory reconsolidation can inhibit relapse. Calpain, a calcium-dependent neutral cysteine protease, is involved in synaptic plasticity and the formation of long-term fear memory. However, the role of calpain in the reconsolidation of drug reward memory is still unknown. In the present study, using a conditioned place preference (CPP) model, we found that exposure to drug-paired contextual stimuli induced the activation of calpain and decreased the expression of glutamate receptor interacting protein 1 (GRIP1) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) core, but not shell, of male rats. Infusions of calpain inhibitors in the NAc core immediately after retrieval disrupted the reconsolidation of cocaine/morphine cue memory and blocked retrieval-induced calpain activation and GRIP1 degradation. The suppressive effect of calpain inhibitors on the expression of drug-induced CPP lasted for at least 14 d. The inhibition of calpain without retrieval 6 h after retrieval or after exposure to an unpaired context had no effects on the expression of reward memory. Calpain inhibition after retrieval also decreased cocaine seeking in a self-administration model and this effect did not recover spontaneously after 28 d. Moreover, the knock-down of GRIP1 expression in the NAc core by lentivirus-mediated short-hairpin RNA blocked disruption of the reconsolidation of drug cue memories that was induced by calpain inhibitor treatment. These results suggest that calpain activity in the NAc core is crucial for the reconsolidation of drug reward memory via the regulation of GRIP1 expression. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Calpain plays an important role in synaptic plasticity and long-term memory consolidation, however, its role in the reconsolidation of drug cue memory remains unknown. Using conditioned place preference and self-administration procedures, we found that exposure to drug-paired cues induced the

Cortisol, but not intranasal insulin, affects the central processing of visual food cues

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ferreira de Sá, D.S.; Schulz, A.; Streit, F.E.; Turner, J.D.; Oitzl, M.S.; Blumenthal, T.D.; Schächinger, H.

2014-01-01

Stress glucocorticoids and insulin are important endocrine regulators of energy homeostasis, but little is known about their central interaction on the reward-related processing of food cues. According to a balanced group design, healthy food deprived men received either 40IU intranasal insulin

Experimental predictions drawn from a computational model of sign-trackers and goal-trackers.

Science.gov (United States)

Lesaint, Florian; Sigaud, Olivier; Clark, Jeremy J; Flagel, Shelly B; Khamassi, Mehdi

2015-01-01

Gaining a better understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying the individual variation observed in response to rewards and reward cues could help to identify and treat individuals more prone to disorders of impulsive control, such as addiction. Variation in response to reward cues is captured in rats undergoing autoshaping experiments where the appearance of a lever precedes food delivery. Although no response is required for food to be delivered, some rats (goal-trackers) learn to approach and avidly engage the magazine until food delivery, whereas other rats (sign-trackers) come to approach and engage avidly the lever. The impulsive and often maladaptive characteristics of the latter response are reminiscent of addictive behaviour in humans. In a previous article, we developed a computational model accounting for a set of experimental data regarding sign-trackers and goal-trackers. Here we show new simulations of the model to draw experimental predictions that could help further validate or refute the model. In particular, we apply the model to new experimental protocols such as injecting flupentixol locally into the core of the nucleus accumbens rather than systemically, and lesioning of the core of the nucleus accumbens before or after conditioning. In addition, we discuss the possibility of removing the food magazine during the inter-trial interval. The predictions from this revised model will help us better understand the role of different brain regions in the behaviours expressed by sign-trackers and goal-trackers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inhibiting food reward: delay discounting, food reward sensitivity, and palatable food intake in overweight and obese women.

Science.gov (United States)

Appelhans, Bradley M; Woolf, Kathleen; Pagoto, Sherry L; Schneider, Kristin L; Whited, Matthew C; Liebman, Rebecca

2011-11-01

Overeating is believed to result when the appetitive motivation to consume palatable food exceeds an individual's capacity for inhibitory control of eating. This hypothesis was supported in recent studies involving predominantly normal weight women, but has not been tested in obese populations. The current study tested the interaction between food reward sensitivity and inhibitory control in predicting palatable food intake among energy-replete overweight and obese women (N = 62). Sensitivity to palatable food reward was measured with the Power of Food Scale. Inhibitory control was assessed with a computerized choice task that captures the tendency to discount large delayed rewards relative to smaller immediate rewards. Participants completed an eating in the absence of hunger protocol in which homeostatic energy needs were eliminated with a bland preload of plain oatmeal, followed by a bogus laboratory taste test of palatable and bland snacks. The interaction between food reward sensitivity and inhibitory control was a significant predictor of palatable food intake in regression analyses controlling for BMI and the amount of preload consumed. Probing this interaction indicated that higher food reward sensitivity predicted greater palatable food intake at low levels of inhibitory control, but was not associated with intake at high levels of inhibitory control. As expected, no associations were found in a similar regression analysis predicting intake of bland foods. Findings support a neurobehavioral model of eating behavior in which sensitivity to palatable food reward drives overeating only when accompanied by insufficient inhibitory control. Strengthening inhibitory control could enhance weight management programs.

Peripheral temperature drop in response to anticipation and consumption of a signaled palatable reward in laying hens (Gallus domesticus).

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Moe, Randi Oppermann; Stubsjøen, Solveig Marie; Bohlin, Jon; Flø, Andreas; Bakken, Morten

2012-06-25

The present study describes effects of anticipation and consumption of a palatable reward on comb surface temperature. The purpose was to investigate temperature responses as a potential physiological indicator of positive emotional states in laying hens. A rise in body temperature in response to stimuli predictive of or during exposure to unpleasant events has been interpreted as evidence of emotions in mammals and avians. However, this phenomenon has so far only been studied during anticipation of or exposure to negative events; i.e., emotions of a negative valence. Infrared thermography was used to record potential alterations in comb surface temperature to a conditioned cue signaling a reward (mealworms) and during reward delivery. On average, comb temperature dropped 1.5 °C (95% CI: +/-1.2 °C) after exposure to CS and consumption of reward (p~0.0014) when initial comb temperature was above 30 °C. Such temperature drop indicates a peripheral vasoconstriction and has clear resemblances to emotional fever as seen during negative emotional states. Thus, we propose that a drop in peripheral temperature reflects emotional arousal more than emotional valence. Substantial temperature responses due to diet-induced thermogenesis were found, further emphasizing a cautious interpretation of altered comb temperature in studies of animal welfare. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cross-modal cueing in audiovisual spatial attention

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blurton, Steven Paul; Greenlee, Mark W.; Gondan, Matthias

2015-01-01

effects have been reported for endogenous visual cues while exogenous cues seem to be mostly ineffective. In three experiments, we investigated cueing effects on the processing of audiovisual signals. In Experiment 1 we used endogenous cues to investigate their effect on the detection of auditory, visual......, and audiovisual targets presented with onset asynchrony. Consistent cueing effects were found in all target conditions. In Experiment 2 we used exogenous cues and found cueing effects only for visual target detection, but not auditory target detection. In Experiment 3 we used predictive exogenous cues to examine...

Drug versus sweet reward: greater attraction to and preference for sweet versus drug cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Madsen, Heather B; Ahmed, Serge H

2015-05-01

Despite the unique ability of addictive drugs to directly activate brain reward circuits, recent evidence suggests that drugs induce reinforcing and incentive effects that are comparable to, or even lower than some nondrug rewards. In particular, when rats have a choice between pressing a lever associated with intravenous cocaine or heroin delivery and another lever associated with sweet water delivery, most respond on the latter. This outcome suggests that sweet water is more reinforcing and attractive than either drug. However, this outcome may also be due to the differential ability of sweet versus drug levers to elicit Pavlovian feeding-like conditioned responses that can cause involuntary lever pressing, such as pawing and biting the lever. To test this hypothesis, rats first underwent Pavlovian conditioning to associate one lever with sweet water (0.2% saccharin) and a different lever with intravenous cocaine (0.25 mg) or heroin (0.01 mg). Choice between these two levers was then assessed under two operant choice procedures: one that permitted the expression of Pavlovian-conditioned lever press responses during choice, the other not. During conditioning, Pavlovian-conditioned lever press responses were considerably higher on the sweet lever than on either drug lever, and slightly greater on the heroin lever than on the cocaine lever. Importantly, though these differences in Pavlovian-conditioned behavior predicted subsequent preference for sweet water during choice, they were not required for its expression. Overall, this study confirms that rats prefer the sweet lever because sweet water is more reinforcing and attractive than cocaine or heroin. © 2014 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Long-term memory of relative reward values.

Science.gov (United States)

Soldati, Francesca; Burman, Oliver H P; John, Elizabeth A; Pike, Thomas W; Wilkinson, Anna

2017-02-01

Long-term memory can be adaptive as it allows animals to retain information that is crucial for survival, such as the appearance and location of key resources. This is generally examined by comparing choices of stimuli that have value to the animal with those that do not; however, in nature choices are rarely so clear cut. Animals are able to assess the relative value of a resource via direct comparison, but it remains unclear whether they are able to retain this information for a biologically meaningful amount of time. To test this, captive red-footed tortoises (Chelonoidis carbonaria) were first trained to associate visual cues with specific qualities and quantities of food, and their preferences for the different reward values determined. They were then retested after an interval of 18 months. We found that the tortoises were able to retain the information they had learned about the cues as indicators of relative reward values over this interval, demonstrating a memory for the relative quantity and quality of food over an extended period of time. This is likely to impact directly on an animal's foraging decisions, such as the exploitation of seasonally varying resources, with obvious fitness implications for the individual; however, the implications may also extend to the ecological interactions in which the animal is involved, affecting processes such as herbivory and seed dispersal. © 2017 The Author(s).

Phasic dopamine as a prediction error of intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcements driving both action acquisition and reward maximization: a simulated robotic study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirolli, Marco; Santucci, Vieri G; Baldassarre, Gianluca

2013-03-01

An important issue of recent neuroscientific research is to understand the functional role of the phasic release of dopamine in the striatum, and in particular its relation to reinforcement learning. The literature is split between two alternative hypotheses: one considers phasic dopamine as a reward prediction error similar to the computational TD-error, whose function is to guide an animal to maximize future rewards; the other holds that phasic dopamine is a sensory prediction error signal that lets the animal discover and acquire novel actions. In this paper we propose an original hypothesis that integrates these two contrasting positions: according to our view phasic dopamine represents a TD-like reinforcement prediction error learning signal determined by both unexpected changes in the environment (temporary, intrinsic reinforcements) and biological rewards (permanent, extrinsic reinforcements). Accordingly, dopamine plays the functional role of driving both the discovery and acquisition of novel actions and the maximization of future rewards. To validate our hypothesis we perform a series of experiments with a simulated robotic system that has to learn different skills in order to get rewards. We compare different versions of the system in which we vary the composition of the learning signal. The results show that only the system reinforced by both extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcements is able to reach high performance in sufficiently complex conditions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hemispheric Asymmetries in Striatal Reward Responses Relate to Approach-Avoidance Learning and Encoding of Positive-Negative Prediction Errors in Dopaminergic Midbrain Regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Aberg, Kristoffer Carl; Doell, Kimberly C; Schwartz, Sophie

2015-10-28

Some individuals are better at learning about rewarding situations, whereas others are inclined to avoid punishments (i.e., enhanced approach or avoidance learning, respectively). In reinforcement learning, action values are increased when outcomes are better than predicted (positive prediction errors [PEs]) and decreased for worse than predicted outcomes (negative PEs). Because actions with high and low values are approached and avoided, respectively, individual differences in the neural encoding of PEs may influence the balance between approach-avoidance learning. Recent correlational approaches also indicate that biases in approach-avoidance learning involve hemispheric asymmetries in dopamine function. However, the computational and neural mechanisms underpinning such learning biases remain unknown. Here we assessed hemispheric reward asymmetry in striatal activity in 34 human participants who performed a task involving rewards and punishments. We show that the relative difference in reward response between hemispheres relates to individual biases in approach-avoidance learning. Moreover, using a computational modeling approach, we demonstrate that better encoding of positive (vs negative) PEs in dopaminergic midbrain regions is associated with better approach (vs avoidance) learning, specifically in participants with larger reward responses in the left (vs right) ventral striatum. Thus, individual dispositions or traits may be determined by neural processes acting to constrain learning about specific aspects of the world. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3514491-10$15.00/0.

Sensitivity to Temporal Reward Structure in Amygdala Neurons

OpenAIRE

Bermudez, Maria A.; Göbel, Carl; Schultz, Wolfram

2012-01-01

Summary The time of reward and the temporal structure of reward occurrence fundamentally influence behavioral reinforcement and decision processes [1–11]. However, despite knowledge about timing in sensory and motor systems [12–17], we know little about temporal mechanisms of neuronal reward processing. In this experiment, visual stimuli predicted different instantaneous probabilities of reward occurrence that resulted in specific temporal reward structures. Licking behavior demonstrated that...

Deficit in rewarding mechanisms and prefrontal left/right cortical effect in vulnerability for internet addiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Balconi, Michela; Finocchiaro, Roberta

2016-10-01

The present research explored the cortical correlates of rewarding mechanisms and cortical 'unbalance' effect in internet addiction (IA) vulnerability. Internet Addiction Inventory (IAT) and personality trait (Behavioural Inhibition System, BIS; Behavioural Activation System, BAS) were applied to 28 subjects. Electroencephalographic (EEG, alpha frequency band) and response times (RTs) were registered during a Go-NoGo task execution in response to different online stimuli: gambling videos, videogames or neutral stimuli. Higher-IAT (more than 50 score, with moderate or severe internet addiction) and lower-IAT (internet addiction). Alpha band and RTs were affected by IAT, with significant bias (reduced RTs) for high-IAT in response to gambling videos and videogames; and by BAS, BAS-Reward subscale (BAS-R), since not only higher-IAT, but also BAS and BAS-R values determined an increasing of left prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity (alpha reduction) in response to videogames and gambling stimuli for both Go and NoGo conditions, in addition to decreased RTs for these stimuli categories. The increased PFC responsiveness and the lateralisation (left PFC hemisphere) effect in NoGo condition was explained on the basis of a 'rewarding bias' towards more rewarding cues and a deficit in inhibitory control in higher-IAT and higher-BAS subjects. In contrast lower-IAT and lower-BAS predicted a decreased PFC response and increased RTs for NoGo (inhibitory mechanism). These results may support the significance of personality (BAS) and IAT measures for explaining future internet addiction behaviour based on this observed 'vulnerability'.

Addiction: beyond dopamine reward circuitry.

Science.gov (United States)

Volkow, Nora D; Wang, Gene-Jack; Fowler, Joanna S; Tomasi, Dardo; Telang, Frank

2011-09-13

Dopamine (DA) is considered crucial for the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse, but its role in addiction is much less clear. This review focuses on studies that used PET to characterize the brain DA system in addicted subjects. These studies have corroborated in humans the relevance of drug-induced fast DA increases in striatum [including nucleus accumbens (NAc)] in their rewarding effects but have unexpectedly shown that in addicted subjects, drug-induced DA increases (as well as their subjective reinforcing effects) are markedly blunted compared with controls. In contrast, addicted subjects show significant DA increases in striatum in response to drug-conditioned cues that are associated with self-reports of drug craving and appear to be of a greater magnitude than the DA responses to the drug. We postulate that the discrepancy between the expectation for the drug effects (conditioned responses) and the blunted pharmacological effects maintains drug taking in an attempt to achieve the expected reward. Also, whether tested during early or protracted withdrawal, addicted subjects show lower levels of D2 receptors in striatum (including NAc), which are associated with decreases in baseline activity in frontal brain regions implicated in salience attribution (orbitofrontal cortex) and inhibitory control (anterior cingulate gyrus), whose disruption results in compulsivity and impulsivity. These results point to an imbalance between dopaminergic circuits that underlie reward and conditioning and those that underlie executive function (emotional control and decision making), which we postulate contributes to the compulsive drug use and loss of control in addiction.

Addiction: Beyond dopamine reward circuitry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Volkow, N.D.; Wang, G.-J.; Fowler, J.S.; Tomasi, D.; Telang, F.

2011-01-01

Dopamine (DA) is considered crucial for the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse, but its role in addiction is much less clear. This review focuses on studies that used PET to characterize the brain DA system in addicted subjects. These studies have corroborated in humans the relevance of drug-induced fast DA increases in striatum [including nucleus accumbens (NAc)] in their rewarding effects but have unexpectedly shown that in addicted subjects, drug-induced DA increases (as well as their subjective reinforcing effects) are markedly blunted compared with controls. In contrast, addicted subjects show significant DA increases in striatum in response to drug-conditioned cues that are associated with self-reports of drug craving and appear to be of a greater magnitude than the DA responses to the drug. We postulate that the discrepancy between the expectation for the drug effects (conditioned responses) and the blunted pharmacological effects maintains drug taking in an attempt to achieve the expected reward. Also, whether tested during early or protracted withdrawal, addicted subjects show lower levels of D2 receptors in striatum (including NAc), which are associated with decreases in baseline activity in frontal brain regions implicated in salience attribution (orbitofrontal cortex) and inhibitory control (anterior cingulate gyrus), whose disruption results in compulsivity and impulsivity. These results point to an imbalance between dopaminergic circuits that underlie reward and conditioning and those that underlie executive function (emotional control and decision making), which we postulate contributes to the compulsive drug use and loss of control in addiction.

Addiction: Beyond dopamine reward circuitry

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Volkow, N.D.; Wang, G.; Volkow, N.D.; Wang, G.-J.; Fowler, J.S.; Tomasi, D.; Telang, F.

2011-09-13

Dopamine (DA) is considered crucial for the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse, but its role in addiction is much less clear. This review focuses on studies that used PET to characterize the brain DA system in addicted subjects. These studies have corroborated in humans the relevance of drug-induced fast DA increases in striatum [including nucleus accumbens (NAc)] in their rewarding effects but have unexpectedly shown that in addicted subjects, drug-induced DA increases (as well as their subjective reinforcing effects) are markedly blunted compared with controls. In contrast, addicted subjects show significant DA increases in striatum in response to drug-conditioned cues that are associated with self-reports of drug craving and appear to be of a greater magnitude than the DA responses to the drug. We postulate that the discrepancy between the expectation for the drug effects (conditioned responses) and the blunted pharmacological effects maintains drug taking in an attempt to achieve the expected reward. Also, whether tested during early or protracted withdrawal, addicted subjects show lower levels of D2 receptors in striatum (including NAc), which are associated with decreases in baseline activity in frontal brain regions implicated in salience attribution (orbitofrontal cortex) and inhibitory control (anterior cingulate gyrus), whose disruption results in compulsivity and impulsivity. These results point to an imbalance between dopaminergic circuits that underlie reward and conditioning and those that underlie executive function (emotional control and decision making), which we postulate contributes to the compulsive drug use and loss of control in addiction.

Eyes are on us, but nobody cares: are eye cues relevant for strong reciprocity?

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Fehr, Ernst; Schneider, Frédéric

2010-05-07

Strong reciprocity is characterized by the willingness to altruistically reward cooperative acts and to altruistically punish norm-violating, defecting behaviours. Recent evidence suggests that subtle reputation cues, such as eyes staring at subjects during their choices, may enhance prosocial behaviour. Thus, in principle, strong reciprocity could also be affected by eye cues. We investigate the impact of eye cues on trustees' altruistic behaviour in a trust game and find zero effect. Neither the subjects who are classified as prosocial nor the subjects who are classified as selfish respond to these cues. In sharp contrast to the irrelevance of subtle reputation cues for strong reciprocity, we find a large effect of explicit, pecuniary reputation incentives on the trustees' prosociality. Trustees who can acquire a good reputation that benefits them in future interactions honour trust much more than trustees who cannot build a good reputation. These results cast doubt on hypotheses suggesting that strong reciprocity is easily malleable by implicit reputation cues not backed by explicit reputation incentives.

Compensatory effects of pointing and predictive cueing on age-related declines in visuospatial working memory.

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Ouwehand, Kim; van Gog, Tamara; Paas, Fred

2016-08-01

In this study, we investigated whether the visuospatial working memory performance of young and older adults would improve if they used a multimodal as compared with a unimodal encoding strategy, and whether or not visual cues would add to this effect. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with trials consisting of an array of squares and an array of circles. They were instructed to point at one type of figure (multimodal encoding strategy) and only to observe the other (unimodal encoding strategy). After each trial, an immediate location recognition test of one of the two arrays followed. In Experiment 2, the same task was used, but a cue was provided, either before or after the encoding phase, indicating which of the two arrays would be tested. Our results showed that a multimodal, as compared with a unimodal, encoding strategy improved visuospatial working memory performance in both young and older adults (Exp. 1), and that adding visual cues to the multimodal but not to the unimodal encoding strategy improved older adults' performance up to the level of young adults (Exp. 2). In both age groups, cueing after encoding led to higher performance in the multimodal than in the unimodal condition when the second array was tested. However, cueing before encoding led to higher performance in the multimodal than in the unimodal condition when the first array of the figure sequence was tested. These results suggest that pointing together with predictive cueing can have beneficial effects on visuospatial working memory, which is especially important for older adults.

Action experience changes attention to kinematic cues

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Courtney eFilippi

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The current study used remote corneal reflection eye-tracking to examine the relationship between motor experience and action anticipation in 13-month-old infants. To measure online anticipation of actions infants watched videos where the actor’s hand provided kinematic information (in its orientation about the type of object that the actor was going to reach for. The actor’s hand orientation either matched the orientation of a rod (congruent cue or did not match the orientation of the rod (incongruent cue. To examine relations between motor experience and action anticipation, we used a 2 (reach first vs. observe first x 2 (congruent kinematic cue vs. incongruent kinematic cue between-subjects design. We show that 13-month-old infants in the observe first condition spontaneously generate rapid online visual predictions to congruent hand orientation cues and do not visually anticipate when presented incongruent cues. We further demonstrate that the speed that these infants generate predictions to congruent motor cues is correlated with their own ability to pre-shape their hands. Finally, we demonstrate that following reaching experience, infants generate rapid predictions to both congruent and incongruent hand shape cues—suggesting that short-term experience changes attention to kinematics.

Neural prediction errors reveal a risk-sensitive reinforcement-learning process in the human brain.

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Niv, Yael; Edlund, Jeffrey A; Dayan, Peter; O'Doherty, John P

2012-01-11

Humans and animals are exquisitely, though idiosyncratically, sensitive to risk or variance in the outcomes of their actions. Economic, psychological, and neural aspects of this are well studied when information about risk is provided explicitly. However, we must normally learn about outcomes from experience, through trial and error. Traditional models of such reinforcement learning focus on learning about the mean reward value of cues and ignore higher order moments such as variance. We used fMRI to test whether the neural correlates of human reinforcement learning are sensitive to experienced risk. Our analysis focused on anatomically delineated regions of a priori interest in the nucleus accumbens, where blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals have been suggested as correlating with quantities derived from reinforcement learning. We first provide unbiased evidence that the raw BOLD signal in these regions corresponds closely to a reward prediction error. We then derive from this signal the learned values of cues that predict rewards of equal mean but different variance and show that these values are indeed modulated by experienced risk. Moreover, a close neurometric-psychometric coupling exists between the fluctuations of the experience-based evaluations of risky options that we measured neurally and the fluctuations in behavioral risk aversion. This suggests that risk sensitivity is integral to human learning, illuminating economic models of choice, neuroscientific models of affective learning, and the workings of the underlying neural mechanisms.

The Sensory Features of a Food Cue Influence Its Ability to Act as an Incentive Stimulus and Evoke Dopamine Release in the Nucleus Accumbens Core

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Singer, Bryan F.; Bryan, Myranda A.; Popov, Pavlo; Scarff, Raymond; Carter, Cody; Wright, Erin; Aragona, Brandon J.; Robinson, Terry E.

2016-01-01

The sensory properties of a reward-paired cue (a conditioned stimulus; CS) may impact the motivational value attributed to the cue, and in turn influence the form of the conditioned response (CR) that develops. A cue with multiple sensory qualities, such as a moving lever-CS, may activate numerous neural pathways that process auditory and visual…

Social reward shapes attentional biases.

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Anderson, Brian A

2016-01-01

Paying attention to stimuli that predict a reward outcome is important for an organism to survive and thrive. When visual stimuli are associated with tangible, extrinsic rewards such as money or food, these stimuli acquire high attentional priority and come to automatically capture attention. In humans and other primates, however, many behaviors are not motivated directly by such extrinsic rewards, but rather by the social feedback that results from performing those behaviors. In the present study, I examine whether positive social feedback can similarly influence attentional bias. The results show that stimuli previously associated with a high probability of positive social feedback elicit value-driven attentional capture, much like stimuli associated with extrinsic rewards. Unlike with extrinsic rewards, however, such stimuli also influence task-specific motivation. My findings offer a potential mechanism by which social reward shapes the information that we prioritize when perceiving the world around us.

Cocaine-conditioned odor cues without chronic exposure: Implications for the development of addiction vulnerability

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Lowen, Steven B.; Rohan, Michael L.; Gillis, Timothy E.; Thompson, Britta S.; Wellons, Clara B.W.; Andersen, Susan L.

2015-01-01

Adolescents are highly vulnerable to addiction and are four times more likely to become addicted at first exposure than at any other age. The dopamine D1 receptor, which is typically overexpressed in the normal adolescent prefrontal cortex, is involved in drug cue responses and is associated with relapse in animal models. In human drug addicts, imaging methods have detected increased activation in response to drug cues in reward- and habit-associated brain regions. These same methods can be a...

Own Attractiveness and Dissatisfaction With Physical Appearance Independently Predict the Salience of Facial Cues to Size When Women Judge Other Women's Attractiveness.

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Watkins, Christopher D

2017-11-01

While facial cues to body size are a valid guide to health and attractiveness, it is unclear whether the observer's own condition predicts the salience of (low) size as a cue to female attractiveness. The current study examines whether measures related to women's own attractiveness/appearance predict the extent to which they use facial cues to size to differentiate other women on the attractiveness dimension. Women completed a body mass index (BMI) preference task, where they indicated their preference for high- versus low-BMI versions of the same woman, provided data to calculate their BMI and completed various psychometric measures (self-rated attractiveness/health, dissatisfaction with physical appearance). Here, attractive women and women who were dissatisfied with their own appearance were more likely to associate facial cues to low body size with high attractiveness. These data suggest that psychological factors related to women's appearance shape their evaluations of other women based on cues to size. Such variation in attractiveness judgements may function to reduce the costs of female competition for resources, for example, by identifying "quality" rivals or excluding others based on cues to size.

Floral humidity as a reliable sensory cue for profitability assessment by nectar-foraging hawkmoths.

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von Arx, Martin; Goyret, Joaquín; Davidowitz, Goggy; Raguso, Robert A

2012-06-12

Most research on plant-pollinator communication has focused on sensory and behavioral responses to relatively static cues. Floral rewards such as nectar, however, are dynamic, and foraging animals will increase their energetic profit if they can make use of floral cues that more accurately indicate nectar availability. Here we document such a cue--transient humidity gradients--using the night blooming flowers of Oenothera cespitosa (Onagraceae). The headspace of newly opened flowers reaches levels of about 4% above ambient relative humidity due to additive evapotranspirational water loss through petals and water-saturated air from the nectar tube. Floral humidity plumes differ from ambient levels only during the first 30 min after anthesis (before nectar is depleted in wild populations), whereas other floral traits (scent, shape, and color) persist for 12-24 h. Manipulative experiments indicated that floral humidity gradients are mechanistically linked to nectar volume and therefore contain information about energy rewards to floral visitors. Behavioral assays with Hyles lineata (Sphingidae) and artificial flowers with appropriate humidity gradients suggest that these hawkmoth pollinators distinguish between subtle differences in relative humidity when other floral cues are held constant. Moths consistently approached and probed flowers with elevated humidity over those with ambient humidity levels. Because floral humidity gradients are largely produced by the evaporation of nectar itself, they represent condition-informative cues that facilitate remote sensing of floral profitability by discriminating foragers. In a xeric environment, this level of honest communication should be adaptive when plant reproductive success is pollinator limited, due to intense competition for the attention of a specialized pollinator.

NMDA receptor glycine modulatory site in the ventral tegmental area regulates the acquisition, retrieval, and reconsolidation of cocaine reward memory.

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Zhou, Shuang-jiang; Xue, Li-fen; Wang, Xue-yi; Jiang, Wen-gao; Xue, Yan-xue; Liu, Jian-feng; He, Yin-yin; Luo, Yi-xiao; Lu, Lin

2012-05-01

Accumulating clinical and preclinical studies have shown that the memories of the rewarding effects of drugs and their paired cues may contribute to relapse and persistent cocaine use. Glutaminergic actions in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) have been shown to regulate the rewarding effect of drugs and conditioned responses to drug-associated cues, but the role of the VTA in the acquisition, retrieval, and reconsolidation of cocaine cues is not yet known. In the present study, we used 7-chlorothiokynurenic acid (7-CTKA), an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor glycine modulatory site antagonist with no rewarding effects, to examine the role of the NMDA receptor glycine modulatory site in the acquisition, retrieval, and reconsolidation of cocaine-related reward memory using the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. Separate groups of Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to acquire cocaine-induced CPP. Vehicle or 7-CTKA was microinjected into the VTA or substantia nigra (SN) (5 μg/μl) at different time points: 10 min before each CPP training session (acquisition), 10 min before the reactivation of CPP (retrieval), and immediately after the reactivation of CPP (reconsolidation). Cocaine-induced CPP was retested 24 h and 1 and 2 weeks after 7-CTKA administration. 7-CTKA microinjected into the VTA, but not SN, significantly impaired the acquisition, retrieval, and reconsolidation of cocaine-induced CPP without affecting cocaine-induced locomotion. Our findings suggest that the NMDA receptor glycine modulatory site in the VTA plays a major role in cocaine reward memory, and NMDA receptor glycine site antagonists may be potential pharmacotherapies for the management of relapse.

Reward-based spatial learning in unmedicated adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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Marsh, Rachel; Tau, Gregory Z; Wang, Zhishun; Huo, Yuankai; Liu, Ge; Hao, Xuejun; Packard, Mark G; Peterson, Bradley S; Simpson, H Blair

2015-04-01

The authors assessed the functioning of mesolimbic and striatal areas involved in reward-based spatial learning in unmedicated adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Functional MRI blood-oxygen-level-dependent response was compared in 33 unmedicated adults with OCD and 33 healthy, age-matched comparison subjects during a reward-based learning task that required learning to use extramaze cues to navigate a virtual eight-arm radial maze to find hidden rewards. The groups were compared in their patterns of brain activation associated with reward-based spatial learning versus a control condition in which rewards were unexpected because they were allotted pseudorandomly to experimentally prevent learning. Both groups learned to navigate the maze to find hidden rewards, but group differences in neural activity during navigation and reward processing were detected in mesolimbic and striatal areas. During navigation, the OCD group, unlike the healthy comparison group, exhibited activation in the left posterior hippocampus. Unlike healthy subjects, participants in the OCD group did not show activation in the left ventral putamen and amygdala when anticipating rewards or in the left hippocampus, amygdala, and ventral putamen when receiving unexpected rewards (control condition). Signal in these regions decreased relative to baseline during unexpected reward receipt among those in the OCD group, and the degree of activation was inversely associated with doubt/checking symptoms. Participants in the OCD group displayed abnormal recruitment of mesolimbic and ventral striatal circuitry during reward-based spatial learning. Whereas healthy comparison subjects exhibited activation in this circuitry in response to the violation of reward expectations, unmedicated OCD participants did not and instead over-relied on the posterior hippocampus during learning. Thus, dopaminergic innervation of reward circuitry may be altered, and future study of anterior/posterior hippocampal

Behavioral and Neural Manifestations of Reward Memory in Carriers of Low-Expressing versus High-Expressing Genetic Variants of the Dopamine D2 Receptor

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Richter, Anni; Barman, Adriana; Wüstenberg, Torsten; Soch, Joram; Schanze, Denny; Deibele, Anna; Behnisch, Gusalija; Assmann, Anne; Klein, Marieke; Zenker, Martin; Seidenbecher, Constanze; Schott, Björn H.

2017-01-01

Dopamine is critically important in the neural manifestation of motivated behavior, and alterations in the human dopaminergic system have been implicated in the etiology of motivation-related psychiatric disorders, most prominently addiction. Patients with chronic addiction exhibit reduced dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) availability in the striatum, and the DRD2 TaqIA (rs1800497) and C957T (rs6277) genetic polymorphisms have previously been linked to individual differences in striatal dopamine metabolism and clinical risk for alcohol and nicotine dependence. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that the variants of these polymorphisms would show increased reward-related memory formation, which has previously been shown to jointly engage the mesolimbic dopaminergic system and the hippocampus, as a potential intermediate phenotype for addiction memory. To this end, we performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 62 young, healthy individuals genotyped for DRD2 TaqIA and C957T variants. Participants performed an incentive delay task, followed by a recognition memory task 24 h later. We observed effects of both genotypes on the overall recognition performance with carriers of low-expressing variants, namely TaqIA A1 carriers and C957T C homozygotes, showing better performance than the other genotype groups. In addition to the better memory performance, C957T C homozygotes also exhibited a response bias for cues predicting monetary reward. At the neural level, the C957T polymorphism was associated with a genotype-related modulation of right hippocampal and striatal fMRI responses predictive of subsequent recognition confidence for reward-predicting items. Our results indicate that genetic variations associated with DRD2 expression affect explicit memory, specifically for rewarded stimuli. We suggest that the relatively better memory for rewarded stimuli in carriers of low-expressing DRD2 variants may reflect an intermediate phenotype of addiction memory. PMID

Behavioral and Neural Manifestations of Reward Memory in Carriers of Low-Expressing versus High-Expressing Genetic Variants of the Dopamine D2 Receptor

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Anni Richter

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Dopamine is critically important in the neural manifestation of motivated behavior, and alterations in the human dopaminergic system have been implicated in the etiology of motivation-related psychiatric disorders, most prominently addiction. Patients with chronic addiction exhibit reduced dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2 availability in the striatum, and the DRD2 TaqIA (rs1800497 and C957T (rs6277 genetic polymorphisms have previously been linked to individual differences in striatal dopamine metabolism and clinical risk for alcohol and nicotine dependence. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that the variants of these polymorphisms would show increased reward-related memory formation, which has previously been shown to jointly engage the mesolimbic dopaminergic system and the hippocampus, as a potential intermediate phenotype for addiction memory. To this end, we performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI in 62 young, healthy individuals genotyped for DRD2 TaqIA and C957T variants. Participants performed an incentive delay task, followed by a recognition memory task 24 h later. We observed effects of both genotypes on the overall recognition performance with carriers of low-expressing variants, namely TaqIA A1 carriers and C957T C homozygotes, showing better performance than the other genotype groups. In addition to the better memory performance, C957T C homozygotes also exhibited a response bias for cues predicting monetary reward. At the neural level, the C957T polymorphism was associated with a genotype-related modulation of right hippocampal and striatal fMRI responses predictive of subsequent recognition confidence for reward-predicting items. Our results indicate that genetic variations associated with DRD2 expression affect explicit memory, specifically for rewarded stimuli. We suggest that the relatively better memory for rewarded stimuli in carriers of low-expressing DRD2 variants may reflect an intermediate phenotype of

Associations Between Neural Reward Processing and Binge Eating Among Adolescent Girls.

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Bodell, Lindsay P; Wildes, Jennifer E; Goldschmidt, Andrea B; Lepage, Rachel; Keenan, Kate E; Guyer, Amanda E; Hipwell, Alison E; Stepp, Stephanie D; Forbes, Erika E

2018-01-01

Neuroimaging studies suggest that altered brain responses to food-related cues in reward-sensitive regions characterize individuals who experience binge-eating episodes. However, the absence of longitudinal data limits the understanding of whether reward-system alterations increase vulnerability to binge eating, as theorized in models of the development of this behavior. Adolescent girls (N = 122) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging monetary reward task at age 16 years as part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Self-report of binge eating was assessed using the Eating Attitudes Test at ages 16 and 18 years. Regression analyses examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent response to anticipating and winning monetary rewards and the severity of binge eating while controlling for age 16 depressive symptoms and socioeconomic status. Greater ventromedial prefrontal cortex and caudate responses to winning money were correlated with greater severity of binge eating concurrently but not prospectively. This study is the first to examine longitudinal associations between reward responding and binge eating in community-based, mostly low-socioeconomic status adolescent girls. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex response to reward outcome-possibly reflecting an enhanced subjective reward value-appears to be a state marker of binge-eating severity rather than a predictor of future severity. Copyright © 2017 The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Personality correlates of individual differences in the recruitment of cognitive mechanisms when rewards are at stake.

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Heritage, Allan J; Long, Laura J; Woodman, Geoffrey F; Zald, David H

2018-02-01

Individuals differ greatly in their sensitivity to rewards and punishments. In the extreme, these differences are implicated in a range of psychiatric disorders from addiction to depression. However, it is unclear how these differences influence the recruitment of attention, working memory, and long-term memory when responding to potential rewards. Here, we used a rewarded memory-guided visual search task and ERPs to examine the influence of individual differences in self-reported reward/punishment sensitivity, as measured by the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)/Behavioral Activation System (BAS) scales, on the recruitment of cognitive mechanisms in conditions of potential reward. Select subscales of the BAS, including the fun seeking and reward responsiveness scales, showed unique relationships with context updating to reward cues and working memory maintenance of potentially rewarded stimuli. In contrast, BIS scores showed unique relationships with deployment of attention at different points in the task. These results suggest that sensitivity to rewards (i.e., BAS) and to punishment (i.e., BIS) may play an important role in the recruitment of specific and distinct cognitive mechanisms in conditions of potential rewards. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The Responses of Young Domestic Horses to Human-Given Cues

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Proops, Leanne; Rayner, Jenny; Taylor, Anna M.; McComb, Karen

2013-01-01

It has been suggested that the process of domestication, at least in some species, has led to an innate predisposition to be skilled at reading human communicative and attentional cues. Adult domestic horses (Equus caballus) are highly sensitive to subtle bodily cues when determining if a person is attending to them but they are less adept at using human communicative cues in object choice tasks. Here we provide the first study into the ontogeny of such skills in order to gain insights into the mechanisms underlying these abilities. Compared with adult horses, youngsters under the age of three could use body orientation but not more subtle cues such as head movement and open/closed eyes to correctly choose an attentive person to approach for food. Across two object choice experiments, the performance of young horses was comparable to that of adult horses – subjects were able to correctly choose a rewarded bucket using marker placement, pointing and touching cues but could not use body orientation, gaze, elbow pointing or tapping cues. Taken together these results do not support the theory that horses possess an innate predisposition to be particularly skilled at using human cues. Horses' ability to determine whether humans are attending to them using subtle body cues appears to require significant experience to fully develop and their perhaps less remarkable use of limited cues in object choice tasks, although present at a much earlier age, is likely to reflect a more general learning ability related to stimulus enhancement rather than a specific ‘human-reading’ skill. PMID:23840572

Effects of prior amphetamine exposure on approach strategy in appetitive Pavlovian conditioning in rats.

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Simon, Nicholas W; Mendez, Ian A; Setlow, Barry

2009-03-01

Pavlovian conditioning with a discrete reward-predictive visual cue can elicit two classes of behaviors: "sign-tracking" (approach toward and contact with the cue) and "goal-tracking" (approach toward the site of reward delivery). Sign-tracking has been proposed to be linked to behavioral disorders involving compulsive reward-seeking, such as addiction. Prior exposure to psychostimulant drugs of abuse can facilitate reward-seeking behaviors through enhancements in incentive salience attribution. Thus, it was predicted that a sensitizing regimen of amphetamine exposure would increase sign-tracking behavior. The purpose of these experiments was to determine how a regimen of exposure to amphetamine affects subsequent sign-tracking behavior. Male Long-Evans rats were given daily injections of d-amphetamine (2.0 mg/kg) or saline for 5 days, then given a 7-day drug-free period followed by testing in a Pavlovian conditioning task. In experiment 1, rats were presented with a visual cue (simultaneous illumination of a light and extension of a lever) located either to the left or right of a centrally located food trough. One cue (CS+) was always followed by food delivery, whereas the other (CS-) was not. In experiment 2, rats were tested in a nondiscriminative (CS+ only) version of the task. In both experiments, amphetamine-exposed rats showed less sign-tracking and more goal-tracking compared to saline controls. Contrary to predictions, prior amphetamine exposure decreased sign-tracking and increased goal-tracking behavior. However, these results do support the hypothesis that psychostimulant exposure and incentive sensitization enhance behavior directed toward reward-proximal cues at the expense of reward-distal cues.

Obese individuals with more components of the metabolic syndrome and/or prediabetes demonstrate decreased activation of reward-related brain centers in response to food cues in both the fed and fasting states: a preliminary fMRI study.

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Farr, O M; Mantzoros, C S

2017-03-01

It remains unknown whether obese individuals with more components of the metabolic syndrome and/or prediabetes demonstrate altered activation of brain centers in response to food cues. We examined obese individuals with prediabetes (n=26) vs obese individuals without prediabetes (n=11) using fMRI. We also performed regression analyses on the basis of the number of MetS components per subject. Obese individuals with prediabetes have decreased activation of the reward-related putamen in the fasting state and decreased activation of the salience- and reward-related insula after eating. Obese individuals with more components of MetS demonstrate decreased activation of the putamen while fasting. All these activations remain significant when corrected for BMI, waist circumference (WC), HbA1c and gender. Decreased activation in the reward-related central nervous system areas among the obese is more pronounced in subjects with prediabetes and MetS. Prospective studies are needed to quantify their contributions to the development of prediabetes/MetS and to study whether they may predispose to the exacerbation of obesity and the development of comorbidities over time.

Interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing.

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Rosenbaum, Gail M; Jiang, Yuhong V

2013-07-01

Contextual cueing refers to the cueing of spatial attention by repeated spatial context. Previous studies have demonstrated distinctive properties of contextual cueing by background scenes and by an array of search items. Whereas scene-based contextual cueing reflects explicit learning of the scene-target association, array-based contextual cueing is supported primarily by implicit learning. In this study, we investigated the interaction between scene-based and array-based contextual cueing. Participants searched for a target that was predicted by both the background scene and the locations of distractor items. We tested three possible patterns of interaction: (1) The scene and the array could be learned independently, in which case cueing should be expressed even when only one cue was preserved; (2) the scene and array could be learned jointly, in which case cueing should occur only when both cues were preserved; (3) overshadowing might occur, in which case learning of the stronger cue should preclude learning of the weaker cue. In several experiments, we manipulated the nature of the contextual cues present during training and testing. We also tested explicit awareness of scenes, scene-target associations, and arrays. The results supported the overshadowing account: Specifically, scene-based contextual cueing precluded array-based contextual cueing when both were predictive of the location of a search target. We suggest that explicit, endogenous cues dominate over implicit cues in guiding spatial attention.