Distinct Reward Properties are Encoded via Corticostriatal Interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, David V; Rigney, Anastasia E; Delgado, Mauricio R

2016-02-02

The striatum serves as a critical brain region for reward processing. Yet, understanding the link between striatum and reward presents a challenge because rewards are composed of multiple properties. Notably, affective properties modulate emotion while informative properties help obtain future rewards. We approached this problem by emphasizing affective and informative reward properties within two independent guessing games. We found that both reward properties evoked activation within the nucleus accumbens, a subregion of the striatum. Striatal responses to informative, but not affective, reward properties predicted subsequent utilization of information for obtaining monetary reward. We hypothesized that activation of the striatum may be necessary but not sufficient to encode distinct reward properties. To investigate this possibility, we examined whether affective and informative reward properties were differentially encoded in corticostriatal interactions. Strikingly, we found that the striatum exhibited dissociable connectivity patterns with the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, with increasing connectivity for affective reward properties and decreasing connectivity for informative reward properties. Our results demonstrate that affective and informative reward properties are encoded via corticostriatal interactions. These findings highlight how corticostriatal systems contribute to reward processing, potentially advancing models linking striatal activation to behavior.

The effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boitomelo Makhuzeni

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Orientation: South African schools are facing significant challenges to retain a talented pool of school teachers. A total rewards strategy could assist schools to reduce teacher turnover. Research purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a total rewards strategy on the turnover intentions of school teachers in the North-West province. Motivation: The under supply of quality teachers has negative consequences for both school pupils and the larger community. Research approach, design and method: A qualitative research approach was followed using semi-structured interviews to gather data from teachers in the North-West province (N = 6. Main findings: The findings showed that performance management, career development and compensations of teachers were poorly applied in schools. Teachers strongly considered leaving the teaching profession as a result of poor rewards. The participants were fairly satisfied with their work benefits and work-life balance. Practical/managerial implications: School management should implement reward practices and policies that will attract and enhance retention of school teachers. Contribution: This research highlighted the problematic areas in the reward systems for school teachers and the subsequent impact thereof on their turnover intentions.

The relationship between personality types and reward preferences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Nienaber

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Research has shown that total rewards models structured according to individual preferences, positively influence efforts to attract, retain and motivate key employees. Yet, this is seldom done. Structuring total rewards models according to the preferences of employee segments is a viable alternative to accommodate individual preferences. Research purpose: The primary aim of the study was to determine the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. The secondary aim was to determine the reward preferences for different demographic groups. Motivation for the study: An enhanced understanding of reward preferences for different employee segments will enable employers to offer more competitive reward options to their employees. This may, in turn, have a positive impact on retention. Research design, approach and method: Two measuring instruments, the MBTI® Form GRV and the Rewards Preferences Questionnaire, were distributed electronically to 5 000 potential respondents. The results from 589 sets of questionnaires were used in the data analyses. Primary and secondary factor analyses were done on the items in the Rewards Preferences Questionnaire. Main findings/results: The study confirmed that individuals with certain personality types and personality preferences, have different preferences for certain reward categories. There was a stronger relationship between reward preferences and personality preferences than for reward preferences and personality types. Preferences for reward categories by different demographic groups were confirmed. The significant difference in reward preferences between Black and White respondents in particular was noteworthy, with Black respondents indicating significantly higher mean scores for all reward categories than White respondents. Finally, a total rewards framework influenced by the most prominent preferences for reward categories, was designed. Practical/Managerial implications

Exploiting risk-reward structures in decision making under uncertainty.

Science.gov (United States)

Leuker, Christina; Pachur, Thorsten; Hertwig, Ralph; Pleskac, Timothy J

2018-06-01

People often have to make decisions under uncertainty-that is, in situations where the probabilities of obtaining a payoff are unknown or at least difficult to ascertain. One solution to this problem is to infer the probability from the magnitude of the potential payoff and thus exploit the inverse relationship between payoffs and probabilities that occurs in many domains in the environment. Here, we investigated how the mind may implement such a solution: (1) Do people learn about risk-reward relationships from the environment-and if so, how? (2) How do learned risk-reward relationships impact preferences in decision-making under uncertainty? Across three experiments (N = 352), we found that participants can learn risk-reward relationships from being exposed to choice environments with a negative, positive, or uncorrelated risk-reward relationship. They were able to learn the associations both from gambles with explicitly stated payoffs and probabilities (Experiments 1 & 2) and from gambles about epistemic events (Experiment 3). In subsequent decisions under uncertainty, participants often exploited the learned association by inferring probabilities from the magnitudes of the payoffs. This inference systematically influenced their preferences under uncertainty: Participants who had been exposed to a negative risk-reward relationship tended to prefer the uncertain option over a smaller sure option for low payoffs, but not for high payoffs. This pattern reversed in the positive condition and disappeared in the uncorrelated condition. This adaptive change in preferences is consistent with the use of the risk-reward heuristic. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

WWC Review of the Article "Culture and the Interaction of Student Ethnicity with Reward Structure in Group Learning"

Science.gov (United States)

What Works Clearinghouse, 2010

2010-01-01

"Culture and the Interaction of Student Ethnicity with Reward Structure in Group Learning" examined the effects of different reward systems used in group learning situations on the math skills of African-American and white students. The study analyzed data on 75 African-American and 57 white fourth- and fifth-grade students from urban…

Taste Reward Circuitry Related Brain Structures Characterize Ill and Recovered Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, Guido K.; Shott, Megan E.; Hagman, Jennifer O.; Mittal, Vijay A.

2013-01-01

Objective The pathophysiology of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa remains obscure, but structural brain alterations could be functionally important biomarkers. Here we assessed taste pleasantness and reward sensitivity in relation to brain structure, which might be related to food avoidance commonly seen in eating disorders. Method We used structural magnetic resonance brain imaging to study gray and white matter volumes in individuals with restricting type currently ill (n = 19) or recovered-anorexia nervosa (n = 24), bulimia nervosa (n= 19) and healthy control women (n=24). Results All eating disorder groups showed increased gray matter volume of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (gyrus rectus). Manually tracing confirmed larger gyrus rectus volume, and predicted taste pleasantness across all groups. The analyses also indicated other morphological differences between diagnostic categories: Ill and recovered-anorexia nervosa had increased right, while bulimia nervosa had increased left antero-ventral insula gray matter volumes compared to controls. Furthermore, dorsal striatum volumes were reduced in recovered-anorexia and bulimia nervosa, and predicted sensitivity to reward in the eating disorder groups. The eating disorder groups also showed reduced white matter in right temporal and parietal areas when compared to healthy controls. Notably, the results held when controlling for a range of covariates (e.g., age, depression, anxiety, medications). Conclusion Brain structure in medial orbitofrontal cortex, insula and striatum is altered in eating disorders and suggests altered brain circuitry that has been associated with taste pleasantness and reward value. PMID:23680873

Total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce in a financial institution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Bussin

2014-11-01

Research purpose: This study investigated whether perceptions of reward strategy differed across generations in a large financial institution in South Africa. This context was specifically chosen due to the significant competition to attract and retain staff that exists in the financial sector. To contribute to the practical challenges of reward implementation, the study investigated whether specific reward preferences associated with generation exist, and whether offering rewards based on these preferences would successfully attract and retain staff. Motivation for study: South African businesses are competing for skilled staff and rely heavily on a total reward strategy to compensate all generations of employees. Given the financial incentives to retain and attract the most effective staff, it is essential that reward strategies meet their objectives. All factors impacting the efficacy of reward strategies should be considered, including the impact of generational differences in preference. This is of relevance not only to the financial industry, but to all companies that employ staff across a variety of generations. Research design, approach and method: A quantitative survey design was used. A total of 6316 employees from a financial firm completed a survey investigating their experiences and perceptions of reward strategies. Statistically significant differences across different generations and reward preferences were considered. Main findings: Significant differences in reward preferences were found across generational cohorts. This supports international literature. Practical/managerial implications: The results indicate that there is an opportunity for businesses and managers to link components of the total reward strategy to specific generations in the workforce by offering a wider variety of reward options to employees. Employee perceptions indicate a willingness to have reward strategies tailored to their needs and to have a greater say in their reward

Reward Circuitry in Addiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Sarah; Robison, A J; Mazei-Robison, Michelle S

2017-07-01

Understanding the brain circuitry that underlies reward is critical to improve treatment for many common health issues, including obesity, depression, and addiction. Here we focus on insights into the organization and function of reward circuitry and its synaptic and structural adaptations in response to cocaine exposure. While the importance of certain circuits, such as the mesocorticolimbic dopamine pathway, are well established in drug reward, recent studies using genetics-based tools have revealed functional changes throughout the reward circuitry that contribute to different facets of addiction, such as relapse and craving. The ability to observe and manipulate neuronal activity within specific cell types and circuits has led to new insight into not only the basic connections between brain regions, but also the molecular changes within these specific microcircuits, such as neurotrophic factor and GTPase signaling or α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor function, that underlie synaptic and structural plasticity evoked by drugs of abuse. Excitingly, these insights from preclinical rodent work are now being translated into the clinic, where transcranial magnetic simulation and deep brain stimulation therapies are being piloted in human cocaine dependence. Thus, this review seeks to summarize current understanding of the major brain regions implicated in drug-related behaviors and the molecular mechanisms that contribute to altered connectivity between these regions, with the postulation that increased knowledge of the plasticity within the drug reward circuit will lead to new and improved treatments for addiction.

Pain without gain? Reviewing the risks and rewards of investing in Russian coal-fired electricity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorbacheva, Natalya V.; Sovacool, Benjamin K.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • This study explores the risks and rewards facing coal in Russia. • Rewards include low costs, investment, rural modernization, exports, and innovation. • Risks include development challenges, air pollution and climate change, and policy support. - Abstract: Coal use—and thus investment—is expected to grow considerably in the Russian Federation over the next few decades. Projections suggest that at least $200 billion of investment will be needed to modernize existing coal-fired power plants by 2030, but the bulk of this financing is to come from the private sector or foreign enterprises. This study asks: what are the possible investment risks and rewards of pursuing this expansion of coal in the Russian power sector? To provide an answer, the study uses a mixed methods approach consisting of elite semi-structured interviews and a review of English and Russian peer-reviewed literature. The study provides a brief overview of the Russian electricity sector before discussing five distinct rewards to investing in coal such as low production costs, competitive returns on investment, rural modernization, expansion of exports, and the acceleration of innovation. These benefits however are offset by five risks: inferior performance to investments in oil and gas, development challenges, air pollution and climate change, social degradation from mining, and a tradeoff with existing policies incentivizing renewable energy and energy efficiency. The study concludes by analyzing what these disparate risks and rewards mean for policymakers and energy analysts

Girls’ challenging social experiences in early adolescence predict neural response to rewards and depressive symptoms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melynda D. Casement

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Developmental models of psychopathology posit that exposure to social stressors may confer risk for depression in adolescent girls by disrupting neural reward circuitry. The current study tested this hypothesis by examining the relationship between early adolescent social stressors and later neural reward processing and depressive symptoms. Participants were 120 girls from an ongoing longitudinal study of precursors to depression across adolescent development. Low parental warmth, peer victimization, and depressive symptoms were assessed when the girls were 11 and 12 years old, and participants completed a monetary reward guessing fMRI task and assessment of depressive symptoms at age 16. Results indicate that low parental warmth was associated with increased response to potential rewards in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC, striatum, and amygdala, whereas peer victimization was associated with decreased response to potential rewards in the mPFC. Furthermore, concurrent depressive symptoms were associated with increased reward anticipation response in mPFC and striatal regions that were also associated with early adolescent psychosocial stressors, with mPFC and striatal response mediating the association between social stressors and depressive symptoms. These findings are consistent with developmental models that emphasize the adverse impact of early psychosocial stressors on neural reward processing and risk for depression in adolescence.

Challenges at work and financial rewards to stimulate longer workforce participation.

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Proper, Karin I; Deeg, Dorly J H; van der Beek, Allard J

2009-08-11

Because of the demographic changes, appropriate measures are needed to prevent early exit from work and to encourage workers to prolong their working life. To date, few studies have been performed on the factors motivating continuing to work after the official age of retirement. In addition, most of those studies were based on quantitative data. The aims of this study were to examine, using both quantitative and qualitative data: (1) the reasons for voluntary early retirement; (2) the reasons for continuing working life after the official retirement age; and (3) the predictive value of the reasons mentioned. Quantitative data analyses were performed with a prospective cohort among persons aged 55 years and older. Moreover, qualitative data were derived from interviews with workers together with discussions from a workshop among occupational physicians and employers. Results showed that the presence of challenging work was among the most important reasons for not taking early retirement. In addition, this motive appeared to positively predict working status after three years. The financial advantages of working and the maintenance of social contacts were the reasons reported most frequently for not taking full retirement, with the financial aspect being a reasonably good predictor for working status after three years. From the interviews and the workshop, five themes were identified as important motives to prolong working life: challenges at work, social contacts, reward and appreciation, health, and competencies and skills. Further, it was brought forward that each stakeholder can and should contribute to the maintenance of a healthy and motivated ageing workforce. Based on the findings, it was concluded that measures that promote challenges at work, together with financial stimuli, seem to be promising in order to prolong workforce participation.

Finding intrinsic rewards by embodied evolution and constrained reinforcement learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Uchibe, Eiji; Doya, Kenji

2008-12-01

Understanding the design principle of reward functions is a substantial challenge both in artificial intelligence and neuroscience. Successful acquisition of a task usually requires not only rewards for goals, but also for intermediate states to promote effective exploration. This paper proposes a method for designing 'intrinsic' rewards of autonomous agents by combining constrained policy gradient reinforcement learning and embodied evolution. To validate the method, we use Cyber Rodent robots, in which collision avoidance, recharging from battery packs, and 'mating' by software reproduction are three major 'extrinsic' rewards. We show in hardware experiments that the robots can find appropriate 'intrinsic' rewards for the vision of battery packs and other robots to promote approach behaviors.

Food reward system: current perspectives and future research needs.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Alonso, Miguel; Woods, Stephen C; Pelchat, Marcia; Grigson, Patricia Sue; Stice, Eric; Farooqi, Sadaf; Khoo, Chor San; Mattes, Richard D; Beauchamp, Gary K

2015-05-01

This article reviews current research and cross-disciplinary perspectives on the neuroscience of food reward in animals and humans, examines the scientific hypothesis of food addiction, discusses methodological and terminology challenges, and identifies knowledge gaps and future research needs. Topics addressed herein include the role of reward and hedonic aspects in the regulation of food intake, neuroanatomy and neurobiology of the reward system in animals and humans, responsivity of the brain reward system to palatable foods and drugs, translation of craving versus addiction, and cognitive control of food reward. The content is based on a workshop held in 2013 by the North American Branch of the International Life Sciences Institute. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Life Sciences Institute.

The role of the striatum in effort-based decision-making in the absence of reward.

Science.gov (United States)

Schouppe, Nathalie; Demanet, Jelle; Boehler, Carsten N; Ridderinkhof, K Richard; Notebaert, Wim

2014-02-05

Decision-making involves weighing costs against benefits, for instance, in terms of the effort it takes to obtain a reward of a given magnitude. This evaluation process has been linked to the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the striatum, with activation in these brain structures reflecting the discounting effect of effort on reward. Here, we investigate how cognitive effort influences neural choice processes in the absence of an extrinsic reward. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans, we used an effort-based decision-making task in which participants were required to choose between two options for a subsequent flanker task that differed in the amount of cognitive effort. Cognitive effort was manipulated by varying the proportion of incongruent trials associated with each choice option. Choice-locked activation in the striatum was higher when participants chose voluntarily for the more effortful alternative but displayed the opposite trend on forced-choice trials. The dACC revealed a similar, yet only trend-level significant, activation pattern. Our results imply that activation levels in the striatum reflect a cost-benefit analysis, in which a balance is made between effort discounting and the intrinsic motivation to choose a cognitively challenging task. Moreover, our findings indicate that it matters whether this challenge is voluntarily chosen or externally imposed. As such, the present findings contrast with classical findings on effort discounting that found reductions in striatum activation for higher effort by finding enhancements of the same neural circuits when a cognitively challenging task is voluntarily selected and does not entail the danger of losing reward.

WWC Quick Review of the Article "Culture and the Interaction of Student Ethnicity with Reward Structure in Group Learning" Revised

Science.gov (United States)

What Works Clearinghouse, 2010

2010-01-01

This paper presents an updated WWC (What Works Clearinghouse) Review of the Article "Culture and the Interaction of Student Ethnicity with Reward Structure in Group Learning". The study examined the effects of different reward systems used in group learning situations on the math skills of African-American and White students. The…

Cutthroat cooperation : The effects of team role decisions on adaptation to alternative reward structures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beersma, Bianca; Hollenbeck, John R.; Conlon, Donald E.; Humphrey, Stephen E.; Moon, Henry; Ilgen, Daniel R.

Structural Adaptation Theory proposes that it is more difficult for teams to change from competitive to cooperative reward conditions than it is for them to change in the opposite direction, and this has been labeled the cutthroat cooperation effect [Johnson, M. D., Hollenbeck, J. R., Ilgen, D. R.,

Cutthroat cooperation: the effects of team role decisions on adaptation to alternative reward structures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beersma, B.; Hollenbeck, J.R.; Conlon, D.E.; Humphrey, S.E.; Moon, H.; Ilgen, D.R.

2009-01-01

Structural Adaptation Theory proposes that it is more difficult for teams to change from competitive to cooperative reward conditions than it is for them to change in the opposite direction, and this has been labeled the cutthroat cooperation effect [Johnson, M. D., Hollenbeck, J. R., Ilgen, D. R.,

Ventral pallidum roles in reward and motivation.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Kyle S; Tindell, Amy J; Aldridge, J Wayne; Berridge, Kent C

2009-01-23

In recent years the ventral pallidum has become a focus of great research interest as a mechanism of reward and incentive motivation. As a major output for limbic signals, the ventral pallidum was once associated primarily with motor functions rather than regarded as a reward structure in its own right. However, ample evidence now suggests that ventral pallidum function is a major mechanism of reward in the brain. We review data indicating that (1) an intact ventral pallidum is necessary for normal reward and motivation, (2) stimulated activation of ventral pallidum is sufficient to cause reward and motivation enhancements, and (3) activation patterns in ventral pallidum neurons specifically encode reward and motivation signals via phasic bursts of excitation to incentive and hedonic stimuli. We conclude that the ventral pallidum may serve as an important 'limbic final common pathway' for mesocorticolimbic processing of many rewards.

An expert system for reward systems design.

OpenAIRE

Erturk, Alper

2000-01-01

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited Today's business environment is a highly competitive marketplace. In this competition, organizations distribute numerous rewards to motivate, attract and retain employees, such as pay, fringe benefits and promotions. However, not all managers have the necessary knowledge and expertise to effectively decide and structure reward systems. This thesis presents an expert system to assist managers with designing the most appropriate reward s...

Model Checking Markov Reward Models with Impulse Rewards

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cloth, Lucia; Katoen, Joost-Pieter; Khattri, Maneesh; Pulungan, Reza; Bondavalli, Andrea; Haverkort, Boudewijn; Tang, Dong

This paper considers model checking of Markov reward models (MRMs), continuous-time Markov chains with state rewards as well as impulse rewards. The reward extension of the logic CSL (Continuous Stochastic Logic) is interpreted over such MRMs, and two numerical algorithms are provided to check the

Intrinsic rewards experienced by a group of dentists working with underserved populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Gardner, S P; Roberts-Thomson, K F; Winning, T A; Peterson, R

2014-09-01

The aim of this study was to explore, using qualitative methods, the intrinsic reasons why dentists work with underserved groups. Minority and marginalized groups of Australians suffer a greater burden of dental disease than the general population due to disparities in accessing care. Recruitment and retention of dentists to care for underserved groups is problematic due to personal, professional and structural reasons. What drives dentists to work with underserved groups is not widely known. Sixteen dentists were recruited using 'snowball' purposeful sampling. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis was conducted on the transcriptions to identify themes. Five key themes emerged: (1) 'tapped on the shoulder', being personally approached or invited; (2) 'dental school experience', the challenges faced as a student; (3) 'empathic concern', the non-judgemental expressions of care toward others; (4) 'resilience', the ability to bounce back after setbacks; (5) 'intrinsic reward', the personal gain and satisfaction received. This study focuses on the intrinsic rewards which were found to be simple, unexpected, and associated with relieving pain, community engagement and making a difference. Emphasizing personal fulfilment and intrinsic reward could be useful when promoting dentistry as a career and when encouraging graduates to consider working with disadvantaged groups. © 2014 Australian Dental Association.

How can work be designed to be intrinsically rewarding? Qualitative insights from South African non-profit employees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle Renard

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Intrinsic rewards are personal, psychological responses to the work thatemployees perform, which stem from the manner in which their work is designed. Research purpose: This study sought to discover in what ways non-profit employees arepsychologically rewarded by the nature of their work tasks. The use of a qualitative approachto data collection and analysis ensured that in-depth responses from participants were gained. Motivation for the study: Intrinsic rewards are of particular importance to non-profitemployees, who tend to earn below-market salaries. This implies that their motivationoriginates predominantly from intrinsic as opposed to extrinsic rewards; yet, research into thisarea of rewards is lacking. Research approach, design and method: In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conductedusing a sample of 15 extrinsically rewarded non-profit employees working within South Africa.Thematic analysis was utilised in order to generate codes which led to the formation of fiveintrinsic rewards categories. Main findings: Intrinsic rewards were classified into five categories, namely (1 MeaningfulWork, (2 Flexible Work, (3 Challenging Work, (4 Varied Work and (5 Enjoyable Work.These rewards each comprise of various subcategories, which provide insight into why suchwork is rewarding to non-profit employees. Practical/managerial implications: Traditional performance management systems shouldbe re-evaluated in the non-profit sector to shift focus towards intrinsic rewards, asopposed to focusing only on the use of extrinsic rewards such as incentives to motivateemployees. Contribution/value-add: The study provides a qualitative understanding of how extrinsicallyrewarded non-profit employees perceive their work to be intrinsically rewarding, whichbridges the empirical gap pertaining to intrinsic rewards within this sector.

Do Substantia Nigra Dopaminergic Neurons Differentiate Between Reward and Punishment?

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Michael J. Frank; D. James Surmeier

2009-01-01

The activity of dopaminergic neurons are thought to be increased by stimuli that predict reward and decreased by stimuli that predict aversive outcomes. Recent work by Matsumoto and Hikosaka challenges this model by asserting that stimuli associated with either rewarding or aversive outcomes increase the activity of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta.

Role of delay-based reward in the spatial cooperation

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xu-Wen; Nie, Sen; Jiang, Luo-Luo; Wang, Bing-Hong; Chen, Shi-Ming

2017-01-01

Strategy selection in games, a typical decision making, usually brings noticeable reward for players which have discounted value if the delay appears. The discounted value is measure: earning sooner with a small reward or later with a delayed larger reward. Here, we investigate effects of delayed rewards on the cooperation in structured population. It is found that delayed reward supports the spreading of cooperation in square lattice, small-world and random networks. In particular, intermediate reward differences between delays impel the highest cooperation level. Interestingly, cooperative individuals with the same delay time steps form clusters to resist the invasion of defects, and cooperative individuals with lowest delay reward survive because they form the largest clusters in the lattice.

Motivating Intrapreneurs: The Relevance of Rewards

Science.gov (United States)

de Villiers-Scheepers, M. J.

2011-01-01

A challenge faced by management graduates in promoting intrapreneurship to achieve competitive advantage is the use of motivational techniques that build commitment to entrepreneurial behaviour. Despite the acknowledged importance of rewards to encourage innovation, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence to provide guidance on which…

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

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Experience Corps Baltimore: Exploring the Stressors and Rewards of High-intensity Civic Engagement.

Science.gov (United States)

Varma, Vijay R; Carlson, Michelle C; Parisi, Jeanine M; Tanner, Elizabeth K; McGill, Sylvia; Fried, Linda P; Song, Linda H; Gruenewald, Tara L

2015-12-01

Experience Corps (EC) represents a high-intensity, intergenerational civic engagement activity where older adults serve as mentors and tutors in elementary schools. Although high-intensity volunteer opportunities are designed to enhance the health and well being of older adult volunteers, little is known about the negative and positive aspects of volunteering unique to intergenerational programs from the volunteer's perspective. Stressors and rewards associated with volunteering in EC were explored in 8 focus group discussions with 46 volunteers from EC Baltimore. Transcripts were coded for frequently expressed themes. Participants reported stressors and rewards within 5 key domains: intergenerational (children's problem behavior, working with and helping children, observing/facilitating improvement or transformation in a child, and developing a special connection with a child); external to EC (poor parenting and children's social stressors); interpersonal (challenges in working with teachers and bonding/making social connections); personal (enjoyment, self-enhancement/achievement, and being/feeling more active); and structural (satisfaction with the structural elements of the EC program). Volunteers experienced unique intergenerational stressors related to children's problem behavior and societal factors external to the EC program. Overall, intergenerational, interpersonal, and personal rewards from volunteering, as well as program structure may have balanced the stress associated with volunteering. A better understanding of stressors and rewards from high-intensity volunteer programs may enhance our understanding of how intergenerational civic engagement volunteering affects well being in later life and may inform project modifications to maximize such benefits for future volunteers and those they serve. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e

Reward deficiency and anti-reward in pain chronification

OpenAIRE

Borsook, D.; Linnman, C.; Faria, Vanda; Strassman, A. M.; Becerra, L.; Elman, I.

2016-01-01

Converging lines of evidence suggest that the pathophysiology of pain is mediated to a substantial degree via allostatic neuroadaptations in reward- and stress-related brain circuits. Thus, reward deficiency (RD) represents a within-system neuroadaptation to pain-induced protracted activation of the reward circuits that leads to depletion-like hypodopaminergia, clinically manifested anhedonia, and diminished motivation for natural reinforcers. Anti-reward (AR) conversely pertains to a between...

Reward positivity: Reward prediction error or salience prediction error?

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Chronic motivational state interacts with task reward structure in dynamic decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Jessica A; Worthy, Darrell A; Maddox, W Todd

2015-12-01

Research distinguishes between a habitual, model-free system motivated toward immediately rewarding actions, and a goal-directed, model-based system motivated toward actions that improve future state. We examined the balance of processing in these two systems during state-based decision-making. We tested a regulatory fit hypothesis (Maddox & Markman, 2010) that predicts that global trait motivation affects the balance of habitual- vs. goal-directed processing but only through its interaction with the task framing as gain-maximization or loss-minimization. We found support for the hypothesis that a match between an individual's chronic motivational state and the task framing enhances goal-directed processing, and thus state-based decision-making. Specifically, chronic promotion-focused individuals under gain-maximization and chronic prevention-focused individuals under loss-minimization both showed enhanced state-based decision-making. Computational modeling indicates that individuals in a match between global chronic motivational state and local task reward structure engaged more goal-directed processing, whereas those in a mismatch engaged more habitual processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rewards.

Science.gov (United States)

Gunderman, Richard B; Kamer, Aaron P

2011-05-01

For much of the 20th century, psychologists and economists operated on the assumption that work is devoid of intrinsic rewards, and the only way to get people to work harder is through the use of rewards and punishments. This so-called carrot-and-stick model of workplace motivation, when applied to medical practice, emphasizes the use of financial incentives and disincentives to manipulate behavior. More recently, however, it has become apparent that, particularly when applied to certain kinds of work, such approaches can be ineffective or even frankly counterproductive. Instead of focusing on extrinsic rewards such as compensation, organizations and their leaders need to devote more attention to the intrinsic rewards of work itself. This article reviews this new understanding of rewards and traces out its practical implications for radiology today. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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 ...

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

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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.

Listening to music in a risk-reward context: The roles of the temporoparietal junction and the orbitofrontal/insular cortices in reward-anticipation, reward-gain, and reward-loss.

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Li, Chia-Wei; Chen, Jyh-Horng; Tsai, Chen-Gia

2015-12-10

Artificial rewards, such as visual arts and music, produce pleasurable feelings. Popular songs in the verse-chorus form provide a useful model for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of artificial rewards, because the chorus is usually the most rewarding element of a song. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, the stimuli were excerpts of 10 popular songs with a tensioned verse-to-chorus transition. We examined the neural correlates of three phases of reward processing: (1) reward-anticipation during the verse-to-chorus transition, (2) reward-gain during the first phrase of the chorus, and (3) reward-loss during the unexpected noise followed by the verse-to-chorus transition. Participants listened to these excerpts in a risk-reward context because the verse was followed by either the chorus or noise with equal probability. The results showed that reward-gain and reward-loss were associated with left- and right-biased temporoparietal junction activation, respectively. The bilateral temporoparietal junctions were active during reward-anticipation. Moreover, we observed left-biased lateral orbitofrontal activation during reward-anticipation, whereas the medial orbitofrontal cortex was activated during reward-gain. The findings are discussed in relation to the cognitive and emotional aspects of reward processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Reconsidering Food Reward, Brain Stimulation, and Dopamine: Incentives Act Forward.

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Newquist, Gunnar; Gardner, R Allen

2015-01-01

In operant conditioning, rats pressing levers and pigeons pecking keys depend on contingent food reinforcement. Food reward agrees with Skinner's behaviorism, undergraduate textbooks, and folk psychology. However, nearly a century of experimental evidence shows, instead, that food in an operant conditioning chamber acts forward to evoke species-specific feeding behavior rather than backward to reinforce experimenter-defined responses. Furthermore, recent findings in neuroscience show consistently that intracranial stimulation to reward centers and dopamine release, the proposed reward molecule, also act forward to evoke inborn species-specific behavior. These results challenge longstanding views of hedonic learning and must be incorporated into contemporary learning theory.

Generational motivation and preference for reward and recognition

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Nico Martins

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Generation sub-groups have been and continue to be stereotyped as requiring different approaches in the workplace and elsewhere with regard to what keeps them motivated and satisfied. Two measuring instruments were distributed electronically to all staff of a South African Facilities Management firm. The one-way ANOVA was conducted with post-hoc tests to establish which factors display statistically significant differences between generations. The findings demonstrated that certain generation sub-groups have preferences for different types of reward, reward categories, and have different perceptions about what types of reward attracts, motivates and retains employees. The main recommendation is that the company needs to adopt a flexible approach to reward and recognition that allows employees to tailor their reward structure to their own needs

The taxonomic structure of rewards as work outcomes

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W. I. Myburgh

1986-04-01

Full Text Available Contemporary cognitive process theories of motivation, specifically expectancy/valence theory, use rewards as an important work outcome variable, to explain and predict the interaction processes between motivation and other variables. To date, relatively little attention has been given to define and describe work outcomes empirically. Use is currently made of a hierarchical extrinsic/intrinsic structure, representing outcomes grouped together with universal valence and related to each other. This investigation aims to investigate this taxonomy. Opsomming In kontemporere kognitiewe prosesteoriee van motivering en veral verwagtingsteorie, word verwys na werksuitkomstes (vergoeding as 'n belangrike veranderlike in die verklaring en voorspelling van die interaksieprosesse tussen ander motiveringsfaktore. Tot dusver is relatiefmin aandag bestee om werksuitkomstes empiries te ontleed en te beskryfen teoretici gebruik tans 'n hierargiese struktuur om, uitkomstes wat oor universiele valensie beskik en onderling met mekaar verband hou, te groepeer in ekstrinsieke en intrinsieke uitkomstes of vergoedings. In hierdie ondersoek word gepoog om hierdie taksonomie empirics na te vors.

Perceived Rewards of Nursing Among Christian Nursing Students in Bangalore, India.

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Garner, Shelby L; Prater, Llewellyn S; Putturaj, Meena; Raj, Leena

2015-12-01

Nurses in India face significant challenges and often migrate to practice nursing abroad. Few studies have focused on the rewards of nursing in India. The aim of this study was to illuminate perceived rewards of nursing among Christian student nurses in Bangalore, India. Photovoice, a participatory action methodology was used, and 14 Christian student nurses participated in the study. Thematic interpretation of photographs, journals, critical group dialog sessions, and observational field notes resulted in the identification of two main themes. These themes included intrinsic rewards and lifelong benefits of nursing in India.

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

Memory Consolidation and Neural Substrate of Reward

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Redolar-Ripoll, Diego

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The aim of this report is to analyze the relationships between reward and learning and memory processes. Different studies have described how information about rewards influences behavior and how the brain uses this reward information to control learning and memory processes. Reward nature seems to be processed in different ways by neurons in different brain structures, ranging from the detection and perception of rewards to the use of information about predicted rewards for the control of goal-directed behavior. The neural substrate underling this processing of reward information is a reliable way of improving learning and memory processes. Evidence from several studies indicates that this neural system can facilitate memory consolidation in a wide variety of learning tasks. From a molecular perspective, certain cardinal features of reward have been described as forms of memory. Studies of human addicts and studies in animal models of addiction show that chronic drug exposure produces stable changes in the brain at the cellular and molecular levels that underlie the long-lasting behavioral plasticity associated with addiction. These molecular and cellular adaptations involved in addiction are also implicated in learning and memory processes. Dopamine seems to be a critical common signal to activate different genetic mechanisms that ultimately remodel synapses and circuits. Despite memory is an active and complex process mediated by different brain areas, the neural substrate of reward is able to improve memory consolidation in a several paradigms. We believe that there are many equivalent traits between reward and learning and memory processes.

Neural coding of basic reward terms of animal learning theory, game theory, microeconomics and behavioural ecology.

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Schultz, Wolfram

2004-04-01

Neurons in a small number of brain structures detect rewards and reward-predicting stimuli and are active during the expectation of predictable food and liquid rewards. These neurons code the reward information according to basic terms of various behavioural theories that seek to explain reward-directed learning, approach behaviour and decision-making. The involved brain structures include groups of dopamine neurons, the striatum including the nucleus accumbens, the orbitofrontal cortex and the amygdala. The reward information is fed to brain structures involved in decision-making and organisation of behaviour, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and possibly the parietal cortex. The neural coding of basic reward terms derived from formal theories puts the neurophysiological investigation of reward mechanisms on firm conceptual grounds and provides neural correlates for the function of rewards in learning, approach behaviour and decision-making.

Influence of reward motivation on human declarative memory.

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Miendlarzewska, Ewa A; Bavelier, Daphne; Schwartz, Sophie

2016-02-01

Motivational relevance can prioritize information for memory encoding and consolidation based on reward value. In this review, we pinpoint the possible psychological and neural mechanisms by which reward promotes learning, from guiding attention to enhancing memory consolidation. We then discuss how reward value can spill-over from one conditioned stimulus to a non-conditioned stimulus. Such generalization can occur across perceptually similar items or through more complex relations, such as associative or logical inferences. Existing evidence suggests that the neurotransmitter dopamine boosts the formation of declarative memory for rewarded information and may also control the generalization of reward values. In particular, temporally-correlated activity in the hippocampus and in regions of the dopaminergic circuit may mediate value-based decisions and facilitate cross-item integration. Given the importance of generalization in learning, our review points to the need to study not only how reward affects later memory but how learned reward values may generalize to related representations and ultimately alter memory structure. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rewards and Performance Incentives.

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Zigon, Jack

1994-01-01

Discusses rewards and performance incentives for employees, including types of rewards; how rewards help in managing; dysfunctional awards; selecting the right reward; how to find rewards that fit; and delivering rewards effectively. Examples are included. (three references) (LRW)

Reward loss and the basolateral amygdala: A function in reward comparisons.

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Kawasaki, Katsuyoshi; Annicchiarico, Iván; Glueck, Amanda C; Morón, Ignacio; Papini, Mauricio R

2017-07-28

The neural circuitry underlying behavior in reward loss situations is poorly understood. We considered two such situations: reward devaluation (from large to small rewards) and reward omission (from large rewards to no rewards). There is evidence that the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) plays a role in the negative emotion accompanying reward loss. However, little is known about the function of the basolateral nucleus (BLA) in reward loss. Two hypotheses of BLA function in reward loss, negative emotion and reward comparisons, were tested in an experiment involving pretraining excitotoxic BLA lesions followed by training in four tasks: consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC), autoshaping (AS) acquisition and extinction, anticipatory negative contrast (ANC), and open field testing (OF). Cell counts in the BLA (but not in the CeA) were significantly lower in animals with lesions vs. shams. BLA lesions eliminated cSNC and ANC, and accelerated extinction of lever pressing in AS. BLA lesions had no effect on OF testing: higher activity in the periphery than in the central area. This pattern of results provides support for the hypothesis that BLA neurons are important for reward comparison. The three affected tasks (cSNC, ANC, and AS extinction) involve reward comparisons. However, ANC does not seem to involve negative emotions and it was affected, whereas OF activity is known to involve negative emotion, but it was not affected. It is hypothesized that a circuit involving the thalamus, insular cortex, and BLA is critically involved in the mechanism comparing current and expected rewards. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neural activation to monetary reward is associated with amphetamine reward sensitivity.

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Crane, Natania A; Gorka, Stephanie M; Weafer, Jessica; Langenecker, Scott A; de Wit, Harriet; Phan, K Luan

2018-03-14

One known risk factor for drug use and abuse is sensitivity to rewarding effects of drugs. It is not known whether this risk factor extends to sensitivity to non-drug rewards. In this study with healthy young adults, we examined the association between sensitivity to the subjective rewarding effects of amphetamine and a neural indicator of anticipation of monetary reward. We hypothesized that greater euphorigenic response to amphetamine would be associated with greater neural activation to anticipation of monetary reward (Win > Loss). Healthy participants (N = 61) completed four laboratory sessions in which they received d-amphetamine (20 mg) and placebo in alternating order, providing self-report measures of euphoria and stimulation at regular intervals. At a separate visit 1-3 weeks later, participants completed the guessing reward task (GRT) during fMRI in a drug-free state. Participants reporting greater euphoria after amphetamine also exhibited greater neural activation during monetary reward anticipation in mesolimbic reward regions, including the bilateral caudate and putamen. This is the first study to show a relationship between neural correlates of monetary reward and sensitivity to the subjective rewarding effects of amphetamine in humans. These findings support growing evidence that sensitivity to reward in general is a risk factor for drug use and abuse, and suggest that sensitivity of drug-induced euphoria may reflect a general sensitivity to rewards. This may be an index of vulnerability for drug use or abuse.

The unconscious and conscious foundations of human reward pursuit

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bijleveld, E.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/313905223

2012-01-01

Human reward pursuit is often found to be governed by conscious assessments of expected value and required effort. Yet, research also indicates that rewards are initially valuated and processed outside awareness, using rudimentary brain structures. Building on both findings, a new framework is

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

The attention habit: how reward learning shapes attentional selection.

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Anderson, Brian A

2016-04-01

There is growing consensus that reward plays an important role in the control of attention. Until recently, reward was thought to influence attention indirectly by modulating task-specific motivation and its effects on voluntary control over selection. Such an account was consistent with the goal-directed (endogenous) versus stimulus-driven (exogenous) framework that had long dominated the field of attention research. Now, a different perspective is emerging. Demonstrations that previously reward-associated stimuli can automatically capture attention even when physically inconspicuous and task-irrelevant challenge previously held assumptions about attentional control. The idea that attentional selection can be value driven, reflecting a distinct and previously unrecognized control mechanism, has gained traction. Since these early demonstrations, the influence of reward learning on attention has rapidly become an area of intense investigation, sparking many new insights. The result is an emerging picture of how the reward system of the brain automatically biases information processing. Here, I review the progress that has been made in this area, synthesizing a wealth of recent evidence to provide an integrated, up-to-date account of value-driven attention and some of its broader implications. © 2015 New York Academy of Sciences.

Prosocial reward learning in children and adolescents

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Youngbin Kwak

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Adolescence is a period of increased sensitivity to social contexts. To evaluate how social context sensitivity changes over development – and influences reward learning – we investigated how children and adolescents perceive and integrate rewards for oneself and others during a dynamic risky-decision-making task. Children and adolescents (N=75, 8-16 yrs performed the Social Gambling Task (SGT, (Kwak et al., 2014 and completed a set of questionnaires measuring other-regarding behavior. In the SGT, participants choose amongst four card decks that have different payout structures for oneself and for a charity. We examined patterns of choices, overall decision strategies, and how reward outcomes led to trial-by-trial adjustments in behavior, as estimated using a reinforcement-learning model. Performance of children and adolescents was compared to data from a previously collected sample of adults (N=102 performing the identical task. We found that that children/adolescents were not only more sensitive to rewards directed to the charity than self but also showed greater prosocial tendencies on independent measures of other-regarding behavior. Children and adolescents also showed less use of a strategy that prioritizes rewards for self at the expense of rewards for others. These results support the conclusion that, compared to adults, children and adolescents show greater sensitivity to outcomes for others when making decisions and learning about potential rewards.

Using food as a reward: An examination of parental reward practices.

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Roberts, Lindsey; Marx, Jenna M; Musher-Eizenman, Dara R

2018-01-01

Eating patterns and taste preferences are often established early in life. Many studies have examined how parental feeding practices may affect children's outcomes, including food intake and preference. The current study focused on a common food parenting practice, using food as a reward, and used Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to examine whether mothers (n = 376) and fathers (n = 117) of children ages 2.8 to 7.5 (M = 4.7; SD = 1.1) grouped into profiles (i.e., subgroups) based on how they use of food as a reward. The 4-class model was the best-fitting LPA model, with resulting classes based on both the frequency and type of reward used. Classes were: infrequent reward (33%), tangible reward (21%), food reward (27%), and frequent reward (19%). The current study also explored whether children's eating styles (emotional overeating, rood fussiness, food responsiveness, and satiety responsiveness) and parenting style (Authoritative, Authoritarian, and Permissive) varied by reward profile. Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that the four profiles differed significantly for all outcome variables except satiety responsiveness. It appears that the use of tangible and food-based rewards have important implications in food parenting. More research is needed to better understand how the different rewarding practices affect additional child outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alterations in brain structures related to taste reward circuitry in ill and recovered anorexia nervosa and in bulimia nervosa.

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Frank, Guido K; Shott, Megan E; Hagman, Jennifer O; Mittal, Vijay A

2013-10-01

The pathophysiology of anorexia nervosa remains obscure, but structural brain alterations could be functionally important biomarkers. The authors assessed taste pleasantness and reward sensitivity in relation to brain structure, which may be related to food avoidance commonly seen in eating disorders. The authors used structural MR imaging to study gray and white matter volumes in women with current restricting-type anorexia nervosa (N=19), women recovered from restricting-type anorexia nervosa (N=24), women with bulimia nervosa (N=19), and healthy comparison women (N=24). All eating disorder groups exhibited increased gray matter volume of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (gyrus rectus). Manual tracing confirmed larger gyrus rectus volume, and volume predicted taste pleasantness ratings across all groups. Analyses also indicated other morphological differences between diagnostic categories. Antero-ventral insula gray matter volumes were increased on the right side in the anorexia nervosa and recovered anorexia nervosa groups and on the left side in the bulimia nervosa group relative to the healthy comparison group. Dorsal striatum volumes were reduced in the recovered anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa groups and predicted sensitivity to reward in all three eating disorder groups. The eating disorder groups also showed reduced white matter in right temporal and parietal areas relative to the healthy comparison group. The results held when a range of covariates, such as age, depression, anxiety, and medications, were controlled for. Brain structure in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, insula, and striatum is altered in eating disorders and suggests altered brain circuitry that has been associated with taste pleasantness and reward value.

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.

The effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention

OpenAIRE

Boitomelo Makhuzeni; E. Nicolene Barkhuizen

2015-01-01

Orientation: South African schools are facing significant challenges to retain a talented pool of school teachers. A total rewards strategy could assist schools to reduce teacher turnover. Research purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a total rewards strategy on the turnover intentions of school teachers in the North-West province. Motivation: The under supply of quality teachers has negative consequences for both school pupils and the larger community. Re...

Having Fun and Accepting Challenges Are Natural Instincts: Jigsaw Puzzles to Challenge Students and Test Their Abilities While Having Fun!

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Rodenbaugh, Hanna R.; Lujan, Heidi L.; Rodenbaugh, David W.; DiCarlo, Stephen E.

2014-01-01

Because jigsaw puzzles are fun, and challenging, students will endure and discover that persistence and grit are rewarded. Importantly, play and fun have a biological place just like sleep and dreams. Students also feel a sense of accomplishment when they have completed a puzzle. Importantly, the reward of mastering a challenge builds confidence…

Objects of Desire: A Reading of the Reward System in World of Warcraft

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Lasse Juel

2012-01-01

This article is written in an attempt to navigate the reward structure in World of Warcraft (WoW). Alongside its analysis of the reward structure in WoW, this article draws upon the paradoxical design of desire itself. In doing so, it takes a binocular perspective that addresses both the interplay...... between WoW's reward structure and a player-centric approach that seeks to explain the transcendent design of desire itself. The interplay between game structure and the design of desire is approached by means of a narrated scene from a personal experience of WoW dating back from the time of classical Wo......W, where the level cap was 60 and the guild raids in the high-end instances demanded the participation of 40 players. The scene is intended to provide the reader with insights both of the reward structure of WoW and of player's experience of the game world....

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

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.

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.

Gender dimorphism of brain reward system volumes in alcoholism.

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Sawyer, Kayle S; Oscar-Berman, Marlene; Barthelemy, Olivier J; Papadimitriou, George M; Harris, Gordon J; Makris, Nikos

2017-05-30

The brain's reward network has been reported to be smaller in alcoholic men compared to nonalcoholic men, but little is known about the volumes of reward regions in alcoholic women. Morphometric analyses were performed on magnetic resonance brain scans of 60 long-term chronic alcoholics (ALC; 30 men) and 60 nonalcoholic controls (NC; 29 men). We derived volumes of total brain, and cortical and subcortical reward-related structures including the dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC), orbitofrontal, and cingulate cortices, and the temporal pole, insula, amygdala, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens septi (NAc), and ventral diencephalon (VDC). We examined the relationships of the volumetric findings to drinking history. Analyses revealed a significant gender interaction for the association between alcoholism and total reward network volumes, with ALC men having smaller reward volumes than NC men and ALC women having larger reward volumes than NC women. Analyses of a priori subregions revealed a similar pattern of reward volume differences with significant gender interactions for DLPFC and VDC. Overall, the volume of the cerebral ventricles in ALC participants was negatively associated with duration of abstinence, suggesting decline in atrophy with greater length of sobriety. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Job satisfaction and social rewards in the social services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorunn Theresia Jessen

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This article investigates the sources of job satisfaction among practitioners and managers employed in the Norwegian public social services and the professionals ´ perception of social rewards in particular. Being valued, receiving praise and positive feedback are considered to be important aspects of job satisfaction. Nevertheless the expertise and competence of social workers is not always acknowledged. A central question raised is whether the workers ´ job satisfaction is influenced by their opportunities for support and recognition, compared to other (intrinsic and organisational rewarding aspects available to social service workers. The empirical data come from a 2004 quantitative survey among social workers in local welfare agencies. Despite conflicting demands and lack of resources in the front line services, findings indicate that managers and practitioners perceive their work as overall equally satisfying. Still, the managers find their job more interesting and challenging due to their position, reporting higher feelings of accomplishment and control over work. Receiving public approval and co-worker support are positively associated with job satisfaction within both work positions, while superior support and client recognition were found to be significantly rewarding aspects to the practitioners only. The final discussion addresses the challenges for an organizational climate that sustain the worth and contribution of social professionals.

The reward probability index: design and validation of a scale measuring access to environmental reward.

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Carvalho, John P; Gawrysiak, Michael J; Hellmuth, Julianne C; McNulty, James K; Magidson, Jessica F; Lejuez, C W; Hopko, Derek R

2011-06-01

Behavioral models of depression implicate decreased response-contingent positive reinforcement (RCPR) as critical toward the development and maintenance of depression (Lewinsohn, 1974). Given the absence of a psychometrically sound self-report measure of RCPR, the Reward Probability Index (RPI) was developed to measure access to environmental reward and to approximate actual RCPR. In Study 1 (n=269), exploratory factor analysis supported a 20-item two-factor model (Reward Probability, Environmental Suppressors) with strong internal consistency (α=.90). In Study 2 (n=281), confirmatory factor analysis supported this two-factor structure and convergent validity was established through strong correlations between the RPI and measures of activity, avoidance, reinforcement, and depression (r=.65 to .81). Discriminant validity was supported via smaller correlations between the RPI and measures of social support and somatic anxiety (r=-.29 to -.40). Two-week test-retest reliability was strong (r=.69). In Study 3 (n=33), controlling for depression symptoms, hierarchical regression supported the incremental validity of the RPI in predicting daily diary reports of environmental reward. The RPI represents a parsimonious, reliable, and valid measure that may facilitate understanding of the etiology of depression and its relationship to overt behaviors. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Reward networks in the brain as captured by connectivity measures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Estela Camara

2009-12-01

Full Text Available An assortment of human behaviors is thought to be driven by rewards including reinforcement learning, novelty processing, learning, decision making, economic choice, incentive motivation, and addiction. In each case the ventral tegmental area / ventral striatum (Nucleus accumbens system (VTA-VS has been implicated as a key structure by functional imaging studies, mostly on the basis of standard, univariate analyses. Here we propose that standard fMRI analysis needs to be complemented by methods that take into account the differential connectivity of the VTA-VS system in the different behavioral contexts in order to describe reward based processes more appropriately. We first consider the wider network for reward processing as it emerged from animal experimentation. Subsequently, an example for a method to assess functional connectivity is given. Finally, we illustrate the usefulness of such analyses by examples regarding reward valuation, reward expectation and the role of reward in addiction.

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

Neuropharmacological mechanisms of drug reward: beyond dopamine in the nucleus accumbens.

Science.gov (United States)

Bardo, M T

1998-01-01

Multiple lines of research have implicated the mesolimbic dopamine system in drug reward measured by either the drug self-administration or conditioned place preference paradigm. The present review summarizes recent work that examines the neuropharmacological mechanisms by which drugs impinge on this dopaminergic neural circuitry, as well as other systems that provide input and output circuits to the mesolimbic dopamine system. Studies examining the effect of selective agonist and antagonist drugs administered systemically have indicated that multiple neurotransmitters are involved, including dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, glutamate, GABA, and various peptides. Direct microinjection studies have also provided crucial evidence indicating that, in addition to the mesolimbic dopamine system, other structures play a role in drug reward, including the ventral pallidum, amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus. GABAergic circuitry descending from the nucleus accumbens to the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus via the ventral pallidum appears to be especially important in directing the behavioral sequelae associated with reward produced by various drugs of abuse. However, activation of the reward circuitry is achieved differently for various drugs of abuse. With amphetamine and cocaine, initiation of reward is controlled within the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex, respectively. With opiates, initiation of reward involves the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, and hypothalamus. It is not clear presently if these multiple anatomical structures mediate opiate reward by converging on a single output system or multiple output systems.

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.

Heterogeneity of reward mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Lajtha, A; Sershen, H

2010-06-01

The finding that many drugs that have abuse potential and other natural stimuli such as food or sexual activity cause similar chemical changes in the brain, an increase in extracellular dopamine (DA) in the shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAccS), indicated some time ago that the reward mechanism is at least very similar for all stimuli and that the mechanism is relatively simple. The presently available information shows that the mechanisms involved are more complex and have multiple elements. Multiple brain regions, multiple receptors, multiple distinct neurons, multiple transmitters, multiple transporters, circuits, peptides, proteins, metabolism of transmitters, and phosphorylation, all participate in reward mechanisms. The system is variable, is changed during development, is sex-dependent, and is influenced by genetic differences. Not all of the elements participate in the reward of all stimuli. Different set of mechanisms are involved in the reward of different drugs of abuse, yet different mechanisms in the reward of natural stimuli such as food or sexual activity; thus there are different systems that distinguish different stimuli. Separate functions of the reward system such as anticipation, evaluation, consummation and identification; all contain function-specific elements. The level of the stimulus also influences the participation of the elements of the reward system, there are possible reactions to even below threshold stimuli, and excessive stimuli can change reward to aversion involving parts of the system. Learning and memory of past reward is an important integral element of reward and addictive behavior. Many of the reward elements are altered by repeated or chronic stimuli, and chronic exposure to one drug is likely to alter the response to another stimulus. To evaluate and identify the reward stimulus thus requires heterogeneity of the reward components in the brain.

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...

Commitment to Self-Rewards

OpenAIRE

Koch, Alexander K.; Nafziger, Julia

2009-01-01

Self-administered rewards are ubiquitous. They serve as incentives for personal accomplish¬ments and are widely recommended as tools for overcoming self-control problems. However, it seems puzzling why self-rewards can work: the prospect of a reward has a motivating force only if the threat of self-denial of the reward after low performance is credible. We explain how a rational forward-looking individual may achieve commitment to self-rewards, by applying Köszegi and Rabin's (2006) model of ...

Adaptive neural reward processing during anticipation and receipt of monetary rewards in mindfulness meditators.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirk, Ulrich; Brown, Kirk Warren; Downar, Jonathan

2015-05-01

Reward seeking is ubiquitous and adaptive in humans. But excessive reward seeking behavior, such as chasing monetary rewards, may lead to diminished subjective well-being. This study examined whether individuals trained in mindfulness meditation show neural evidence of lower susceptibility to monetary rewards. Seventy-eight participants (34 meditators, 44 matched controls) completed the monetary incentive delay task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The groups performed equally on the task, but meditators showed lower neural activations in the caudate nucleus during reward anticipation, and elevated bilateral posterior insula activation during reward anticipation. Meditators also evidenced reduced activations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex during reward receipt compared with controls. Connectivity parameters between the right caudate and bilateral anterior insula were attenuated in meditators during incentive anticipation. In summary, brain regions involved in reward processing-both during reward anticipation and receipt of reward-responded differently in mindfulness meditators than in nonmeditators, indicating that the former are less susceptible to monetary incentives. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

Common and distinct neural correlates of personal and vicarious reward: A quantitative meta-analysis

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Morelli, Sylvia A.; Sacchet, Matthew D.; Zaki, Jamil

2015-01-01

Individuals experience reward not only when directly receiving positive outcomes (e.g., food or money), but also when observing others receive such outcomes. This latter phenomenon, known as vicarious reward, is a perennial topic of interest among psychologists and economists. More recently, neuroscientists have begun exploring the neuroanatomy underlying vicarious reward. Here we present a quantitative whole-brain meta-analysis of this emerging literature. We identified 25 functional neuroimaging studies that included contrasts between vicarious reward and a neutral control, and subjected these contrasts to an activation likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis. This analysis revealed a consistent pattern of activation across studies, spanning structures typically associated with the computation of value (especially ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and mentalizing (including dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and superior temporal sulcus). We further quantitatively compared this activation pattern to activation foci from a previous meta-analysis of personal reward. Conjunction analyses yielded overlapping VMPFC activity in response to personal and vicarious reward. Contrast analyses identified preferential engagement of the nucleus accumbens in response to personal as compared to vicarious reward, and in mentalizing-related structures in response to vicarious as compared to personal reward. These data shed light on the common and unique components of the reward that individuals experience directly and through their social connections. PMID:25554428

Random reward priming is task-contingent: The robustness of the 1-trial reward priming effect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Árni Gunnar Ásgeirsson

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Consistent financial reward of particular features influences the allocation of visual attention in many ways. More surprising are 1-trial reward priming effects on attention where reward schedules are random and reward on one trial influences attentional allocation on the next. Those findings are thought to reflect that rewarded features become more salient than unrewarded ones on the subsequent trial. Here we attempt to conceptually replicate this effect, testing its generalizability. In three versions of an analogous paradigm to the additional singleton paradigm involving singleton search for a Gabor patch of odd spatial frequency we found no evidence of reward priming, while we only partially replicate the reward priming in the exact original paradigm tested by Hickey and colleagues. The results cast doubt on the proposal that random reward enhances salience, suggested in the original papers, and highlight the need for a more nuanced account. In many other paradigms reward effects have been found to progress gradually, becoming stronger as they build up, and we argue that for robust reward priming, reward schedules need to be more consistent than in the original 1-trial reward priming paradigm.

A correction term for the covariance of renewal-reward processes with multivariate rewards

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Patch, B.; Nazarathy, Y.; Taimre, T.

We consider a renewal-reward process with multivariate rewards. Such a process is constructed from an i.i.d. sequence of time periods, to each of which there is associated a multivariate reward vector. The rewards in each time period may depend on each other and on the period length, but not on the

Should we quit our jobs? Challenges, barriers and recommendations for interdisciplinary energy research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schuitema, Geertje; Sintov, Nicole D.

2017-01-01

Many plea for a better integration of social sciences in energy research, which would imply more comprehensive interdisciplinary energy research. We argue that in order to achieve this, institutional barriers and research challenges need to be recognised and addressed. We identify six challenges and barriers, and provide recommendations for working towards solutions. We conclude that to engage in interdisciplinary research implies extra costs and fewer rewards for all researchers, particularly early and mid-career academics. We propose a new conceptualisation of practices and incentive structures among academic institutions, funding agencies, and publication outlets, and urge all energy researchers to join this debate. - Highlights: • Interdisciplinary energy research currently does not reach its full potential. • Social sciences are underutilised in energy research. • Barriers and challenges need to be addressed to stimulate interdisciplinary energy research. • High costs and small rewards for interdisciplinary (early and mid-career) researchers.

Comparing the neural basis of monetary reward and cognitive feedback during information-integration category learning.

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Daniel, Reka; Pollmann, Stefan

2010-01-06

The dopaminergic system is known to play a central role in reward-based learning (Schultz, 2006), yet it was also observed to be involved when only cognitive feedback is given (Aron et al., 2004). Within the domain of information-integration category learning, in which information from several stimulus dimensions has to be integrated predecisionally (Ashby and Maddox, 2005), the importance of contingent feedback is well established (Maddox et al., 2003). We examined the common neural correlates of reward anticipation and prediction error in this task. Sixteen subjects performed two parallel information-integration tasks within a single event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging session but received a monetary reward only for one of them. Similar functional areas including basal ganglia structures were activated in both task versions. In contrast, a single structure, the nucleus accumbens, showed higher activation during monetary reward anticipation compared with the anticipation of cognitive feedback in information-integration learning. Additionally, this activation was predicted by measures of intrinsic motivation in the cognitive feedback task and by measures of extrinsic motivation in the rewarded task. Our results indicate that, although all other structures implicated in category learning are not significantly affected by altering the type of reward, the nucleus accumbens responds to the positive incentive properties of an expected reward depending on the specific type of the reward.

More than just a catchy title: The rewards and challenges of geoscience blogging

Science.gov (United States)

Ball, J. L.

2011-12-01

Social media have become increasingly important tools for communication, and no less so in the world of the Earth sciences. The "geoblogosphere", a collection of blogs written by geoscientists, began to grow quickly about four years ago and now encompasses more than three hundred blogs in multiple languages. The blog Magma Cum Laude (http://blogs.agu.org/magmacumlaude) was first published in 2007 among some of the earliest geoblogs, and is now part of the AGU Blogosphere, a widely read and lively blogging network. Originally intended as a chronicle of the author's time in graduate school and interest in volcanology, Magma Cum Laude's content has expanded to include science outreach, philanthropic ventures and interdisciplinary communication. In the process, the author has learned a great deal about how to develop and maintain a science blog, and how to integrate blogging with the demands of being a student and geoscientist. Geoblogging can be rewarding and fun, but it should also be approached with concrete goals and a clear understanding of potential drawbacks and difficulties. Geoscientists using social media have created new pathways for collaboration, peer review, science communication, and commentary on current events, making geoblogs a powerful supplement to 'traditional' research processes. In addition, geoblogging breaks down barriers between scientists and the public, demystifying research and giving the scientific community an opportunity to prove why its work is important. Geoblogs also have a lighter side - at any given time, there are a number of lively competitions, memes and conversations going on in the geoblogosphere. But like any social media outlet, blogging can present challenges, such as maintaining a good flow of content, integrating posting into a busy schedule, and dealing with interpersonal, employer and public responses. It is important to understand what these challenges entail, and how to deal with them, in order to utilize geoblogging

Challenges of growth in a network company

OpenAIRE

Axani, Darrell Kirk

2006-01-01

Mark Engineering is a large network company facing challenges between growth and its small company feel. Small networks are rewarding for both individuals and companies. With growth, networks become cumbersome and costly to operate. Like effective teams, networks must remain small to be efficient. Growth tends to drive management to more traditional hierarchical structures, but such a move would undermine the value of a network organization. Strategy and market forces influence organizational...

Reward-Guided Learning with and without Causal Attribution

Science.gov (United States)

Jocham, Gerhard; Brodersen, Kay H.; Constantinescu, Alexandra O.; Kahn, Martin C.; Ianni, Angela M.; Walton, Mark E.; Rushworth, Matthew F.S.; Behrens, Timothy E.J.

2016-01-01

Summary When an organism receives a reward, it is crucial to know which of many candidate actions caused this reward. However, recent work suggests that learning is possible even when this most fundamental assumption is not met. We used novel reward-guided learning paradigms in two fMRI studies to show that humans deploy separable learning mechanisms that operate in parallel. While behavior was dominated by precise contingent learning, it also revealed hallmarks of noncontingent learning strategies. These learning mechanisms were separable behaviorally and neurally. Lateral orbitofrontal cortex supported contingent learning and reflected contingencies between outcomes and their causal choices. Amygdala responses around reward times related to statistical patterns of learning. Time-based heuristic mechanisms were related to activity in sensorimotor corticostriatal circuitry. Our data point to the existence of several learning mechanisms in the human brain, of which only one relies on applying known rules about the causal structure of the task. PMID:26971947

Extending overjustification: the effect of perceived reward-giver intention on response to rewards.

Science.gov (United States)

Forehand, M R

2000-12-01

The perceived intention model incorporates a new moderator, beliefs about reward-giver intention, into the overjustification paradigm. In 2 simulated shopping studies featuring products paired with promotional rewards, consumers who believed the marketer was promotion focused (reward used to encourage purchase) reported lower purchase intentions and brand attitudes for promoted products after promotion, whereas consumers who believed the marketer was reward focused (promotion used to distribute the reward) showed no attitude change. Promotion-focus beliefs lowered attitudes by heightening the contingency between the promotion and purchase and thereby increasing the perceived causal role of the reward. This effect was contingent on initial behavior--postpromotion attitude change occurred for consumers who actively engaged in product decisions but not for consumers who passively observed the choice sets.

Neural Processing of Calories in Brain Reward Areas Can be Modulated by Reward Sensitivity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Rijn, Inge; Griffioen-Roose, Sanne; de Graaf, Cees; Smeets, Paul A M

A food's reward value is dependent on its caloric content. Furthermore, a food's acute reward value also depends on hunger state. The drive to obtain rewards (reward sensitivity), however, differs between individuals. Here, we assessed the association between brain responses to calories in the mouth

Altered structural and effective connectivity in anorexia and bulimia nervosa in circuits that regulate energy and reward homeostasis.

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, G K W; Shott, M E; Riederer, J; Pryor, T L

2016-11-01

Anorexia and bulimia nervosa are severe eating disorders that share many behaviors. Structural and functional brain circuits could provide biological links that those disorders have in common. We recruited 77 young adult women, 26 healthy controls, 26 women with anorexia and 25 women with bulimia nervosa. Probabilistic tractography was used to map white matter connectivity strength across taste and food intake regulating brain circuits. An independent multisample greedy equivalence search algorithm tested effective connectivity between those regions during sucrose tasting. Anorexia and bulimia nervosa had greater structural connectivity in pathways between insula, orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, but lower connectivity from orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala to the hypothalamus (Pbulimia nervosa effective connectivity was directed from anterior cingulate via ventral striatum to the hypothalamus. Across all groups, sweetness perception was predicted by connectivity strength in pathways connecting to the middle orbitofrontal cortex. This study provides evidence that white matter structural as well as effective connectivity within the energy-homeostasis and food reward-regulating circuitry is fundamentally different in anorexia and bulimia nervosa compared with that in controls. In eating disorders, anterior cingulate cognitive-emotional top down control could affect food reward and eating drive, override hypothalamic inputs to the ventral striatum and enable prolonged food restriction.

The strategic importance of motivational rewards for lower-level employees in the manufacturing and retailing industries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CA Arnolds

2007-02-01

Full Text Available One of the biggest challenges that managers face in executing business strategies to achieve competitive advantage, is the employment of motivational techniques that build wholehearted commitment to operating excellence. Much confusion however still exists on the question of which rewards really motivate employees. This study investigates which rewards motivate lower-level employees (N = 367 in both manufacturing and clothing retail firms. The results show that the most important individual motivational reward for blue-collar employees is paid holidays and for frontline employees, retirement plans. The most important motivational reward category for both blue-collar and frontline employees is fringe benefits (paid holidays, sick leave and housing loans.

At what stage of neural processing does cocaine act to boost pursuit of rewards?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Hernandez

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Dopamine-containing neurons have been implicated in reward and decision making. One element of the supporting evidence is that cocaine, like other drugs that increase dopaminergic neurotransmission, powerfully potentiates reward seeking. We analyze this phenomenon from a novel perspective, introducing a new conceptual framework and new methodology for determining the stage(s of neural processing at which drugs, lesions and physiological manipulations act to influence reward-seeking behavior. Cocaine strongly boosts the proclivity of rats to work for rewarding electrical brain stimulation. We show that the conventional conceptual framework and methods do not distinguish between three conflicting accounts of how the drug produces this effect: increased sensitivity of brain reward circuitry, increased gain, or decreased subjective reward costs. Sensitivity determines the stimulation strength required to produce a reward of a given intensity (a measure analogous to the KM of an enzyme whereas gain determines the maximum intensity attainable (a measure analogous to the vmax of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. To distinguish sensitivity changes from the other determinants, we measured and modeled reward seeking as a function of both stimulation strength and opportunity cost. The principal effect of cocaine was a two-fourfold increase in willingness to pay for the electrical reward, an effect consistent with increased gain or decreased subjective cost. This finding challenges the long-standing view that cocaine increases the sensitivity of brain reward circuitry. We discuss the implications of the results and the analytic approach for theories of how dopaminergic neurons and other diffuse modulatory brain systems contribute to reward pursuit, and we explore the implications of the conceptual framework for the study of natural rewards, drug reward, and mood.

Motivation and reward systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Eerde, W.; Vodosek, M.; den Hartog, D.N.; McNett, J.M.

2014-01-01

Reward systems are identified as one of the human resource management (HRM) practices that may impact motivation. Reward systems may consist of several components, including financial and nonfinancial rewards, in fixed and variable amounts. Reinforcement, expectancy, and equity principles are

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

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Major depressive disorder is characterized by greater reward network activation to monetary than pleasant image rewards.

Science.gov (United States)

Smoski, Moria J; Rittenberg, Alison; Dichter, Gabriel S

2011-12-30

Anhedonia, the loss of interest or pleasure in normally rewarding activities, is a hallmark feature of unipolar Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). A growing body of literature has identified frontostriatal dysfunction during reward anticipation and outcomes in MDD. However, no study to date has directly compared responses to different types of rewards such as pleasant images and monetary rewards in MDD. To investigate the neural responses to monetary and pleasant image rewards in MDD, a modified Monetary Incentive Delay task was used during functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess neural responses during anticipation and receipt of monetary and pleasant image rewards. Participants included nine adults with MDD and 13 affectively healthy controls. The MDD group showed lower activation than controls when anticipating monetary rewards in right orbitofrontal cortex and subcallosal cortex, and when anticipating pleasant image rewards in paracingulate and supplementary motor cortex. The MDD group had relatively greater activation in right putamen when anticipating monetary versus pleasant image rewards, relative to the control group. Results suggest reduced reward network activation in MDD when anticipating rewards, as well as relatively greater hypoactivation to pleasant image than monetary rewards. 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The motivational value of rewards amongst Malawi’s health professionals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alfred W.D. Chanza

2013-08-01

Research purpose: This study focuses on assessing the motivational value of rewards amongst health professionals in Malawi’s Ministry of Health (MoH. Motivation for the study: Malawian studies indicate that Malawi’s MoH has become dysfunctional largely due to reward-related problems faced by its health professionals. Research design, approach and method: This study was a non-experimental design with an explanatory and evaluative approach, utilising both quantitative (questionnaire and qualitative methods (literature review, interviews and focus group discussions. Main findings: The study confirmed the existence of reward-related problems amongst health professionals in Malawi’s MoH. Initially, statistical testing of the hypothesised model collapsed, suggesting that no relationship existed amongst the variables. However, statistical testing of the re-specified model suggests that there is a positive relationship between financial and non-financial rewards. Through the structural equation modeling (SEM exercise, an inverse (negative relationship between financial and non-financial rewards was established. Practical/managerial implications: The re-specified model symbolises a pragmatic departure from theoretical claims that financial rewards (salaries or money in general are not a motivator. The graphic model suggests to managers and policy-makers that both financial and non-financial rewards are very important and valuable in any employment relationship. Contribution/value-add: An inverse (causal relationship between financial and non-financial rewards has been established, graphically demonstrated and scientifically explained.

Multiple reward-cue contingencies favor expectancy over uncertainty in shaping the reward-cue attentional salience.

Science.gov (United States)

De Tommaso, Matteo; Mastropasqua, Tommaso; Turatto, Massimo

2018-01-25

Reward-predicting cues attract attention because of their motivational value. A debated question regards the conditions under which the cue's attentional salience is governed more by reward expectancy rather than by reward uncertainty. To help shedding light on this relevant issue, here, we manipulated expectancy and uncertainty using three levels of reward-cue contingency, so that, for example, a high level of reward expectancy (p = .8) was compared with the highest level of reward uncertainty (p = .5). In Experiment 1, the best reward-cue during conditioning was preferentially attended in a subsequent visual search task. This result was replicated in Experiment 2, in which the cues were matched in terms of response history. In Experiment 3, we implemented a hybrid procedure consisting of two phases: an omission contingency procedure during conditioning, followed by a visual search task as in the previous experiments. Crucially, during both phases, the reward-cues were never task relevant. Results confirmed that, when multiple reward-cue contingencies are explored by a human observer, expectancy is the major factor controlling both the attentional and the oculomotor salience of the reward-cue.

Monetary reward modulates task-irrelevant perceptual learning for invisible stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Pascucci, David; Mastropasqua, Tommaso; Turatto, Massimo

2015-01-01

Task Irrelevant Perceptual Learning (TIPL) shows that the brain's discriminative capacity can improve also for invisible and unattended visual stimuli. It has been hypothesized that this form of "unconscious" neural plasticity is mediated by an endogenous reward mechanism triggered by the correct task performance. Although this result has challenged the mandatory role of attention in perceptual learning, no direct evidence exists of the hypothesized link between target recognition, reward and TIPL. Here, we manipulated the reward value associated with a target to demonstrate the involvement of reinforcement mechanisms in sensory plasticity for invisible inputs. Participants were trained in a central task associated with either high or low monetary incentives, provided only at the end of the experiment, while subliminal stimuli were presented peripherally. Our results showed that high incentive-value targets induced a greater degree of perceptual improvement for the subliminal stimuli, supporting the role of reinforcement mechanisms in TIPL.

The amygdala, reward and emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

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.

High temporal discounters overvalue immediate rewards rather than undervalue future rewards: an event-related brain potential study.

Science.gov (United States)

Cherniawsky, Avital S; Holroyd, Clay B

2013-03-01

Impulsivity is characterized in part by heightened sensitivity to immediate relative to future rewards. Although previous research has suggested that "high discounters" in intertemporal choice tasks tend to prefer immediate over future rewards because they devalue the latter, it remains possible that they instead overvalue immediate rewards. To investigate this question, we recorded the reward positivity, a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) associated with reward processing, with participants engaged in a task in which they received both immediate and future rewards and nonrewards. The participants also completed a temporal discounting task without ERP recording. We found that immediate but not future rewards elicited the reward positivity. High discounters also produced larger reward positivities to immediate rewards than did low discounters, indicating that high discounters relatively overvalued immediate rewards. These findings suggest that high discounters may be more motivated than low discounters to work for monetary rewards, irrespective of the time of arrival of the incentives.

Addictive drugs and brain stimulation reward.

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Wise, R A

1996-01-01

Direct electrical or chemical stimulation of specific brain regions can establish response habits similar to those established by natural rewards such as food or sexual contact. Cocaine, mu and delta opiates, nicotine, phencyclidine, and cannabis each have actions that summate with rewarding electrical stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB). The reward-potentiating effects of amphetamine and opiates are associated with central sites of action where these drugs also have their direct rewarding effects, suggesting common mechanisms for drug reward per se and for drug potentiation of brain stimulation reward. The central sites at which these and perhaps other drugs of abuse potentiate brain stimulation reward and are rewarding in their own right are consistent with the hypothesis that the laboratory reward of brain stimulation and the pharmacological rewards of addictive drugs are habit forming because they act in the brain circuits that subserve more natural and biologically significant rewards.

A Markov reward model checker

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Katoen, Joost P.; Maneesh Khattri, M.; Zapreev, I.S.; Zapreev, I.S.

2005-01-01

This short tool paper introduces MRMC, a model checker for discrete-time and continuous-time Markov reward models. It supports reward extensions of PCTL and CSL, and allows for the automated verification of properties concerning long-run and instantaneous rewards as well as cumulative rewards. In

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.

Impaired reward responsiveness in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Nicholas; Hollis, Jeffrey P; Corcoran, Sarah; Gross, Robin; Cuthbert, Bruce; Swails, Lisette W; Duncan, Erica

2018-03-08

Anhedonia is a core negative symptom of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia patients report largely intact pleasure in consuming rewards, but have impairments in generating motivated behavior to pursue rewards, and show reduced fMRI activation of the reward pathway during presentation of rewarded stimuli. A computer based task measuring the development of a response bias in favor of rewarded stimuli permits assessment of reward-induced motivation. We hypothesized that subjects with schizophrenia would be impaired on this task. 58 schizophrenia subjects (SCZ) and 52 healthy controls (CON) were studied with a signal detection task to assess reward responsiveness. In multiple trials over three blocks subjects were asked to correctly identify two stimuli that were paired with unequal chance of monetary reward. The critical outcome variable was response bias, the development of a greater percent correct identification of the stimulus that was rewarded more often. An ANOVA on response bias with Block as a repeated-measures factor and Diagnosis as a between-group factor indicated that SCZ subjects achieved a lower bias to rewarded stimuli than CON subjects (F(1,105)=8.82, p=0.004, η 2 =0.078). Post hoc tests indicated that SCZ subjects had significantly impaired bias in Block 1 (p=0.002) and Block 2 (p=0.05), indicating that SCZ were slower to achieve normal levels of bias during the session. SCZ subjects were slower to develop response bias to rewarded stimuli than CON subjects. This finding is consonant with the hypothesis that people with schizophrenia have a blunted capacity to modify behavior in response to reward. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Monetary rewards modulate inhibitory control

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Paula Marcela Herrera

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The ability to override a dominant response, often referred to as behavioural inhibiton, is considered a key element of executive cognition. Poor behavioural inhibition is a defining characteristic of several neurological and psychiatric populations. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the motivational dimension of behavioural inhibition, with some experiments incorporating emotional contingencies in classical inhibitory paradigms such as the Go/Nogo and Stop Signal Tasks. Several studies have reported a positive modulatory effect of reward on the performance of such tasks in pathological conditions such as substance abuse, pathological gambling, and ADHD. However, experiments that directly investigate the modulatory effects of reward magnitudes on the performance of inhibitory paradigms are rare and consequently, little is known about the finer grained relationship between motivation and self-control. Here, we probed the effect of reward and reward magnitude on behavioural inhibition using two modified version of the widely used Stop Signal Task. The first task compared no reward with reward, whilst the other compared two different reward magnitudes. The reward magnitude effect was confirmed by the second study, whereas it was less compelling in the first study, possibly due to the effect of having no reward in some conditions. In addition, our results showed a kick start effect over global performance measures. More specifically, there was a long lasting improvement in performance throughout the task, when participants received the highest reward magnitudes at the beginning of the protocol. These results demonstrate that individuals’ behavioural inhibition capacities are dynamic not static because they are modulated by the reward magnitude and initial reward history of the task at hand.

When goals conflict with values: counterproductive attentional and oculomotor capture by reward-related stimuli.

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Le Pelley, Mike E; Pearson, Daniel; Griffiths, Oren; Beesley, Tom

2015-02-01

Attention provides the gateway to cognition, by selecting certain stimuli for further analysis. Recent research demonstrates that whether a stimulus captures attention is not determined solely by its physical properties, but is malleable, being influenced by our previous experience of rewards obtained by attending to that stimulus. Here we show that this influence of reward learning on attention extends to task-irrelevant stimuli. In a visual search task, certain stimuli signaled the magnitude of available reward, but reward delivery was not contingent on responding to those stimuli. Indeed, any attentional capture by these critical distractor stimuli led to a reduction in the reward obtained. Nevertheless, distractors signaling large reward produced greater attentional and oculomotor capture than those signaling small reward. This counterproductive capture by task-irrelevant stimuli is important because it demonstrates how external reward structures can produce patterns of behavior that conflict with task demands, and similar processes may underlie problematic behavior directed toward real-world rewards.

Commitment to self-rewards

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch, Alexander; Nafziger, Julia

People often overcome self-control problems by promising to reward themselves for accomplishing a task. Such strategies based on self-administered rewards however require the person to believe that she would indeed deny herself the reward if she should fail to achieve the desired outcome. Drawing...... on Koszegi and Rabin's (2006) model of endogenous reference point formation, we show how a rational forward-looking individual can achieve such internal commitment. But our results also demonstrate the limitations of self regulation based on self-rewards....

Violent video games: The effects of narrative context and reward structure on in-game and postgame aggression.

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Sauer, James D; Drummond, Aaron; Nova, Natalie

2015-09-01

The potential influence of video game violence on real-world aggression has generated considerable public and scientific interest. Some previous research suggests that playing violent video games can increase postgame aggression. The generalized aggression model (GAM) attributes this to the generalized activation of aggressive schemata. However, it is unclear whether game mechanics that contextualize and encourage or inhibit in-game violence moderate this relationship. Thus, we examined the effects of reward structures and narrative context in a violent video game on in-game and postgame aggression. Contrary to GAM-based predictions, our manipulations differentially affected in-game and postgame aggression. Reward structures selectively affected in-game aggression, whereas narrative context selectively affected postgame aggression. Players who enacted in-game violence through a heroic character exhibited less postgame aggression than players who enacted comparable levels of in-game violence through an antiheroic character. Effects were not attributable to self-activation or character-identification mechanisms, but were consistent with social-cognitive context effects on the interpretation of behavior. These results contradict the GAM's assertion that violent video games affect aggression through a generalized activation mechanism. From an applied perspective, consumer choices may be aided by considering not just game content, but the context in which content is portrayed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Reward mechanisms in the brain and their role in dependence : evidence from neurophysiological and neuroimaging studies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Martin-Soelch, C; Leenders, KL; Chevalley, AF; Missimer, J; Kunig, G; Magyar, S; Mino, A; Schultz, W

2001-01-01

This article reviews neuronal activity related to reward processing in primate and human brains. In the primate brain, neurophysiological methods provide a differentiated view of reward processing in a limited number of brain structures. Dopamine neurons respond to unpredictable rewards and produce

Introduction: Addiction and Brain Reward and Anti-Reward Pathways

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Gardner, Eliot L.

2013-01-01

Addictive drugs have in common that they are voluntarily self-administered by laboratory animals (usually avidly) and that they enhance the functioning of the reward circuitry of the brain (producing the “high” that the drug-user seeks). The core reward circuitry consists of an “in series” circuit linking the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, and ventral pallidum - via the medial forebrain bundle. Although originally believed to encode simply the set-point of hedonic tone, these circuits are now believed to be functionally far more complex - also encoding attention, expectancy of reward, disconfirmation of reward expectancy, and incentive motivation. “Hedonic dysregulation” within these circuits may lead to addiction. The “second-stage” dopaminergic component in this reward circuitry is the crucial addictive-drug-sensitive component. All addictive drugs have in common that they enhance (directly or indirectly or even transsynaptically) dopaminergic reward synaptic function in the nucleus accumbens. Drug self-administration is regulated by nucleus accumbens dopamine levels, and is done to keep nucleus accumbens dopamine within a specific elevated range (to maintain a desired hedonic level). For some classes of addictive drugs (e.g., opiates), tolerance to the euphoric effects develops with chronic use. Post-use dysphoria then comes to dominate reward circuit hedonic tone, and addicts no longer use drugs to get “high,” but simply to get back to normal (“get straight”). The brain circuits mediating the pleasurable effects of addictive drugs are anatomically, neurophysiologically, and neurochemically different from those mediating physical dependence, and from those mediating craving and relapse. There are important genetic variations in vulnerability to drug addiction, yet environmental factors such as stress and social defeat also alter brain-reward mechanisms in such a manner as to impart vulnerability to addiction. In short, the �

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.

An empirical study of the reward preferences of South African employees

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Robin J. Snelgar

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Adapting traditional reward systems to focus on employee preferences has become a necessity as companies strive to attract, motivate and retain a skilled and high performing workforce. Research purpose: The aim of the study was to identify certain categories of rewards that employees consider to be most important, including base pay, contingency pay, benefits, performance and career management, quality work environment, and work–home integration. The impact of these reward categories on an organisation’s ability to attract, motivate and retain employees was explored, together with the influence of demographic variables on reward preferences. Motivation for the study: There is much debate over whether reward packages should be tailor-made to suit individual employees. It has been argued that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach with regard to rewards is no longer effective. Research design, approach and method: A structured questionnaire, based on the total rewards model, was used to achieve the objectives of the study. A sample of 250 employees from 11 medium-sized to large-sized organisations participated in the study. Main findings: The results showed that base pay is deemed to be the most preferred reward component amongst respondents; however, they are most dissatisfied with the level at which this reward is provided by their current employers. Base pay is also the most important reward when attracting and retaining employees. Differences between reward preferences and demographic variables, including age, gender and job level, were found. Practical/managerial implications: Organisations should design their reward systems according to the preferences of their employees by focusing on base pay and contingency or variable pay. These rewards will also serve to retain them; although, to motivate employees, non-cash awards and recognition should be emphasised. Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to literature on reward

The influence of organisational rewards on workplace trust and work engagement

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Janine Victor

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Orientation: In volatile and competitive business environments, organisations are faced with challenges to retain talented workers. Employees are increasingly leaving their jobs for a number of reasons, one of them being a perceived lack of adequate reward practices. Consequently, this has impacted on employee work engagement and confidence and trust in organisations. Research purpose: The study sought to determine whether there is a relationship between rewards, trust and engagement, as well as whether rewards are able to predict trust and engagement in the South African workplace. Motivation for the study: Organisations can no longer solely rely on extrinsic rewards to retain talent. Companies must draw on both extrinsic and intrinsic reward strategies to improve retention levels through endorsing higher levels of workplace trust and work engagement levels. Research design, approach and method: A quantitative, exploratory and cross-sectional research design was utilised. Non-probability sampling using questionnaires consisting of scales from the Job Satisfaction Survey, Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, Psychological Meaningfulness Scale, Basic Needs at Work Scale, Workplace Trust Survey and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were administered to a sample (N = 251 of South African employees in various industries within the Gauteng region. Main findings: Results indicated that there is a moderate-to-strong positive relationship between the three constructs, and that rewards are able to predict trust and engagement. Practical and managerial implications: The findings provide insight for behavioural practitioners to potentially draw upon when improving talent management strategies. Both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards are important factors in keeping employees engaged and ultimately retaining them. Contribution: The study provided insight into the influence that organisational rewards may have on workplace trust, work engagement and retaining employees

Reward and punishment.

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Sigmund, K; Hauert, C; Nowak, M A

2001-09-11

Minigames capturing the essence of Public Goods experiments show that even in the absence of rationality assumptions, both punishment and reward will fail to bring about prosocial behavior. This result holds in particular for the well-known Ultimatum Game, which emerges as a special case. But reputation can induce fairness and cooperation in populations adapting through learning or imitation. Indeed, the inclusion of reputation effects in the corresponding dynamical models leads to the evolution of economically productive behavior, with agents contributing to the public good and either punishing those who do not or rewarding those who do. Reward and punishment correspond to two types of bifurcation with intriguing complementarity. The analysis suggests that reputation is essential for fostering social behavior among selfish agents, and that it is considerably more effective with punishment than with reward.

Longitudinal Changes in Behavioral Approach System Sensitivity and Brain Structures Involved in Reward Processing during Adolescence

OpenAIRE

Urošević, Snežana; Collins, Paul; Muetzel, Ryan; Lim, Kelvin; Luciana, Monica

2012-01-01

Adolescence is a period of radical normative changes and increased risk for substance use, mood disorders, and physical injury. Researchers have proposed that increases in reward sensitivity, i.e., sensitivity of the behavioral approach system (BAS), and/or increases in reactivity to all emotional stimuli (i.e., reward and threat sensitivities) lead to these phenomena. The present study is the first longitudinal investigation of changes in reward (i.e., BAS) sensitivity in 9 to 23-year-olds a...

Monetary reward modulates task-irrelevant perceptual learning for invisible stimuli.

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David Pascucci

Full Text Available Task Irrelevant Perceptual Learning (TIPL shows that the brain's discriminative capacity can improve also for invisible and unattended visual stimuli. It has been hypothesized that this form of "unconscious" neural plasticity is mediated by an endogenous reward mechanism triggered by the correct task performance. Although this result has challenged the mandatory role of attention in perceptual learning, no direct evidence exists of the hypothesized link between target recognition, reward and TIPL. Here, we manipulated the reward value associated with a target to demonstrate the involvement of reinforcement mechanisms in sensory plasticity for invisible inputs. Participants were trained in a central task associated with either high or low monetary incentives, provided only at the end of the experiment, while subliminal stimuli were presented peripherally. Our results showed that high incentive-value targets induced a greater degree of perceptual improvement for the subliminal stimuli, supporting the role of reinforcement mechanisms in TIPL.

Modulation of neural activity by reward in medial intraparietal cortex is sensitive to temporal sequence of reward

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Rajalingham, Rishi; Stacey, Richard Greg; Tsoulfas, Georgios

2014-01-01

To restore movements to paralyzed patients, neural prosthetic systems must accurately decode patients' intentions from neural signals. Despite significant advancements, current systems are unable to restore complex movements. Decoding reward-related signals from the medial intraparietal area (MIP) could enhance prosthetic performance. However, the dynamics of reward sensitivity in MIP is not known. Furthermore, reward-related modulation in premotor areas has been attributed to behavioral confounds. Here we investigated the stability of reward encoding in MIP by assessing the effect of reward history on reward sensitivity. We recorded from neurons in MIP while monkeys performed a delayed-reach task under two reward schedules. In the variable schedule, an equal number of small- and large-rewards trials were randomly interleaved. In the constant schedule, one reward size was delivered for a block of trials. The memory period firing rate of most neurons in response to identical rewards varied according to schedule. Using systems identification tools, we attributed the schedule sensitivity to the dependence of neural activity on the history of reward. We did not find schedule-dependent behavioral changes, suggesting that reward modulates neural activity in MIP. Neural discrimination between rewards was less in the variable than in the constant schedule, degrading our ability to decode reach target and reward simultaneously. The effect of schedule was mitigated by adding Haar wavelet coefficients to the decoding model. This raises the possibility of multiple encoding schemes at different timescales and reinforces the potential utility of reward information for prosthetic performance. PMID:25008408

Modulation of neural activity by reward in medial intraparietal cortex is sensitive to temporal sequence of reward.

Science.gov (United States)

Rajalingham, Rishi; Stacey, Richard Greg; Tsoulfas, Georgios; Musallam, Sam

2014-10-01

To restore movements to paralyzed patients, neural prosthetic systems must accurately decode patients' intentions from neural signals. Despite significant advancements, current systems are unable to restore complex movements. Decoding reward-related signals from the medial intraparietal area (MIP) could enhance prosthetic performance. However, the dynamics of reward sensitivity in MIP is not known. Furthermore, reward-related modulation in premotor areas has been attributed to behavioral confounds. Here we investigated the stability of reward encoding in MIP by assessing the effect of reward history on reward sensitivity. We recorded from neurons in MIP while monkeys performed a delayed-reach task under two reward schedules. In the variable schedule, an equal number of small- and large-rewards trials were randomly interleaved. In the constant schedule, one reward size was delivered for a block of trials. The memory period firing rate of most neurons in response to identical rewards varied according to schedule. Using systems identification tools, we attributed the schedule sensitivity to the dependence of neural activity on the history of reward. We did not find schedule-dependent behavioral changes, suggesting that reward modulates neural activity in MIP. Neural discrimination between rewards was less in the variable than in the constant schedule, degrading our ability to decode reach target and reward simultaneously. The effect of schedule was mitigated by adding Haar wavelet coefficients to the decoding model. This raises the possibility of multiple encoding schemes at different timescales and reinforces the potential utility of reward information for prosthetic performance. Copyright © 2014 the American Physiological Society.

The impact of a total reward system of work engagement

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Crystal Hoole

2016-11-01

Research purpose: The overall purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between total rewards and work engagement in a South African context and to determine which reward categories predict work engagement. The study further endeavoured to determine whether gender and age had a moderating effect on the relationship between total rewards and engagement. Motivation for the study: Statistics report that less than 30% of all working people are optimally engaged in their work. Considering that individuals spend more than a third of their lives at work committing themselves emotionally, physically and psychologically – research indicates that employees are no longer satisfied with traditional reward systems and want to feel valued and appreciated. Research approach, design and method: In this quantitative, cross-sectional research design using a non-probability convenience and purposive sampling strategy, 318 questionnaires were collected and analysed from financial institutions in Gauteng in which opinions were sought on the importance of different types of rewards structures and preferences, and how engaged they are in their workplace. The 17-item UWES and Nienaber total reward preference model were the chosen measuring instruments. Main findings: A small statistically significant correlation (r = 0.25; p < 0.05; small effect was found between total rewards and work engagement, and 12% of the variance of work engagement was explained. Only performance and career management significantly predicted work engagement. Practical/Managerial implications: Although small, the significant correlation between total rewards and work engagement implies that total rewards are important motivators for employees in the workplace. Of the total rewards scales tested, only performance and career management significantly predicted work engagement, suggesting that more research is needed. Organisations seeking to implement total reward strategies should pay specific

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.

The effect of a primary sexual reward manipulation on cortisol responses to psychosocial stress in men.

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Creswell, J David; Pacilio, Laura E; Denson, Thomas F; Satyshur, Maureen

2013-05-01

Although previous research provides evidence for the role of rewarding activities in reducing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to stress, no studies have tested whether rewards can buffer cortisol responses in humans undergoing social stressors. This study experimentally investigated whether viewing appetitive rewarding pictures reduces cortisol responses to an acute stress challenge. Fifty-four heterosexual men were randomly assigned to view either mildly erotic (reward) or neutral images (control) of mixed-sex couples before completing the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Participants in the reward condition had significantly lower area-under-the-curve cortisol reactivity to the TSST (mean [M] = 363.46) in comparison with participants in the control group (M = 807.06; F(1,46) = 4.84, p = .033, η(2) = 0.095). Reward participants also had improved cognitive performance on the math portion of the TSST (M = 20.74) in comparison with control participants (M = 13.82; F(44) = 5.44, p = .024, η(2) = 0.11). The stress-buffering effects of reward were specific to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity: the reward and control groups did not differ on psychological perceptions of anticipatory or poststress perceptions, heart rate, or blood pressure responses. This research provides the first evidence linking the experience of reward with reduced stress reactivity in humans and suggests a potential novel reward pathway for coping under stress.

Dorsomedial striatum lesions affect adjustment to reward uncertainty, but not to reward devaluation or omission.

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Torres, Carmen; Glueck, Amanda C; Conrad, Shannon E; Morón, Ignacio; Papini, Mauricio R

2016-09-22

The dorsomedial striatum (DMS) has been implicated in the acquisition of reward representations, a proposal leading to the hypothesis that it should play a role in situations involving reward loss. We report the results of an experiment in which the effects of DMS excitotoxic lesions were tested in consummatory successive negative contrast (reward devaluation), autoshaping training with partial vs. continuous reinforcement (reward uncertainty), and appetitive extinction (reward omission). Animals with DMS lesions exhibited reduced lever pressing responding, but enhanced goal entries, during partial reinforcement training in autoshaping. However, they showed normal negative contrast, acquisition under continuous reinforcement (CR), appetitive extinction, and response facilitation in early extinction trials. Open-field testing also indicated normal motor behavior. Thus, DMS lesions selectively affected the behavioral adjustment to a situation involving reward uncertainty, producing a behavioral reorganization according to which goal tracking (goal entries) became predominant at the expense of sign tracking (lever pressing). This pattern of results shows that the function of the DMS in situations involving reward loss is not general, but restricted to reward uncertainty. We suggest that a nonassociative, drive-related process induced by reward uncertainty requires normal output from DMS neurons. Copyright © 2016 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Extinction Can Reduce the Impact of Reward Cues on Reward-Seeking Behavior.

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Lovibond, Peter F; Satkunarajah, Michelle; Colagiuri, Ben

2015-07-01

Reward-associated cues are thought to promote relapse after treatment of appetitive disorders such as drug-taking, binge eating, and gambling. This process has been modelled in the laboratory using a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) design in which Pavlovian cues facilitate instrumental reward-directed action. Attempts to reduce facilitation by cue exposure (extinction) have produced mixed results. We tested the effect of extinction in a recently developed PIT procedure using a natural reward, chocolate, in human participants. Facilitation of instrumental responding was only observed in participants who were aware of the Pavlovian contingencies. Pavlovian extinction successfully reduced, but did not completely eliminate, expectancy of reward and facilitation of instrumental responding. The results indicate that exposure can reduce the ability of cues to promote reward-directed behavior in the laboratory. However, the residual potency of extinguished cues means that additional active strategies may be needed in clinical practice to train patients to resist the impact of these cues in their environment. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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

OpenAIRE

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

2012-01-01

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 rewa...

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

NARCIS (Netherlands)

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

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

Reward eliminates retrieval-induced forgetting.

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Imai, Hisato; Kim, Dongho; Sasaki, Yuka; Watanabe, Takeo

2014-12-02

Although it is well known that reward enhances learning and memory, how extensively such enhancement occurs remains unclear. To address this question, we examined how reward influences retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) in which the retrieval of a nonpracticed item under the same category as a practiced item is worse than the retrieval of a nonpracticed item outside the category. Subjects were asked to try to encode category-exemplar pairs (e.g., FISH-salmon). Then, they were presented with a category name and a two-letter word stem (e.g., FISH-sa) and were asked to complete an encoded word (retrieval practice). For a correct response, apple juice was given as a reward in the reward condition and a beeping sound was presented in the no-reward condition. Finally, subjects were asked to report whether each exemplar had been presented in the first phase. RIF was replicated in the no-reward condition. However, in the reward condition, RIF was eliminated. These results suggest that reward enhances processing of retrieval of unpracticed members by mechanisms such as spreading activation within the same category, irrespective of whether items were practiced or not.

Effects of sleep deprivation on retrieval and reconsolidation of morphine reward memory in rats.

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Shi, Hai-Shui; Luo, Yi-Xiao; Xue, Yan-Xue; Wu, Ping; Zhu, Wei-Li; Ding, Zeng-Bo; Lu, Lin

2011-04-01

Relapse induced by exposure to cues associated with drugs of abuse is a major challenge to the treatment of drug addiction. Drug seeking can be inhibited by manipulation of the reconsolidation of drug-related memory. Sleep has been proposed to be involved in various memory processes. However, the role of sleep in drug reward memory is not clear. The present study used conditioned place preference to examine the effects of total sleep deprivation on retrieval and reconsolidation of morphine reward memory in rats. Six-hour total sleep deprivation had no effect on the retrieval of morphine reward memory. However, sleep deprivation from 0-6 h, but not 6-12 h, after re-exposure disrupted the reconsolidation of morphine reward memory. This impairment was not attributable to the formation of an aversive associative memory between the drug-paired context and sleep deprivation. Our findings suggest that sleep plays a critical role in morphine reward memory reconsolidation, and sleep deprivation may be a potential non-pharmacotherapy for the management of relapse associated with drug-related memory. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mental health among Norwegian priests: associations with effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment.

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Lau, Bjørn

2018-01-01

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms among Norwegian priests and to examine their associations with effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and overcommitment. Eight hundred four priests in the Norwegian Church completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire (ERI-Q), and the Intrinsic Effort Scale, measuring overcommitment. A significant proportion of the priests (23.4%) had HADS scores indicating a possible anxiety problem. Somewhat fewer had depression problems (9.3%). Both anxiety and depression difficulties were associated with an imbalance between effort given and rewards received at work. Priests characterized by a combination of this imbalance and high scores on overcommitment had more anxiety and depression symptoms. There is a higher occurrence of mental health challenges among priests than among the regular population. This applies in particular to anxiety symptoms measured by the HADS. These findings also indicate that it may be fruitful to explore mental health conditions among priests who report different combinations of effort-reward and overcommitment.

Neural basis of the undermining effect of monetary reward on intrinsic motivation.

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Murayama, Kou; Matsumoto, Madoka; Izuma, Keise; Matsumoto, Kenji

2010-12-07

Contrary to the widespread belief that people are positively motivated by reward incentives, some studies have shown that performance-based extrinsic reward can actually undermine a person's intrinsic motivation to engage in a task. This "undermining effect" has timely practical implications, given the burgeoning of performance-based incentive systems in contemporary society. It also presents a theoretical challenge for economic and reinforcement learning theories, which tend to assume that monetary incentives monotonically increase motivation. Despite the practical and theoretical importance of this provocative phenomenon, however, little is known about its neural basis. Herein we induced the behavioral undermining effect using a newly developed task, and we tracked its neural correlates using functional MRI. Our results show that performance-based monetary reward indeed undermines intrinsic motivation, as assessed by the number of voluntary engagements in the task. We found that activity in the anterior striatum and the prefrontal areas decreased along with this behavioral undermining effect. These findings suggest that the corticobasal ganglia valuation system underlies the undermining effect through the integration of extrinsic reward value and intrinsic task value.

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.

Monetary reward speeds up voluntary saccades.

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Chen, Lewis L; Chen, Y Mark; Zhou, Wu; Mustain, William D

2014-01-01

Past studies have shown that reward contingency is critical for sensorimotor learning, and reward expectation speeds up saccades in animals. Whether monetary reward speeds up saccades in human remains unknown. Here we addressed this issue by employing a conditional saccade task, in which human subjects performed a series of non-reflexive, visually-guided horizontal saccades. The subjects were (or were not) financially compensated for making a saccade in response to a centrally-displayed visual congruent (or incongruent) stimulus. Reward modulation of saccadic velocities was quantified independently of the amplitude-velocity coupling. We found that reward expectation significantly sped up voluntary saccades up to 30°/s, and the reward modulation was consistent across tests. These findings suggest that monetary reward speeds up saccades in human in a fashion analogous to how juice reward sped up saccades in monkeys. We further noticed that the idiosyncratic nasal-temporal velocity asymmetry was highly consistent regardless of test order, and its magnitude was not correlated with the magnitude of reward modulation. This suggests that reward modulation and the intrinsic velocity asymmetry may be governed by separate mechanisms that regulate saccade generation.

Shared neural coding for social hierarchy and reward value in primate amygdala.

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Munuera, Jérôme; Rigotti, Mattia; Salzman, C Daniel

2018-03-01

The social brain hypothesis posits that dedicated neural systems process social information. In support of this, neurophysiological data have shown that some brain regions are specialized for representing faces. It remains unknown, however, whether distinct anatomical substrates also represent more complex social variables, such as the hierarchical rank of individuals within a social group. Here we show that the primate amygdala encodes the hierarchical rank of individuals in the same neuronal ensembles that encode the rewards associated with nonsocial stimuli. By contrast, orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortices lack strong representations of hierarchical rank while still representing reward values. These results challenge the conventional view that dedicated neural systems process social information. Instead, information about hierarchical rank-which contributes to the assessment of the social value of individuals within a group-is linked in the amygdala to representations of rewards associated with nonsocial stimuli.

Developmental changes in the reward positivity: An electrophysiological trajectory of reward processing

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Carmen N. Lukie

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Children and adolescents learn to regulate their behavior by utilizing feedback from the environment but exactly how this ability develops remains unclear. To investigate this question, we recorded the event-related brain potential (ERP from children (8–13 years, adolescents (14–17 years and young adults (18–23 years while they navigated a “virtual maze” in pursuit of monetary rewards. The amplitude of the reward positivity, an ERP component elicited by feedback stimuli, was evaluated for each age group. A current theory suggests the reward positivity is produced by the impact of reinforcement learning signals carried by the midbrain dopamine system on anterior cingulate cortex, which utilizes the signals to learn and execute extended behaviors. We found that the three groups produced a reward positivity of comparable size despite relatively longer ERP component latencies for the children, suggesting that the reward processing system reaches maturity early in development. We propose that early development of the midbrain dopamine system facilitates the development of extended goal-directed behaviors in anterior cingulate cortex.

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

"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 relate to the Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS), and we find that the incentive salience or "wanting" hypothesis of DA function is supported by a majority of the evidence. Neuroimaging studies have shown that drugs of abuse, palatable foods, and anticipated behaviors such as sex and gaming affect brain regions involving reward circuitry, and may not be unidirectional. Drugs of abuse enhance DA signaling and sensitize mesolimbic mechanisms that evolved to attribute incentive salience to rewards. Addictive drugs have in common that they are voluntarily selfadministered, they enhance (directly or indirectly) dopaminergic synaptic function in the nucleus accumbens (NAC), and they stimulate the functioning of brain reward circuitry (producing the "high" that drug users seek). Although originally believed simply to encode the set point of hedonic tone, these circuits now are believed to be functionally more complex, also encoding attention, reward expectancy, disconfirmation of reward expectancy, and incentive motivation. Elevated stress levels, together with polymorphisms of dopaminergic genes and other neurotransmitter genetic variants, may have a cumulative effect on vulnerability to addiction. The RDS model of etiology holds very well for a variety of chemical and behavioral addictions.

Random reward priming is task-contingent

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ásgeirsson, Árni Gunnar; Kristjánsson, Árni

2014-01-01

Consistent financial reward of particular features influences the allocation of visual attention in many ways. More surprising are 1-trial reward priming effects on attention where reward schedules are random and reward on one trial influences attentional allocation on the next. Those findings...

Reward preferences for generations in selected Information and Communication Technology companies

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Annetjie Moore

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Previous research suggests that different generations have different reward preferences based on differences in values, frames of reference and life goals. Research purpose: The focus of this study was to determine whether different generations prefer different rewards in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT industry in South Africa.Motivation for the study: The rationale for this study was to obtain a better understanding of the reward preferences of Veterans, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y in the ICT industry.Research design, approach and method: The research was a quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational design. Participants from two ICT companies completed a structured electronic survey. One hundred and sixty four valid responses were received. A Cronbach’s alpha of 0.821 indicates that the survey was reliable.Main findings: Contrary to previous research, the results show that generations do not display different reward preferences.Practical/managerial implications: It would be more beneficial to use individual interrelationship factors to develop a reward strategy than generations.Contribution/value-add: The research has added insight and value to reward preferences for generations in the ICT sector.

Reward preferences for generations in selected Information and Communication Technology companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annetjie Moore

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Previous research suggests that different generations have different reward preferences based on differences in values, frames of reference and life goals. Research purpose: The focus of this study was to determine whether different generations prefer different rewards in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT industry in South Africa. Motivation for the study: The rationale for this study was to obtain a better understanding of the reward preferences of Veterans, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y in the ICT industry. Research design, approach and method: The research was a quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational design. Participants from two ICT companies completed a structured electronic survey. One hundred and sixty four valid responses were received. A Cronbach’s alpha of 0.821 indicates that the survey was reliable. Main findings: Contrary to previous research, the results show that generations do not display different reward preferences. Practical/managerial implications: It would be more beneficial to use individual interrelationship factors to develop a reward strategy than generations. Contribution/value-add: The research has added insight and value to reward preferences for generations in the ICT sector.

Incremental effects of reward on creativity.

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Eisenberger, R; Rhoades, L

2001-10-01

The authors examined 2 ways reward might increase creativity. First, reward contingent on creativity might increase extrinsic motivation. Studies 1 and 2 found that repeatedly giving preadolescent students reward for creative performance in 1 task increased their creativity in subsequent tasks. Study 3 reported that reward promised for creativity increased college students' creative task performance. Second, expected reward for high performance might increase creativity by enhancing perceived self-determination and, therefore, intrinsic task interest. Study 4 found that employees' intrinsic job interest mediated a positive relationship between expected reward for high performance and creative suggestions offered at work. Study 5 found that employees' perceived self-determination mediated a positive relationship between expected reward for high performance and the creativity of anonymous suggestions for helping the organization.

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...

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

Neural correlates of reward processing in healthy siblings of patients with schizophrenia : Reward processing in schizophrenia siblings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hanssen, E.M.E.

2015-01-01

Deficits in motivational behavior and psychotic symptoms often observed in schizophrenia (SZ) may be driven by dysfunctional reward processing (RP). RP can be divided in two different stages; reward anticipation and reward consumption. Aberrant processing during reward anticipation seems to be

Abnormal Social Reward Responses in Anorexia Nervosa: An fMRI Study.

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Via, Esther; Soriano-Mas, Carles; Sánchez, Isabel; Forcano, Laura; Harrison, Ben J; Davey, Christopher G; Pujol, Jesús; Martínez-Zalacaín, Ignacio; Menchón, José M; Fernández-Aranda, Fernando; Cardoner, Narcís

2015-01-01

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) display impaired social interactions, implicated in the development and prognosis of the disorder. Importantly, social behavior is modulated by reward-based processes, and dysfunctional at-brain-level reward responses have been involved in AN neurobiological models. However, no prior evidence exists of whether these neural alterations would be equally present in social contexts. In this study, we conducted a cross-sectional social-judgment functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of 20 restrictive-subtype AN patients and 20 matched healthy controls. Brain activity during acceptance and rejection was investigated and correlated with severity measures (Eating Disorder Inventory -EDI-2) and with personality traits of interest known to modulate social behavior (The Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire). Patients showed hypoactivation of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) during social acceptance and hyperactivation of visual areas during social rejection. Ventral striatum activation during rejection was positively correlated in patients with clinical severity scores. During acceptance, activation of the frontal opercula-anterior insula and dorsomedial/dorsolateral prefrontal cortices was differentially associated with reward sensitivity between groups. These results suggest an abnormal motivational drive for social stimuli, and involve overlapping social cognition and reward systems leading to a disruption of adaptive responses in the processing of social reward. The specific association of reward-related regions with clinical and psychometric measures suggests the putative involvement of reward structures in the maintenance of pathological behaviors in AN.

Abnormal Social Reward Responses in Anorexia Nervosa: An fMRI Study.

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Esther Via

Full Text Available Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN display impaired social interactions, implicated in the development and prognosis of the disorder. Importantly, social behavior is modulated by reward-based processes, and dysfunctional at-brain-level reward responses have been involved in AN neurobiological models. However, no prior evidence exists of whether these neural alterations would be equally present in social contexts. In this study, we conducted a cross-sectional social-judgment functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI study of 20 restrictive-subtype AN patients and 20 matched healthy controls. Brain activity during acceptance and rejection was investigated and correlated with severity measures (Eating Disorder Inventory -EDI-2 and with personality traits of interest known to modulate social behavior (The Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire. Patients showed hypoactivation of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC during social acceptance and hyperactivation of visual areas during social rejection. Ventral striatum activation during rejection was positively correlated in patients with clinical severity scores. During acceptance, activation of the frontal opercula-anterior insula and dorsomedial/dorsolateral prefrontal cortices was differentially associated with reward sensitivity between groups. These results suggest an abnormal motivational drive for social stimuli, and involve overlapping social cognition and reward systems leading to a disruption of adaptive responses in the processing of social reward. The specific association of reward-related regions with clinical and psychometric measures suggests the putative involvement of reward structures in the maintenance of pathological behaviors in AN.

Intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the South African retail industry

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Sara Jacobs

2014-11-01

Research purpose: The purpose of this research was to determine whether there is a relationship between intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the South African retail industry. Furthermore, it sought to validate an instrument to measure intrinsic rewards within the South African context. Motivation for the study: There is currently a paucity of research exploring intrinsic rewards, specifically their importance for work engagement. Furthermore, there is a lack of instruments validated in South Africa that can be used to measure intrinsic rewards. Research approach, design and method: This quantitative study was conducted using a cross-sectional design and non-probability sampling of 181 employees from a South African retail organisation. The questionnaire included a demographic section, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Work Engagement Profile. Main findings: Statistically significant, positive relationships were found between all subscales of the two instruments. There were significant differences in the means for intrinsic rewards and work engagement for gender and age. Notably, the exploratory factor analysis for both instruments did not support the factor structure indicated in the literature. Practical/managerial implications: South African retail organisations should create work environments that provide intrinsic rewards as part of their reward package, to encourage work engagement. Contribution/value-add: These findings add to the current body of literature regarding intrinsic rewards and work engagement and provide insight into variables that promote work engagement within the South African retail context.

Effects of group size and expectancy of reward on social loafing ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... years (mean age = 14.53). Results indicated that performance was significantly poorer in the group condition than in the alone condition (p. <05); and reward significantly attenuated social loafing effect in the group condition (p. <05). These observations were discussed in relation to the prevailing challenge in team work.

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.

A Challenge with the Greatest Reward

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Essary, Jessica

2007-01-01

For many teachers, the first time that they have a student who has little or no background with English, the thought of constantly engaging them in relevant activities throughout the entire day can be intimidating. Based on the author's experience teaching English language learners, she can assure teachers that it is a challenge worth facing. In…

Consolidation power of extrinsic rewards: reward cues enhance long-term memory for irrelevant past events.

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Murayama, Kou; Kitagami, Shinji

2014-02-01

Recent research suggests that extrinsic rewards promote memory consolidation through dopaminergic modulation processes. However, no conclusive behavioral evidence exists given that the influence of extrinsic reward on attention and motivation during encoding and consolidation processes are inherently confounded. The present study provides behavioral evidence that extrinsic rewards (i.e., monetary incentives) enhance human memory consolidation independently of attention and motivation. Participants saw neutral pictures, followed by a reward or control cue in an unrelated context. Our results (and a direct replication study) demonstrated that the reward cue predicted a retrograde enhancement of memory for the preceding neutral pictures. This retrograde effect was observed only after a delay, not immediately upon testing. An additional experiment showed that emotional arousal or unconscious resource mobilization cannot explain the retrograde enhancement effect. These results provide support for the notion that the dopaminergic memory consolidation effect can result from extrinsic reward.

Discrete-time rewards model-checked

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Larsen, K.G.; Andova, S.; Niebert, Peter; Hermanns, H.; Katoen, Joost P.

2003-01-01

This paper presents a model-checking approach for analyzing discrete-time Markov reward models. For this purpose, the temporal logic probabilistic CTL is extended with reward constraints. This allows to formulate complex measures – involving expected as well as accumulated rewards – in a precise and

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.

Individual differences in sensitivity to reward and punishment and neural activity during reward and avoidance learning.

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Kim, Sang Hee; Yoon, HeungSik; Kim, Hackjin; Hamann, Stephan

2015-09-01

In this functional neuroimaging study, we investigated neural activations during the process of learning to gain monetary rewards and to avoid monetary loss, and how these activations are modulated by individual differences in reward and punishment sensitivity. Healthy young volunteers performed a reinforcement learning task where they chose one of two fractal stimuli associated with monetary gain (reward trials) or avoidance of monetary loss (avoidance trials). Trait sensitivity to reward and punishment was assessed using the behavioral inhibition/activation scales (BIS/BAS). Functional neuroimaging results showed activation of the striatum during the anticipation and reception periods of reward trials. During avoidance trials, activation of the dorsal striatum and prefrontal regions was found. As expected, individual differences in reward sensitivity were positively associated with activation in the left and right ventral striatum during reward reception. Individual differences in sensitivity to punishment were negatively associated with activation in the left dorsal striatum during avoidance anticipation and also with activation in the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex during receiving monetary loss. These results suggest that learning to attain reward and learning to avoid loss are dependent on separable sets of neural regions whose activity is modulated by trait sensitivity to reward or punishment. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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.

The dark side of monetary incentive: how does extrinsic reward crowd out intrinsic motivation.

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Ma, Qingguo; Jin, Jia; Meng, Liang; Shen, Qiang

2014-02-12

It was widely believed that incentives could effectively enhance the motivation of both students and employees. However, psychologists reported that extrinsic reward actually could undermine individuals' intrinsic motivation to a given interesting task, which challenged viewpoints from traditional incentive theories. Numerous studies have been carried out to test and explain the undermining effect; however, the neural basis of this effect is still elusive. Here, we carried out an electrophysiological study with a simple but interesting stopwatch task to explore to what extent the performance-based monetary reward undermines individuals' intrinsic motivation toward the task. The electrophysiological data showed that the differentiated feedback-related negativity amplitude toward intrinsic success failure divergence was prominently reduced once the extrinsic reward was imposed beforehand. However, such a difference was not observed in the control group, in which no extrinsic reward was provided throughout the experiment. Furthermore, such a pattern was not observed for P300 amplitude. Therefore, the current results indicate that extrinsic reward demotivates the intrinsic response of individuals toward success-failure outcome, which was reflected in the corresponding reduced motivational-related differentiated feedback-related negativity, but not in amplitude of P300.

Learned reward association improves visual working memory.

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Gong, Mengyuan; Li, Sheng

2014-04-01

Statistical regularities in the natural environment play a central role in adaptive behavior. Among other regularities, reward association is potentially the most prominent factor that influences our daily life. Recent studies have suggested that pre-established reward association yields strong influence on the spatial allocation of attention. Here we show that reward association can also improve visual working memory (VWM) performance when the reward-associated feature is task-irrelevant. We established the reward association during a visual search training session, and investigated the representation of reward-associated features in VWM by the application of a change detection task before and after the training. The results showed that the improvement in VWM was significantly greater for items in the color associated with high reward than for those in low reward-associated or nonrewarded colors. In particular, the results from control experiments demonstrate that the observed reward effect in VWM could not be sufficiently accounted for by attentional capture toward the high reward-associated item. This was further confirmed when the effect of attentional capture was minimized by presenting the items in the sample and test displays of the change detection task with the same color. The results showed significantly larger improvement in VWM performance when the items in a display were in the high reward-associated color than those in the low reward-associated or nonrewarded colors. Our findings suggest that, apart from inducing space-based attentional capture, the learned reward association could also facilitate the perceptual representation of high reward-associated items through feature-based attentional modulation.

BOLD responses in reward regions to hypothetical and imaginary monetary rewards

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Miyapuram, K.P.; Tobler, P.N.; Gregorios-Pippas, L.; Schultz, W.

2012-01-01

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

Neural processing of calories in brain reward areas can be modulated by reward sensitivity

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Inge eVan Rijn

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A food’s reward value is dependent on its caloric content. Furthermore, a food’s acute reward value also depends on hunger state. The drive to obtain rewards (reward sensitivity, however, differs between individuals. Here, we assessed the association between brain responses to calories in the mouth and trait reward sensitivity in different hunger states. Firstly, we assessed this in data from a functional neuroimaging study (van Rijn et al., 2015, in which participants (n=30 tasted simple solutions of a non-caloric sweetener with or without a non-sweet carbohydrate (maltodextrin during hunger and satiety. Secondly, we expanded these analyses to regular drinks by assessing the same relationship in data from a study in which soft drinks sweetened with either sucrose or a non-caloric sweetener were administered during hunger (n=18 (Griffioen-Roose et al., 2013. First, taste activation by the non-caloric solution/soft drink was subtracted from that by the caloric solution/soft drink to eliminate sweetness effects and retain activation induced by calories. Subsequently, this difference in taste activation was correlated with reward sensitivity as measured with the BAS drive subscale of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS questionnaire.When participants were hungry and tasted calories from the simple solution, brain activation in the right ventral striatum (caudate, right amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex (bilaterally correlated negatively with BAS drive scores. In contrast, when participants were satiated, taste responses correlated positively with BAS drive scores in the left caudate. These results were not replicated for soft drinks. Thus, neural responses to oral calories from maltodextrin were modulated by reward sensitivity in reward-related brain areas. This was not the case for sucrose. This may be due to the direct detection of maltodextrin, but not sucrose in the oral cavity. Also, in a familiar beverage, detection of calories per

Neural Processing of Calories in Brain Reward Areas Can be Modulated by Reward Sensitivity.

Science.gov (United States)

van Rijn, Inge; Griffioen-Roose, Sanne; de Graaf, Cees; Smeets, Paul A M

2015-01-01

A food's reward value is dependent on its caloric content. Furthermore, a food's acute reward value also depends on hunger state. The drive to obtain rewards (reward sensitivity), however, differs between individuals. Here, we assessed the association between brain responses to calories in the mouth and trait reward sensitivity in different hunger states. Firstly, we assessed this in data from a functional neuroimaging study (van Rijn et al., 2015), in which participants (n = 30) tasted simple solutions of a non-caloric sweetener with or without a non-sweet carbohydrate (maltodextrin) during hunger and satiety. Secondly, we expanded these analyses to regular drinks by assessing the same relationship in data from a study in which soft drinks sweetened with either sucrose or a non-caloric sweetener were administered during hunger (n = 18) (Griffioen-Roose et al., 2013). First, taste activation by the non-caloric solution/soft drink was subtracted from that by the caloric solution/soft drink to eliminate sweetness effects and retain activation induced by calories. Subsequently, this difference in taste activation was correlated with reward sensitivity as measured with the BAS drive subscale of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) questionnaire. When participants were hungry and tasted calories from the simple solution, brain activation in the right ventral striatum (caudate), right amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex (bilaterally) correlated negatively with BAS drive scores. In contrast, when participants were satiated, taste responses correlated positively with BAS drive scores in the left caudate. These results were not replicated for soft drinks. Thus, neural responses to oral calories from maltodextrin were modulated by reward sensitivity in reward-related brain areas. This was not the case for sucrose. This may be due to the direct detection of maltodextrin, but not sucrose in the oral cavity. Also, in a familiar beverage, detection of calories per se may be

Longitudinal Changes in Behavioral Approach System Sensitivity and Brain Structures Involved in Reward Processing during Adolescence

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Urosevic, Snezana; Collins, Paul; Muetzel, Ryan; Lim, Kelvin; Luciana, Monica

2012-01-01

Adolescence is a period of radical normative changes and increased risk for substance use, mood disorders, and physical injury. Researchers have proposed that increases in reward sensitivity (i.e., sensitivity of the behavioral approach system [BAS]) and/or increases in reactivity to all emotional stimuli (i.e., reward and threat sensitivities)…

Amygdala mu-opioid receptors mediate the motivating influence of cue-triggered reward expectations.

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Lichtenberg, Nina T; Wassum, Kate M

2017-02-01

Environmental reward-predictive stimuli can retrieve from memory a specific reward expectation that allows them to motivate action and guide choice. This process requires the basolateral amygdala (BLA), but little is known about the signaling systems necessary within this structure. Here we examined the role of the neuromodulatory opioid receptor system in the BLA in such cue-directed action using the outcome-specific Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) test in rats. Inactivation of BLA mu-, but not delta-opioid receptors was found to dose-dependently attenuate the ability of a reward-predictive cue to selectively invigorate the performance of actions directed at the same unique predicted reward (i.e. to express outcome-specific PIT). BLA mu-opioid receptor inactivation did not affect the ability of a reward itself to similarly motivate action (outcome-specific reinstatement), suggesting a more selective role for the BLA mu-opioid receptor in the motivating influence of currently unobservable rewarding events. These data reveal a new role for BLA mu-opioid receptor activation in the cued recall of precise reward memories and the use of this information to motivate specific action plans. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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

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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.

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

OpenAIRE

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...

Registered nurses' perceptions of rewarding and its significance.

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Seitovirta, Jaana; Lehtimäki, Aku-Ville; Vehviläinen-Julkunen, Katri; Mitronen, Lasse; Kvist, Tarja

2017-11-07

To examine reward type preferences and their relationships with the significance of rewarding perceived by registered nurses in Finland. Previous studies have found relationships between nurses' rewarding and their motivation at work, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Data were collected in a cross-sectional, descriptive, questionnaire survey from 402 registered nurses using the Registered Nurses' Perceptions of Rewarding Scale in 2015, and analysed with descriptive and multivariate statistical methods. Registered nurses assigned slightly higher values to several non-financial than to financial rewards. The non-financial reward types appreciation and feedback from work community, worktime arrangements, work content, and opportunity to develop, influence and participate were highly related to the significance of rewarding. We identified various rewards that registered nurses value, and indications that providing an appropriate array of rewards, particularly non-financial rewards, is a highly beneficial element of nursing management. It is important to understand the value of rewards for nursing management. Nurse managers should offer diverse rewards to their registered nurses to promote excellent performance and to help efforts to secure and maintain high-quality, safe patient care. The use of appropriate rewards is especially crucial to improving registered nurses' reward satisfaction and job satisfaction globally in the nursing profession. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Role of Relational Reward Benefits for Developing the Non-Financial Value of a Customer to an Organization: Structural Equation Modeling Approach

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Enny Kristiani

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Research on the customer value to an organization has been widely explored, yet most studies only determined on the financial value based on the customer’s purchasing behavior. The value of customers beyond their purchasing behavior –defined as the relational worth - has not been commonly captured yet. This non-financial value is one of the drivers in retaining customers, hence it becomes a crucial factor in preserving the profitability of the organization. For this reason, this paper aims to examine the customer non-financial valuations of a loyalty reward program. The scope of the study covered a reward program involving consumer exertions in the context of a Frequent Flyer Program (FFP offered by an airline in Indonesia. The hypotheses are empirically tested with a sample of FFP members conducted through an online survey (n=475. The data were statistically analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM as a first order construct. Results indicate that the perceived social rewards lead to an affective and normative commitment as well as consumers’ satisfaction, while the economic reward did not have an effect on developing affective bonds with members for long-term relationships. The relational benefit offered through the FFP creates affectively and normatively committed members who produce relational behaviors, in terms of WOM, immunity, openness and acquiescence of the members to the airline. Furthermore, the FFP members produced social behaviors toward the airline when they felt satisfied with their relational exchanges.

Within-subject neural reactivity to reward and threat is inverted in young adolescents.

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Thomason, M E; Marusak, H A

2017-07-01

As children mature, they become increasingly independent and less reliant on caregiver support. Changes in brain systems are likely to stimulate and guide this process. One mechanistic hypothesis suggests that changes in neural systems that process reward and threat support the increase in exploratory behavior observed in the transition to adolescence. This study examines the basic tenets of this hypothesis by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during well-established reward and threat processing tasks in 40 children and adolescents, aged 9-15 years. fMRI responses in the striatum and amygdala are fit to a model predicting that striatal reward and amygdala threat-responses will be unrelated in younger participants (aged 9-12 years), while older participants (aged 13-15 years) will differentially engage these structures. Our data are consistent with this model. Activity in the striatum and amygdala are comparable in younger children, but in older children, they are inversely related; those more responsive to reward show a reduced threat-response. Analyses testing age as a continuous variable yield consistent results. In addition, the proportion of threat to reward-response relates to self-reported approach behavior in older but not younger youth, exposing behavioral relevance in the relative level of activity in these structures. Results are consistent with the notion that both individual and developmental differences drive reward-seeking behavior in adolescence. While these response patterns may serve adaptive functions in the shift to independence, skew in these systems may relate to increased rates of emotional psychopathology and risk-taking observed in adolescence.

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.

The endocannabinoid system in brain reward processes.

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Solinas, M; Goldberg, S R; Piomelli, D

2008-05-01

Food, drugs and brain stimulation can serve as strong rewarding stimuli and are all believed to activate common brain circuits that evolved in mammals to favour fitness and survival. For decades, endogenous dopaminergic and opioid systems have been considered the most important systems in mediating brain reward processes. Recent evidence suggests that the endogenous cannabinoid (endocannabinoid) system also has an important role in signalling of rewarding events. First, CB(1) receptors are found in brain areas involved in reward processes, such as the dopaminergic mesolimbic system. Second, activation of CB(1) receptors by plant-derived, synthetic or endogenous CB(1) receptor agonists stimulates dopaminergic neurotransmission, produces rewarding effects and increases rewarding effects of abused drugs and food. Third, pharmacological or genetic blockade of CB(1) receptors prevents activation of dopaminergic neurotransmission by several addictive drugs and reduces rewarding effects of food and these drugs. Fourth, brain levels of the endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol are altered by activation of reward processes. However, the intrinsic activity of the endocannabinoid system does not appear to play a facilitatory role in brain stimulation reward and some evidence suggests it may even oppose it. The influence of the endocannabinoid system on brain reward processes may depend on the degree of activation of the different brain areas involved and might represent a mechanism for fine-tuning dopaminergic activity. Although involvement of the various components of the endocannabinoid system may differ depending on the type of rewarding event investigated, this system appears to play a major role in modulating reward processes.

Reward system dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders

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Schulte-Rüther, Martin; Nehrkorn, Barbara; Müller, Kristin; Fink, Gereon R.; Kamp-Becker, Inge; Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate; Schultz, Robert T.; Konrad, Kerstin

2013-01-01

Although it has been suggested that social deficits of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are related to reward circuitry dysfunction, very little is known about the neural reward mechanisms in ASD. In the current functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated brain activations in response to both social and monetary reward in a group of children with ASD, relative to matched controls. Participants with ASD showed the expected hypoactivation in the mesocorticolimbic circuitry in response to both reward types. In particular, diminished activation in the nucleus accumbens was observed when money, but not when social reward, was at stake, whereas the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex were hypoactivated within the ASD group in response to both rewards. These data indicate that the reward circuitry is compromised in ASD in social as well as in non-social, i.e. monetary conditions, which likely contributes to atypical motivated behaviour. Taken together, with incentives used in this study sample, there is evidence for a general reward dysfunction in ASD. However, more ecologically valid social reward paradigms are needed to fully understand, whether there is any domain specificity to the reward deficit that appears evident in ASD, which would be most consistent with the ASD social phenotype. PMID:22419119

Reward memory relieves anxiety-related behavior through synaptic strengthening and protein kinase C in dentate gyrus.

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Lei, Zhuofan; Liu, Bei; Wang, Jin-Hui

2016-04-01

Anxiety disorders are presumably associated with negative memory. Psychological therapies are widely used to treat this mental deficit in human beings based on the view that positive memory competes with negative memory and relieves anxiety status. Cellular and molecular processes underlying psychological therapies remain elusive. Therefore, we have investigated its mechanisms based on a mouse model in which food reward at one open-arm of the elevated plus-maze was used for training mice to form reward memory and challenge the open arms. Mice with the reward training showed increased entries and stay time in reward open-arm versus neutral open-arm as well as in open-arms versus closed-arms. Accompanying with reward memory formation and anxiety relief, glutamatergic synaptic transmission in dentate gyrus in vivo and dendritic spines in granule cells became upregulated. This synaptic up-regulation was accompanied by the expression of more protein kinase C (PKC) in the dendritic spines. The inhibition of PKC by chelerythrine impaired the formation of reward memory, the relief of anxiety-related behavior and the up-regulation of glutamate synapses. Our results suggest that reward-induced positive memory relieves mouse anxiety-related behavior by strengthening synaptic efficacy and PKC in the hippocampus, which imply the underlying cellular and molecular processes involved in the beneficial effects of psychological therapies treating anxiety disorders. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abnormal reward functioning across substance use disorders and major depressive disorder: Considering reward as a transdiagnostic mechanism.

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Baskin-Sommers, Arielle R; Foti, Dan

2015-11-01

A common criticism of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) is that its criteria are based more on behavioral descriptions than on underlying biological mechanisms. Increasingly, calls have intensified for a more biologically-based approach to conceptualizing, studying, and treating psychological disorders, as exemplified by the Research Domain Criteria Project (RDoC). Among the most well-studied neurobiological mechanisms is reward processing. Moreover, individual differences in reward sensitivity are related to risk for substance abuse and depression. The current review synthesizes the available preclinical, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging literature on reward processing from a transdiagnostic, multidimensional perspective. Findings are organized with respect to key reward constructs within the Positive Valence Systems domain of the RDoC matrix, including initial responsiveness to reward (physiological 'liking'), approach motivation (physiological 'wanting'), and reward learning/habit formation. In the current review, we (a) describe the neural basis of reward, (b) elucidate differences in reward activity in substance abuse and depression, and (c) suggest a framework for integrating these disparate literatures and discuss the utility of shifting focus from diagnosis to process for understanding liability and co-morbidity. Ultimately, we believe that an integrative focus on abnormal reward functioning across the full continuum of clinically heterogeneous samples, rather than within circumscribed diagnostic categories, might actually help to refine the phenotypes and improve the prediction of onset and recovery of these disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Brain activity and infant attachment history in young men during loss and reward processing.

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Quevedo, Karina; Waters, Theodore E A; Scott, Hannah; Roisman, Glenn I; Shaw, Daniel S; Forbes, Erika E

2017-05-01

There is now ample evidence that the quality of early attachment experiences shapes expectations for supportive and responsive care and ultimately serves to scaffold adaptation to the salient tasks of development. Nonetheless, few studies have identified neural mechanisms that might give rise to these associations. Using a moderately large sample of low-income male participants recruited during infancy (N = 171), we studied the predictive significance of attachment insecurity and disorganization at age 18 months (as measured in the Strange Situation Procedure) for patterns of neural activation to reward and loss at age 20 years (assessed during a reward-based task as part of a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan). Results indicated that individuals with a history of insecure attachment showed hyperactivity in (a) reward- and emotion-related (e.g., basal ganglia and amygdala) structures and (b) emotion regulation and self-referential processing (cortical midline structures) in response to positive and negative outcomes (and anticipation of those outcomes). Further, the neural activation of individuals with a history of disorganized attachment suggested that they had greater emotional reactivity in anticipation of reward and employed greater cognitive control when negative outcomes were encountered. Overall, results suggest that the quality of early attachments has lasting impacts on brain function and reward processing.

Reward Merit with Praise.

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Andrews, Hans A.

1987-01-01

Describes the efforts of two educational institutions to reward teaching excellence using positive feedback rather than merit pay incentives. An Arizona district, drawing on Herzberg's motivation theories, offers highly individualized rewards ranging from computers to conference money, while an Illinois community college bestows engraved plaques…

Brain Stimulation Reward Supports More Consistent and Accurate Rodent Decision-Making than Food Reward.

Science.gov (United States)

McMurray, Matthew S; Conway, Sineadh M; Roitman, Jamie D

2017-01-01

Animal models of decision-making rely on an animal's motivation to decide and its ability to detect differences among various alternatives. Food reinforcement, although commonly used, is associated with problematic confounds, especially satiety. Here, we examined the use of brain stimulation reward (BSR) as an alternative reinforcer in rodent models of decision-making and compared it with the effectiveness of sugar pellets. The discriminability of various BSR frequencies was compared to differing numbers of sugar pellets in separate free-choice tasks. We found that BSR was more discriminable and motivated greater task engagement and more consistent preference for the larger reward. We then investigated whether rats prefer BSR of varying frequencies over sugar pellets. We found that animals showed either a clear preference for sugar reward or no preference between reward modalities, depending on the frequency of the BSR alternative and the size of the sugar reward. Overall, these results suggest that BSR is an effective reinforcer in rodent decision-making tasks, removing food-related confounds and resulting in more accurate, consistent, and reliable metrics of choice.

KONTRIBUTOR KINERJA PEMASARAN DARI ASPEK REWARD, INDIVIDU DAN KREATIFITAS STRATEGI PEMASARAN

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Hendro Tanoko

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis dan membuktikan secara empiris tentang pengaruh reward, pengaruh kinerja individu, dan kreatifitas strategi pemasaran terhadap kinerja pemasaran KJKS BMT BUS Lasem Kabupaten Rembang. Penelitian ini dilakukan terhadap karyawan pemasaran disemua cabang KJKS BMT Bina Ummat Sejahtera. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan kuesioner dengan jumlah sampel sebanyak 170 responden yang 78 responden wanita dan 92 responden pria. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah dengan Structural Equation Model (SEM dengan menggunakan program AMOS karena memungkinkan kombinasi antara analisis faktor dan analisis regresi berganda. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa variabel reward dan kinerja individu berpengaruh secara signifkan terhadap kreatifitas strategi pemasaran dan kinerja pemasaran. The aim of this study are to analyze and to prove empirically the influence of reward, individual, and creative marketing strategies toward marketing performance KJKS BMT BUS Lasem Rembang District. The research was conducted on marketing employees in all branches of Ummah Welfare Bina KJKS BMT. Data was collected through a questionnaire with a sample of 170 respondents which there were 78 female respondents and 92 male respondents. Structural Equation Model (SEM is used  as data analysis technique with the combination of factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that the variables and the reward of individual performance are significantly influential toward the creativity of the marketing strategy and marketing performance.

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

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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

CLEANing the Reward: Counterfactual Actions to Remove Exploratory Action Noise in Multiagent Learning

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HolmesParker, Chris; Taylor, Mathew E.; Tumer, Kagan; Agogino, Adrian

2014-01-01

Learning in multiagent systems can be slow because agents must learn both how to behave in a complex environment and how to account for the actions of other agents. The inability of an agent to distinguish between the true environmental dynamics and those caused by the stochastic exploratory actions of other agents creates noise in each agent's reward signal. This learning noise can have unforeseen and often undesirable effects on the resultant system performance. We define such noise as exploratory action noise, demonstrate the critical impact it can have on the learning process in multiagent settings, and introduce a reward structure to effectively remove such noise from each agent's reward signal. In particular, we introduce Coordinated Learning without Exploratory Action Noise (CLEAN) rewards and empirically demonstrate their benefits

Reward-dependent modulation of movement variability.

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Pekny, Sarah E; Izawa, Jun; Shadmehr, Reza

2015-03-04

Movement variability is often considered an unwanted byproduct of a noisy nervous system. However, variability can signal a form of implicit exploration, indicating that the nervous system is intentionally varying the motor commands in search of actions that yield the greatest success. Here, we investigated the role of the human basal ganglia in controlling reward-dependent motor variability as measured by trial-to-trial changes in performance during a reaching task. We designed an experiment in which the only performance feedback was success or failure and quantified how reach variability was modulated as a function of the probability of reward. In healthy controls, reach variability increased as the probability of reward decreased. Control of variability depended on the history of past rewards, with the largest trial-to-trial changes occurring immediately after an unrewarded trial. In contrast, in participants with Parkinson's disease, a known example of basal ganglia dysfunction, reward was a poor modulator of variability; that is, the patients showed an impaired ability to increase variability in response to decreases in the probability of reward. This was despite the fact that, after rewarded trials, reach variability in the patients was comparable to healthy controls. In summary, we found that movement variability is partially a form of exploration driven by the recent history of rewards. When the function of the human basal ganglia is compromised, the reward-dependent control of movement variability is impaired, particularly affecting the ability to increase variability after unsuccessful outcomes. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/354015-10$15.00/0.

Reward and aversion in a heterogeneous midbrain dopamine system.

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Lammel, Stephan; Lim, Byung Kook; Malenka, Robert C

2014-01-01

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a heterogeneous brain structure that serves a central role in motivation and reward processing. Abnormalities in the function of VTA dopamine (DA) neurons and the targets they influence are implicated in several prominent neuropsychiatric disorders including addiction and depression. Recent studies suggest that the midbrain DA system is composed of anatomically and functionally heterogeneous DA subpopulations with different axonal projections. These findings may explain a number of previously confusing observations that suggested a role for DA in processing both rewarding as well as aversive events. Here we will focus on recent advances in understanding the neural circuits mediating reward and aversion in the VTA and how stress as well as drugs of abuse, in particular cocaine, alter circuit function within a heterogeneous midbrain DA system. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'NIDA 40th Anniversary Issue'. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A test of the reward-value hypothesis.

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Smith, Alexandra E; Dalecki, Stefan J; Crystal, Jonathon D

2017-03-01

Rats retain source memory (memory for the origin of information) over a retention interval of at least 1 week, whereas their spatial working memory (radial maze locations) decays within approximately 1 day. We have argued that different forgetting functions dissociate memory systems. However, the two tasks, in our previous work, used different reward values. The source memory task used multiple pellets of a preferred food flavor (chocolate), whereas the spatial working memory task provided access to a single pellet of standard chow-flavored food at each location. Thus, according to the reward-value hypothesis, enhanced performance in the source memory task stems from enhanced encoding/memory of a preferred reward. We tested the reward-value hypothesis by using a standard 8-arm radial maze task to compare spatial working memory accuracy of rats rewarded with either multiple chocolate or chow pellets at each location using a between-subjects design. The reward-value hypothesis predicts superior accuracy for high-valued rewards. We documented equivalent spatial memory accuracy for high- and low-value rewards. Importantly, a 24-h retention interval produced equivalent spatial working memory accuracy for both flavors. These data are inconsistent with the reward-value hypothesis and suggest that reward value does not explain our earlier findings that source memory survives unusually long retention intervals.

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.

Reward Anticipation in Ventral Striatum and Individual Sensitivity to Reward: A Pilot Study of a Child-Friendly fMRI Task.

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van Hulst, Branko M; de Zeeuw, Patrick; Lupas, Kellina; Bos, Dienke J; Neggers, Sebastiaan F W; Durston, Sarah

2015-01-01

Reward processing has been implicated in developmental disorders. However, the classic task to probe reward anticipation, the monetary incentive delay task, has an abstract coding of reward and no storyline and may therefore be less appropriate for use with developmental populations. We modified the task to create a version appropriate for use with children. We investigated whether this child-friendly version could elicit ventral striatal activation during reward anticipation in typically developing children and young adolescents (aged 9.5-14.5). In addition, we tested whether our performance-based measure of reward sensitivity was associated with anticipatory activity in ventral striatum. Reward anticipation was related to activity in bilateral ventral striatum. Moreover, we found an association between individual reward sensitivity and activity in ventral striatum. We conclude that this task assesses ventral striatal activity in a child-friendly paradigm. The combination with a performance-based measure of reward sensitivity potentially makes the task a powerful tool for developmental imaging studies of reward processing.

French validation of the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joe Saliba

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Background. The Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ questionnaire investigates the main facets of music experience that could explain the variance observed in how people experience reward associated with music. Currently, only English and Spanish versions of this questionnaire are available. The objective of this study is to validate a French version of the BMRQ. Methods. The original BMRQ was translated and adapted into an international French version. The questionnaire was then administered through an online survey aimed at adults aged over 18 years who were fluent in French. Statistical analyses were performed and compared to the original English and Spanish version for validation purposes. Results. A total of 1,027 participants completed the questionnaire. Most responses were obtained from France (89.4%. Analyses revealed that congruence values between the rotated loading matrix and the ideal loading matrix ranged between 0.88 and 0.96. Factor reliabilities of subscales (i.e., Musical Seeking, Emotion Evocation, Mood Regulation, Social Reward and Sensory-Motor also ranged between 0.88 and 0.96. In addition, reliability of the overall factor score (i.e., Music reward was 0.91. Finally, the internal consistency of the overall scale was 0.85. The factorial structure obtained in the French translation was similar to that of the original Spanish and English samples. Conclusion. The French version of the BMRQ appears valid and reliable. Potential applications of the BMRQ include its use as a valuable tool in music reward and emotion research, whether in healthy individuals or in patients suffering from a wide variety of cognitive, neurologic and auditory disorders.

Extinction and renewal of cue-elicited reward-seeking.

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Bezzina, Louise; Lee, Jessica C; Lovibond, Peter F; Colagiuri, Ben

2016-12-01

Reward cues can contribute to overconsumption of food and drugs and can relapse. The failure of exposure therapies to reduce overconsumption and relapse is generally attributed to the context-specificity of extinction. However, no previous study has examined whether cue-elicited reward-seeking (as opposed to cue-reactivity) is sensitive to context renewal. We tested this possibility in 160 healthy volunteers using a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) design involving voluntary responding for a high value natural reward (chocolate). One reward cue underwent Pavlovian extinction in the same (Group AAA) or different context (Group ABA) to all other phases. This cue was compared with a second non-extinguished reward cue and an unpaired control cue. There was a significant overall PIT effect with both reward cues eliciting reward-seeking on test relative to the unpaired cue. Pavlovian extinction substantially reduced this effect, with the extinguished reward cue eliciting less reward-seeking than the non-extinguished reward cue. Most interestingly, extinction of cue-elicited reward-seeking was sensitive to renewal, with extinction less effective for reducing PIT when conducted in a different context. These findings have important implications for extinction-based interventions for reducing maladaptive reward-seeking in practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reward modulates oculomotor competition between differently valued stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Bucker, Berno; Silvis, Jeroen D; Donk, Mieke; Theeuwes, Jan

2015-03-01

The present work explored the effects of reward in the well-known global effect paradigm in which two objects appear simultaneously in close spatial proximity. The experiment consisted of three phases (i) a pre-training phase that served as a baseline, (ii) a reward-training phase to associate differently colored stimuli with high, low and no reward value, and (iii) a post-training phase in which rewards were no longer delivered, to examine whether objects previously associated with higher reward value attracted the eyes more strongly than those associated with low or no reward value. Unlike previous reward studies, the differently valued objects directly competed with each other on the same trial. The results showed that initially eye movements were not biased towards any particular stimulus, while in the reward-training phase, eye movements started to land progressively closer towards stimuli that were associated with a high reward value. Even though rewards were no longer delivered, this bias remained robustly present in the post-training phase. A time course analysis showed that the effect of reward was present for the fastest saccades (around 170 ms) and increased with increasing latency. Although strategic effects for slower saccades cannot be ruled out, we suggest that fast oculomotor responses became habituated and were no longer under strategic attentional control. Together the results imply that reward affects oculomotor competition in favor of stimuli previously associated high reward, when multiple reward associated objects compete for selection. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reward, Distraction, and the Overjustification Effect

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Timothy W.; Pittman, Thane S.

1978-01-01

This study tests two differing hypotheses: the competing response hypothesis, which states that both reward and non-reward distractions produce decreases in interest which weaken over repeated trials, and the attribution/overjustification hypothesis, which maintains that rewards produce a decrease in interest that does not weaken over trials.…

Renewal processes with costs and rewards

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vlasiou, M.; Cochran, J.J.; Cox, L.A.; Keskinocak, P.; Kharoufeh, J.P.; Smith, J.C.

2011-01-01

We review the theory of renewal reward processes, which describes renewal processes that have some cost or reward associated with each cycle. We present a new simplified proof of the renewal reward theorem that mimics the proof of the Elementary Renewal Theorem and avoids the technicalities in the

Neural processing of reward in adolescent rodents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicholas W. Simon

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Immaturities in adolescent reward processing are thought to contribute to poor decision making and increased susceptibility to develop addictive and psychiatric disorders. Very little is known; however, about how the adolescent brain processes reward. The current mechanistic theories of reward processing are derived from adult models. Here we review recent research focused on understanding of how the adolescent brain responds to rewards and reward-associated events. A critical aspect of this work is that age-related differences are evident in neuronal processing of reward-related events across multiple brain regions even when adolescent rats demonstrate behavior similar to adults. These include differences in reward processing between adolescent and adult rats in orbitofrontal cortex and dorsal striatum. Surprisingly, minimal age related differences are observed in ventral striatum, which has been a focal point of developmental studies. We go on to discuss the implications of these differences for behavioral traits affected in adolescence, such as impulsivity, risk-taking, and behavioral flexibility. Collectively, this work suggests that reward-evoked neural activity differs as a function of age and that regions such as the dorsal striatum that are not traditionally associated with affective processing in adults may be critical for reward processing and psychiatric vulnerability in adolescents.

Reward Inference by Primate Prefrontal and Striatal Neurons

OpenAIRE

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...

Reward modulates perception in binocular rivalry.

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Marx, Svenja; Einhäuser, Wolfgang

2015-01-14

Our perception does not provide us with an exact imprint of the outside world, but is continuously adapted to our internal expectations, task sets, and behavioral goals. Although effects of reward-or value in general-on perception therefore seem likely, how valuation modulates perception and how such modulation relates to attention is largely unknown. We probed effects of reward on perception by using a binocular-rivalry paradigm. Distinct gratings drifting in opposite directions were presented to each observer's eyes. To objectify their subjective perceptual experience, the optokinetic nystagmus was used as measure of current perceptual dominance. In a first experiment, one of the percepts was either rewarded or attended. We found that reward and attention similarly biased perception. In a second experiment, observers performed an attentionally demanding task either on the rewarded stimulus, the other stimulus, or both. We found that-on top of an attentional effect on perception-at each level of attentional load, reward still modulated perception by increasing the dominance of the rewarded percept. Similarly, penalizing one percept increased dominance of the other at each level of attentional load. In turn, rewarding-and similarly nonpunishing-a percept yielded performance benefits that are typically associated with selective attention. In conclusion, our data show that value modulates perception in a similar way as the volitional deployment of attention, even though the relative effect of value is largely unaffected by an attention task. © 2015 ARVO.

Individual differences in anticipatory activity to food rewards predict cue-induced appetitive 50-kHz calls in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Brenes, Juan C; Schwarting, Rainer K W

2015-10-01

Reward-related stimuli come to acquire incentive salience through Pavlovian learning and become capable of controlling reward-oriented behaviors. Here, we examined individual differences in anticipatory activity elicited by reward-related cues as indicative of how animals attribute incentive salience to otherwise neutral stimuli. Since adult rats can signal incentive motivation states through ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) at around 50-kHz, such calls were recorded in food-deprived rats trained to associate cues with food rewards, which were subsequently devalued by satiation.We found that the extent to which animals developed conditioned anticipatory activity to food cues while food deprived determined the level of cue-induced appetitive USVs while sated. Re-exposure to reward cues after a free-testing period reinstated USVs, invigorated reward seeking and consumption, and again, increases in calling occurred only in animals with high levels of cue-induced anticipatory activity. Reward-experienced rats systemically challenged with the catecholamine agonist amphetamine or with the dopamine receptor antagonist flupenthixol showed attenuated responses to these drugs, especially for USVs and in subjects with high levels of cue-induced anticipatory activity. Our results suggest that individuals prone to attribute incentive salience to reward cues showed heightened reward-induced USVs which were reliably expressed over time and persisted despite physiological needs being fulfilled. Also, prone subjects seemed to undergo particular adaptations in their dopaminergic system related with incentive learning. Our findings may have translational relevance in preclinical research modeling compulsive disorders, which may be due to excessive attribution of incentive salience to reward cues, such as overeating, pathological gambling, and drug addiction.

It's about time: Earlier rewards increase intrinsic motivation.

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Woolley, Kaitlin; Fishbach, Ayelet

2018-06-01

Can immediate (vs. delayed) rewards increase intrinsic motivation? Prior research compared the presence versus absence of rewards. By contrast, this research compared immediate versus delayed rewards, predicting that more immediate rewards increase intrinsic motivation by creating a perceptual fusion between the activity and its goal (i.e., the reward). In support of the hypothesis, framing a reward from watching a news program as more immediate (vs. delayed) increased intrinsic motivation to watch the program (Study 1), and receiving more immediate bonus (vs. delayed, Study 2; and vs. delayed and no bonus, Study 3) increased intrinsic motivation in an experimental task. The effect of reward timing was mediated by the strength of the association between an activity and a reward, and was specific to intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) motivation-immediacy influenced the positive experience of an activity, but not perceived outcome importance (Study 4). In addition, the effect of the timing of rewards was independent of the effect of the magnitude of the rewards (Study 5). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Evolutionary advantages of adaptive rewarding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szolnoki, Attila; Perc, Matjaž

2012-01-01

Our well-being depends on both our personal success and the success of our society. The realization of this fact makes cooperation an essential trait. Experiments have shown that rewards can elevate our readiness to cooperate, but since giving a reward inevitably entails paying a cost for it, the emergence and stability of such behavior remains elusive. Here we show that allowing for the act of rewarding to self-organize in dependence on the success of cooperation creates several evolutionary advantages that instill new ways through which collaborative efforts are promoted. Ranging from indirect territorial battle to the spontaneous emergence and destruction of coexistence, phase diagrams and the underlying spatial patterns reveal fascinatingly rich social dynamics that explain why this costly behavior has evolved and persevered. Comparisons with adaptive punishment, however, uncover an Achilles heel of adaptive rewarding, coming from over-aggression, which in turn hinders optimal utilization of network reciprocity. This may explain why, despite its success, rewarding is not as firmly embedded into our societal organization as punishment. (paper)

Reference Structures: Stagnation, Progress, and Future Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenberg, Jane

1997-01-01

Assesses the current state of reference structures in online public access catalogs (OPACs) in a framework defined by stagnation, progress, and future challenges. Outlines six areas for reference structure development. Twenty figures provide illustrations. (AEF)

Overt and covert attention to location-based reward.

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Brónagh; Theeuwes, Jan

2018-01-01

Recent research on the impact of location-based reward on attentional orienting has indicated that reward factors play an influential role in spatial priority maps. The current study investigated whether and how reward associations based on spatial location translate from overt eye movements to covert attention. If reward associations can be tied to locations in space, and if overt and covert attention rely on similar overlapping neuronal populations, then both overt and covert attentional measures should display similar spatial-based reward learning. Our results suggest that location- and reward-based changes in one attentional domain do not lead to similar changes in the other. Specifically, although we found similar improvements at differentially rewarded locations during overt attentional learning, this translated to the least improvement at a highly rewarded location during covert attention. We interpret this as the result of an increased motivational link between the high reward location and the trained eye movement response acquired during learning, leading to a relative slowing during covert attention when the eyes remained fixated and the saccade response was suppressed. In a second experiment participants were not required to keep fixated during the covert attention task and we no longer observed relative slowing at the high reward location. Furthermore, the second experiment revealed no covert spatial priority of rewarded locations. We conclude that the transfer of location-based reward associations is intimately linked with the reward-modulated motor response employed during learning, and alternative attentional and task contexts may interfere with learned spatial priorities. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Reward modulation of hippocampal subfield activation during successful associative encoding and retrieval

Science.gov (United States)

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

2012-01-01

Emerging evidence suggests that motivation enhances episodic memory formation through interactions between medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures and dopaminergic midbrain. In addition, recent theories propose that motivation specifically facilitates hippocampal associative binding processes, resulting in more detailed memories that are readily reinstated from partial input. Here, we used high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine how motivation influences associative encoding and retrieval processes within human MTL subregions and dopaminergic midbrain. Participants intentionally encoded object associations under varying conditions of reward and performed a retrieval task during which studied associations were cued from partial input. Behaviorally, cued recall performance was superior for high-value relative to low-value associations; however, participants differed in the degree to which rewards influenced memory. The magnitude of behavioral reward modulation was associated with reward-related activation changes in dentate gyrus/CA2,3 during encoding and enhanced functional connectivity between dentate gyrus/CA2,3 and dopaminergic midbrain during both the encoding and retrieval phases of the task. These findings suggests that within the hippocampus, reward-based motivation specifically enhances dentate gyrus/CA2,3 associative encoding mechanisms through interactions with dopaminergic midbrain. Furthermore, within parahippocampal cortex and dopaminergic midbrain regions, activation associated with successful memory formation was modulated by reward across the group. During the retrieval phase, we also observed enhanced activation in hippocampus and dopaminergic midbrain for high-value associations that occurred in the absence of any explicit cues to reward. Collectively, these findings shed light on fundamental mechanisms through which reward impacts associative memory formation and retrieval through facilitation of MTL and VTA/SN processing

State-based versus reward-based motivation in younger and older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Worthy, Darrell A; Cooper, Jessica A; Byrne, Kaileigh A; Gorlick, Marissa A; Maddox, W Todd

2014-12-01

Recent decision-making work has focused on a distinction between a habitual, model-free neural system that is motivated toward actions that lead directly to reward and a more computationally demanding goal-directed, model-based system that is motivated toward actions that improve one's future state. In this article, we examine how aging affects motivation toward reward-based versus state-based decision making. Participants performed tasks in which one type of option provided larger immediate rewards but the alternative type of option led to larger rewards on future trials, or improvements in state. We predicted that older adults would show a reduced preference for choices that led to improvements in state and a greater preference for choices that maximized immediate reward. We also predicted that fits from a hybrid reinforcement-learning model would indicate greater model-based strategy use in younger than in older adults. In line with these predictions, older adults selected the options that maximized reward more often than did younger adults in three of the four tasks, and modeling results suggested reduced model-based strategy use. In the task where older adults showed similar behavior to younger adults, our model-fitting results suggested that this was due to the utilization of a win-stay-lose-shift heuristic rather than a more complex model-based strategy. Additionally, within older adults, we found that model-based strategy use was positively correlated with memory measures from our neuropsychological test battery. We suggest that this shift from state-based to reward-based motivation may be due to age related declines in the neural structures needed for more computationally demanding model-based decision making.

Hunger and Satiety Gauge Reward Sensitivity

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Ryan Michael Cassidy

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Many of the neurocircuits and hormones known to underlie the sensations of hunger and satiety also substantially alter the activity of the dopaminergic reward system. Much interest lies in the ways that hunger, satiety, and reward tie together, as the epidemic of obesity seems tied to the recent development and mass availability of highly palatable foods. In this review, we will first discuss the basic neurocircuitry of the midbrain and basal forebrain reward system. We will elaborate how several important mediators of hunger—the agouti-related protein neurons of the arcuate nucleus, the lateral hypothalamic nucleus, and ghrelin—enhance the sensitivity of the dopaminergic reward system. Then, we will elaborate how mediators of satiety—the nucleus tractus solitarius, pro-opiomelanocortin neurons of the arcuate nucleus, and its peripheral hormonal influences such as leptin—reduce the reward system sensitivity. We hope to provide a template by which future research may identify the ways in which highly rewarding foods bypass this balanced system to produce excessive food consumption.

Social and monetary reward processing in autism spectrum disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Delmonte, Sonja; Balsters, Joshua H; McGrath, Jane; Fitzgerald, Jacqueline; Brennan, Sean; Fagan, Andrew J; Gallagher, Louise

2012-09-26

Social motivation theory suggests that deficits in social reward processing underlie social impairments in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, the extent to which abnormalities in reward processing generalize to other classes of stimuli remains unresolved. The aim of the current study was to examine if reward processing abnormalities in ASD are specific to social stimuli or can be generalized to other classes of reward. Additionally, we sought to examine the results in the light of behavioral impairments in ASD. Participants performed adapted versions of the social and monetary incentive delay tasks. Data from 21 unmedicated right-handed male participants with ASD and 21 age- and IQ-matched controls were analyzed using a factorial design to examine the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response during the anticipation and receipt of both reward types. Behaviorally, the ASD group showed less of a reduction in reaction time (RT) for rewarded compared to unrewarded trials than the control group. In terms of the fMRI results, there were no significant group differences in reward circuitry during reward anticipation. During the receipt of rewards, there was a significant interaction between group and reward type in the left dorsal striatum (DS). The ASD group showed reduced activity in the DS compared to controls for social rewards but not monetary rewards and decreased activation for social rewards compared to monetary rewards. Controls showed no significant difference between the two reward types. Increased activation in the DS during social reward processing was associated with faster response times for rewarded trials, compared to unrewarded trials, in both groups. This is in line with behavioral results indicating that the ASD group showed less of a reduction in RT for rewarded compared to unrewarded trials. Additionally, de-activation to social rewards was associated with increased repetitive behavior in ASD. In line with social motivation theory, the ASD

The role of reward in word learning and its implications for language acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

Ripollés, Pablo; Marco-Pallarés, Josep; Hielscher, Ulrike; Mestres-Missé, Anna; Tempelmann, Claus; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Noesselt, Toemme

2014-11-03

The exact neural processes behind humans' drive to acquire a new language--first as infants and later as second-language learners--are yet to be established. Recent theoretical models have proposed that during human evolution, emerging language-learning mechanisms might have been glued to phylogenetically older subcortical reward systems, reinforcing human motivation to learn a new language. Supporting this hypothesis, our results showed that adult participants exhibited robust fMRI activation in the ventral striatum (VS)--a core region of reward processing--when successfully learning the meaning of new words. This activation was similar to the VS recruitment elicited using an independent reward task. Moreover, the VS showed enhanced functional and structural connectivity with neocortical language areas during successful word learning. Together, our results provide evidence for the neural substrate of reward and motivation during word learning. We suggest that this strong functional and anatomical coupling between neocortical language regions and the subcortical reward system provided a crucial advantage in humans that eventually enabled our lineage to successfully acquire linguistic skills. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incentive theory: IV. Magnitude of reward

OpenAIRE

Killeen, Peter R.

1985-01-01

Incentive theory is successfully applied to data from experiments in which the amount of food reward is varied. This is accomplished by assuming that incentive value is a negatively accelerated function of reward duration. The interaction of the magnitude of a reward with its delay is confirmed, and the causes and implications of this interaction are discussed.

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

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.

The Role of Habenula in Motivation and Reward

OpenAIRE

Marc Fakhoury; Sergio Domínguez López

2014-01-01

Located centrally along the dorsal diencephalic system, the habenula is divided into two structures: the medial and the lateral portions. It serves as an important relay between the forebrain and several hindbrain sites. In the last few years, a huge attention has been devoted to this structure, especially the lateral habenula (LHb), which seems to play an important role in emotion, motivation, and reward. Recent studies using techniques such as electrophysiology and neuroimaging have shown t...

Music-related reward responses predict episodic memory performance.

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Risk, Reward, and Regulations: Reshaping the Financial Services Industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Saul, Ralph S.

1984-01-01

Deregulation has had much to do with the competitive drive and vitality of financial services within the United States. The risks and rewards of deregulation for financial institutions are discussed, and principles which should serve as a guide in building any new regulatory structure are examined. (RM)

Enhanced motivation for food reward induced by stress and attenuation by corticotrophin-releasing factor receptor antagonism in rats: implications for overeating and obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiu

2015-06-01

Overeating beyond individuals' homeostatic needs critically contributes to obesity. The neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying the motivation to consume excessive foods with high calories are not fully understood. The present study examined whether a pharmacological stressor, yohimbine, enhances the motivation to procure food reward with an emphasis on comparisons between standard lab chow and high-fat foods. The effects of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptor blockade by a CRF1-selective antagonist NBI on the stress-enhanced motivation for food reward were also assessed. Male Sprague-Dawley rats with chow available ad libitum in their home cages were trained to press a lever under a progressive ratio schedule for deliveries of either standard or high-fat food pellets. For testing yohimbine stress effects, rats received an intraperitoneal administration of yohimbine 10 min before start of the test sessions. For testing effects of CRF1 receptor blockade on stress responses, NBI was administered 20 min prior to yohimbine challenge. The rats emitted higher levels of lever responses to procure the high-fat food pellets compared with their counterparts on standard food pellets. Yohimbine challenge facilitated lever responses for the reward in all of the rats, whereas the effect was more robust in the rats on high-fat food pellets compared with their counterparts on standard food pellets. An inhibitory effect of pretreatment with NBI was observed on the enhancing effect of yohimbine challenge but not on the responses under baseline condition without yohimbine administration. Stress challenge significantly enhanced the motivation of satiated rats to procure extra food reward, especially the high-fat food pellets. Activation of CRF1 receptors is required for the stress-enhanced motivation for food reward. These results may have implications for our better understanding of the biobehavioral mechanisms of overeating and obesity.

NMDA receptor blockade in the prelimbic cortex activates the mesolimbic system and dopamine-dependent opiate reward signaling.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Huibing; Rosen, Laura G; Ng, Garye A; Rushlow, Walter J; Laviolette, Steven R

2014-12-01

N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are involved in opiate reward processing and modulate sub-cortical dopamine (DA) activity. NMDA receptor blockade in the prelimbic (PLC) division of the mPFC strongly potentiates the rewarding behavioural properties of normally sub-reward threshold doses of opiates. However, the possible functional interactions between cortical NMDA and sub-cortical DAergic motivational neural pathways underlying these effects are not understood. This study examines how NMDA receptor modulation in the PLC influences opiate reward processing via interactions with sub-cortical DAergic transmission. We further examined whether direct intra-PLC NMDA receptor modulation may activate DA-dependent opiate reward signaling via interactions with the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Using an unbiased place conditioning procedure (CPP) in rats, we performed bilateral intra-PLC microinfusions of the competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, (2R)-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (AP-5), prior to behavioural morphine place conditioning and challenged the rewarding effects of morphine with DA receptor blockade. We next examined the effects of intra-PLC NMDA receptor blockade on the spontaneous activity patterns of presumptive VTA DA or GABAergic neurons, using single-unit, extracellular in vivo neuronal recordings. We show that intra-PLC NMDA receptor blockade strongly activates sub-cortical DA neurons within the VTA while inhibiting presumptive non-DA GABAergic neurons. Behaviourally, NMDA receptor blockade activates a DA-dependent opiate reward system, as pharmacological blockade of DA transmission blocked morphine reward only in the presence of intra-PLC NMDA receptor antagonism. These findings demonstrate a cortical NMDA-mediated mechanism controlling mesolimbic DAergic modulation of opiate reward processing.

Reward sensitivity and food addiction in women.

Science.gov (United States)

Loxton, Natalie J; Tipman, Renée J

2017-08-01

Sensitivity to the rewarding properties of appetitive substances has long been implicated in excessive consumption of palatable foods and drugs of abuse. Previous research focusing on individual differences in reward responsiveness has found heightened trait reward sensitivity to be associated with binge-eating, hazardous drinking, and illicit substance use. Food addiction has been proposed as an extreme form of compulsive-overeating and has been associated with genetic markers of heightened reward responsiveness. However, little research has explicitly examined the association between reward sensitivity and food addiction. Further, the processes by which individual differences in this trait are associated with excessive over-consumption has not been determined. A total of 374 women from the community completed an online questionnaire assessing reward sensitivity, food addiction, emotional, externally-driven, and hedonic eating. High reward sensitivity was significantly associated with greater food addiction symptoms (r = 0.31). Bootstrapped tests of indirect effects found the relationship between reward sensitivity and food addiction symptom count to be uniquely mediated by binge-eating, emotional eating, and hedonic eating (notably, food availability). These indirect effects held even when controlling for BMI, anxiety, depression, and trait impulsivity. This study further supports the argument that high levels of reward sensitivity may offer a trait marker of vulnerability to excessive over-eating, beyond negative affect and impulse-control deficits. That the hedonic properties of food (especially food availability), emotional, and binge-eating behavior act as unique mediators suggest that interventions for reward-sensitive women presenting with food addiction may benefit from targeting food availability in addition to management of negative affect. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Video game training and the reward system.

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Lorenz, Robert C; Gleich, Tobias; Gallinat, Jürgen; Kühn, Simone

2015-01-01

Video games contain elaborate reinforcement and reward schedules that have the potential to maximize motivation. Neuroimaging studies suggest that video games might have an influence on the reward system. However, it is not clear whether reward-related properties represent a precondition, which biases an individual toward playing video games, or if these changes are the result of playing video games. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore reward-related functional predictors in relation to video gaming experience as well as functional changes in the brain in response to video game training. Fifty healthy participants were randomly assigned to a video game training (TG) or control group (CG). Before and after training/control period, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted using a non-video game related reward task. At pretest, both groups showed strongest activation in ventral striatum (VS) during reward anticipation. At posttest, the TG showed very similar VS activity compared to pretest. In the CG, the VS activity was significantly attenuated. This longitudinal study revealed that video game training may preserve reward responsiveness in the VS in a retest situation over time. We suggest that video games are able to keep striatal responses to reward flexible, a mechanism which might be of critical value for applications such as therapeutic cognitive training.

Reward Systems in the Brain and Nutrition.

Science.gov (United States)

Rolls, Edmund T

2016-07-17

The taste cortex in the anterior insula provides separate and combined representations of the taste, temperature, and texture of food in the mouth independently of hunger and thus of reward value and pleasantness. One synapse on, in the orbitofrontal cortex, these sensory inputs are combined by associative learning with olfactory and visual inputs for some neurons, and these neurons encode food reward value in that they respond to food only when hunger is present and in that activations correlate linearly with subjective pleasantness. Cognitive factors, including word-level descriptions and selective attention to affective value, modulate the representation of the reward value of taste, olfactory, and flavor stimuli in the orbitofrontal cortex and a region to which it projects, the anterior cingulate cortex. These food reward representations are important in the control of appetite and food intake. Individual differences in reward representations may contribute to obesity, and there are age-related differences in these reward representations. Implications of how reward systems in the brain operate for understanding, preventing, and treating obesity are described.

Differentiating neural reward responsiveness in autism versus ADHD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gregor Kohls

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Although attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD and autism spectrum disorders (ASD share certain neurocognitive characteristics, it has been hypothesized to differentiate the two disorders based on their brain's reward responsiveness to either social or monetary reward. Thus, the present fMRI study investigated neural activation in response to both reward types in age and IQ-matched boys with ADHD versus ASD relative to typically controls (TDC. A significant group by reward type interaction effect emerged in the ventral striatum with greater activation to monetary versus social reward only in TDC, whereas subjects with ADHD responded equally strong to both reward types, and subjects with ASD showed low striatal reactivity across both reward conditions. Moreover, disorder-specific neural abnormalities were revealed, including medial prefrontal hyperactivation in response to social reward in ADHD versus ventral striatal hypoactivation in response to monetary reward in ASD. Shared dysfunction was characterized by fronto-striato-parietal hypoactivation in both clinical groups when money was at stake. Interestingly, lower neural activation within parietal circuitry was associated with higher autistic traits across the entire study sample. In sum, the present findings concur with the assumption that both ASD and ADHD display distinct and shared neural dysfunction in response to reward.

Beyond the novelty effect: The role of in-game challenges, rewards and choices for long-term motivation to improve obesity-related health behaviours in adolescents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Martin

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Background: The prevalence of adolescent obesity is high in the UK. Engaging adolescent boys and girls in health behaviour related to the prevention of obesity proves to be challenging. Mobile and wireless technology shows promise for increasing knowledge and motivation to increase physical activity and healthy eating by capturing the interest of many adolescents. However, solutions for overcoming the novelty effect to enable habit formation and thus long-lasting behaviour change needs to be explored. Aim: This study aimed to explore Scottish adolescents’ perception of the usability and acceptability of a serious mobile game, wearable activity sensors and a smart phone eDiary application (app for promoting physical activity and healthy eating. Methods: The game, sensors and app are being developed following the COM-B model of the Behaviour Change Wheel. The technology is interlinked in that physical activity tracked by the wearable activity sensors and healthy eating captured by using the eDiary app are central to recover the player’s energy levels in the serious game. The player replenishes their in-game energy to progress in the game and to boost abilities. Applying a user-centred approach for developing the technology, 11 adolescents aged 13-16 years (6 boys, 5 girls participated in semi-structured focus groups. This was the first of three pre-pilot study iterations. Mock-up versions of the serious mobile game, wearable activity sensors and the prototype of the eDiary app were presented. Focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed. Results: All adolescents responded positively to the general idea of the game and all were keen to play the actual game once developed. Adolescents understood the importance and novelty of the link between player’s real-life health behaviours and in-game activities for improving obesity-related health behaviour. It became evident that the adolescents would only be motivated to be

Do dopaminergic gene polymorphisms affect mesolimbic reward activation of music listening response? Therapeutic impact on Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS).

Science.gov (United States)

Blum, Kenneth; Chen, Thomas J H; Chen, Amanda L H; Madigan, Margaret; Downs, B William; Waite, Roger L; Braverman, Eric R; Kerner, Mallory; Bowirrat, Abdalla; Giordano, John; Henshaw, Harry; Gold, Mark S

2010-03-01

Using fMRI, Menon and Levitin [9] clearly found for the first time that listening to music strongly modulates activity in a network of mesolimbic structures involved in reward processing including the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), as well as the hypothalamus, and insula, which are thought to be involved in regulating autonomic and physiological responses to rewarding and emotional stimuli. Importantly, responses in the NAc and VTA were strongly correlated pointing to an association between dopamine release and NAc response to music. Listing to pleasant music induced a strong response and significant activation of the VTA-mediated interaction of the NAc with the hypothalamus, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex. Blum et al. [10] provided the first evidence that the dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2) Taq 1 A1 allele significantly associated with severe alcoholism whereby the author's suggested that they found the first "reward gene" located in the mesolimbic system. The enhanced functional and effective connectivity between brain regions mediating reward, autonomic, and cognitive processing provides insight into understanding why listening to music is one of the most rewarding and pleasurable human experiences. However, little is known about why some people have a more or less powerful mesolimbic experience when they are listening to music. It is well-known that music may induce an endorphinergic response that is blocked by naloxone, a known opioid antagonist (Goldstein [19]). Opioid transmission in the NAc is associated with dopamine release in the VTA. Moreover, dopamine release in the VTA is linked to polymorphisms of the DRD2 gene and even attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), whereby carriers of the DRD2 A1 allele show a reduced NAc release of dopamine (DA). Thus it is conjectured that similar mechanisms in terms of adequate dopamine release and subsequent activation of reward circuitry by listening to music might also be

Video game training and the reward system

OpenAIRE

Lorenz, R.; Gleich, T.; Gallinat, J.; Kühn, S.

2015-01-01

Video games contain elaborate reinforcement and reward schedules that have the potential to maximize motivation. Neuroimaging studies suggest that video games might have an influence on the reward system. However, it is not clear whether reward-related properties represent a precondition, which biases an individual toward playing video games, or if these changes are the result of playing video games. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore reward-related functional predictors ...

Neural correlates of reward and loss sensitivity in psychopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Pujara, Maia; Motzkin, Julian C; Newman, Joseph P; Kiehl, Kent A; Koenigs, Michael

2014-06-01

Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with callous and impulsive behavior and criminal recidivism. It has long been theorized that psychopaths have deficits in processing reward and punishment. Here, we use structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural correlates of reward and loss sensitivity in a group of criminal psychopaths. Forty-one adult male prison inmates (n = 18 psychopaths and n = 23 non-psychopaths) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging task involving the gain or loss of money. Across the entire sample of participants, monetary gains elicited robust activation within the ventral striatum (VS). Although psychopaths and non-psychopaths did not significantly differ with respect to overall levels of VS response to reward vs loss, we observed significantly different correlations between VS responses and psychopathy severity within each group. Volumetric analyses of striatal subregions revealed a similar pattern of correlations, specifically for the right accumbens area within VS. In a separate sample of inmates (n = 93 psychopaths and n = 117 non-psychopaths) who completed a self-report measure of appetitive motivation, we again found that the correlation with psychopathy severity differed between groups. These convergent results offer novel insight into the neural substrates of reward and loss processing in psychopathy. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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.

Total rewards: A study of artisan attraction and retention within a South African context

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Anton Schlechter

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Orientation: The shortage of artisan skills remains a serious challenge in South Africa andis forcing employers to investigate which total reward factors contribute to the attractionand retention of this critical skills segment, as undifferentiated retention strategies are nolonger useful or even appropriate. Research purpose: The aim of this study was to further develop understanding of the total rewardfactors and the ideal combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retainartisans, including artisans from various race groups and age cohorts, using a novel approach. Motivation for the study: Limited research is available on the total reward factors and theideal combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans. Furtherknowledge in this area will allow organisations to develop reward models that better attractand retain artisans. Method: The study followed both a quantitative and qualitative research approach,whilst adopting a descriptive research design. Using this mixed method, primary datawere collected from individuals by means of two focus groups discussions: (1 a groupof human resource and remuneration managers (n = 4 and (2 a group of artisans (n = 7.These results were used to develop two questionnaires that were distributed to artisans (n = 143. Data from Questionnaire 1 were analysed using descriptive statistics and factoranalysis. Conjoint analysis was employed to identify an ideal total rewards compositionbased on responses from Questionnaire 2. Main findings: The results of the choice-based modelling (conjoint analysis revealed thatthree total rewards attributes were consistently deemed to be important in the retention ofartisans. These were (in order of priority: environment (work-life balance, compensation(level and compensation (variable. Environment (work-life balance was considered14.64% more important than compensation (level within the overall sample as well aswithin the

Experiences of burden, needs, rewards and resilience in family caregivers of people living with Motor Neurone Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A secondary thematic analysis of qualitative interviews.

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Weisser, Fabia B; Bristowe, Katherine; Jackson, Diana

2015-09-01

Family caregivers of people with Motor Neurone Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, an incurable, mostly rapidly fatal neurodegenerative disease, face many challenges. Although there is considerable research on caregiver burden in Motor Neurone Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, there is less knowledge of the positive aspects of caring. To explore the experiences of family caregivers of people with Motor Neurone Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, specifically the relationship between positive and negative experiences of caring, and to identify possible ways to better support these caregivers. Secondary thematic analysis of 24 semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted longitudinally with 10 family caregivers. Interviews explored rewarding and unrewarding aspects of caring. Themes emerged around burden, needs, rewards and resilience. Resilience included getting active, retaining perspective and living for the moment. Burden was multifaceted, including social burden, responsibility, advocacy, ambivalence, guilt and struggling with acceptance. Rewards included being helped and 'ticking along'. Needs were multifaceted, including social, practical and psychological needs. The four main themes were interrelated. A model of coping was developed, integrating resilience (active/positive), burden (active/negative), needs (passive/negative) and reward (passive/positive). Burden, resilience, needs and rewards are interrelated. Caregivers' ability to cope with caring for a person with Motor Neurone Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis oscillates between positive and negative aspects of caring, being at times active, at times passive. Coping is a non-linear process, oscillating between different states of mind. The proposed model could enable clinicians to better understand the caregiver experience, help family caregivers foster resilience and identify rewards, and develop appropriate individualised caregiver support plans. © The Author(s) 2015.

Facilitation of voluntary goal-directed action by reward cues.

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Lovibond, Peter F; Colagiuri, Ben

2013-10-01

Reward-associated cues are known to influence motivation to approach both natural and man-made rewards, such as food and drugs. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are not well understood. To model these processes in the laboratory with humans, we developed an appetitive Pavlovian-instrumental transfer procedure with a chocolate reward. We used a single unconstrained response that led to an actual rather than symbolic reward to assess the strength of reward motivation. Presentation of a chocolate-paired cue, but not an unpaired cue, markedly enhanced instrumental responding over a 30-s period. The same pattern was observed with 10-s and 30-s cues, showing that close cue-reward contiguity is not necessary for facilitation of reward-directed action. The results confirm that reward-related cues can instigate voluntary action to obtain that reward. The effectiveness of long-duration cues suggests that in clinical settings, attention should be directed to both proximal and distal cues for reward.

Dopaminergic dysfunction in abstinent dexamphetamine users: results from a pharmacological fMRI study using a reward anticipation task and a methylphenidate challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Schouw, M L J; De Ruiter, M B; Kaag, A M; van den Brink, W; Lindauer, R J L; Reneman, L

2013-06-01

Dopamine (DA) is involved in systems governing motor actions, motivational processes and cognitive functions. Preclinical studies have shown that even relatively low doses of d-amphetamine (dAMPH) (equivalent to doses used in clinical Practice) can lead to DA neurotoxicity in rodents and non-human primates (Ricaurte et al., 2005). Therefore, we investigated the DAergic function in eight male recreational users of dAMPH and eight male healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We compared brain activation between both groups during a monetary incentive delay task (Knutson et al., 2001) with and without an oral methylphenidate (MPH) challenge. All subjects were abstinent for at least 2 weeks during the baseline scan. The second scan was performed on the same day 1.5 h after receiving an oral dose of 35 mg MPH (approximately 0.5 mg/kg) when peak MPH binding was assumed. When anticipating reward, dAMPH users showed lower striatal activation in comparison to control subjects. In addition, MPH induced a reduction in the striatal activation during reward anticipation in healthy controls, whereas no such effect was observed in dAMPH users. The combination of these findings provides further evidence for frontostriatal DAergic dysfunction in recreational dAMPH users and is consistent with preclinical data suggesting neurotoxic effects of chronic dAMPH use. The findings of this explorative study could have important implications for humans in need for treatment with dAMPH, such as patients suffering from ADHD and therefore this study needs replication in a larger sample. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning Reward Uncertainty in the Basal Ganglia.

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John G Mikhael

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Learning the reliability of different sources of rewards is critical for making optimal choices. However, despite the existence of detailed theory describing how the expected reward is learned in the basal ganglia, it is not known how reward uncertainty is estimated in these circuits. This paper presents a class of models that encode both the mean reward and the spread of the rewards, the former in the difference between the synaptic weights of D1 and D2 neurons, and the latter in their sum. In the models, the tendency to seek (or avoid options with variable reward can be controlled by increasing (or decreasing the tonic level of dopamine. The models are consistent with the physiology of and synaptic plasticity in the basal ganglia, they explain the effects of dopaminergic manipulations on choices involving risks, and they make multiple experimental predictions.

Model Checking Multivariate State Rewards

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Bo Friis; Nielson, Flemming; Nielson, Hanne Riis

2010-01-01

We consider continuous stochastic logics with state rewards that are interpreted over continuous time Markov chains. We show how results from multivariate phase type distributions can be used to obtain higher-order moments for multivariate state rewards (including covariance). We also generalise...

Self-rewards and personal motivation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch, Alexander Karl; Nafziger, Julia; Suvorov, Anton

2014-01-01

Self-administered rewards are ubiquitous. They serve as incentives for personal accomplishments and are widely recommended to increase personal motivation. We show that in a model with time-inconsistent and reference-dependent preferences, self-rewards can be a credible and effective tool...

Self-Rewards and Personal Motivation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch, Alexander Karl; Nafziger, Julia; Suvorov, Anton

Self-administered rewards are ubiquitous. They serve as incentives for personal accomplishments and are widely recommended to increase personal motivation. We show that in a model with time-inconsistent and reference-dependent preferences, self-rewards can be a credible and effective tool...

Self-rewards and personal motivation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koch, A.K.; Nafziger, J.; Suvorov, A.; van de Ven, J.

2014-01-01

Self-administered rewards are ubiquitous. They serve as incentives for personal accomplishments and are widely recommended to increase personal motivation. We show that in a model with time-inconsistent and reference-dependent preferences, self-rewards can be a credible and effective tool to

Attention to nurses' rewarding - an interview study of registered nurses working in primary and private healthcare in Finland.

Science.gov (United States)

Seitovirta, Jaana; Vehviläinen-Julkunen, Katri; Mitronen, Lasse; De Gieter, Sara; Kvist, Tarja

2017-04-01

To identify meaningful types of rewards and the consequences of rewards as expressed by Finnish registered nurses working in primary and private healthcare. Previous studies have found significant associations between nurses' rewards and both their commitment and job satisfaction. Furthermore, appropriate rewards can have beneficial effects on factors including workforce stability and occupational satisfaction that are highly important in times of nurse shortages. A cross-sectional, qualitative interview study. Data were collected via individual semi-structured interviews (n = 20) with registered nurses working in Finland's primary and private healthcare, and subjected to qualitative content analysis. Six meaningful types of rewards were identified by the registered nurses: Financial compensation and benefits, Work-Life balance, Work content, Professional development, Recognition, and Supportive leadership. Rewards encouraged respondents to perform their work correctly and reinforced occupational satisfaction, but also caused feelings of envy and stress. It is essential to pay attention to nurses' preferences for particular rewards and to reward management. When designing effective reward systems for registered nurses, it is not sufficient to provide financial rewards alone, as various kinds of non-financial rewards are both meaningful and necessary. When trying to improve registered nurses' commitment and job satisfaction through reward management, it is important to listen to nurses' opinions to create a reward system that integrates financial and non-financial rewards and is fair from their perspective. Healthcare organisations that offer registered nurses a holistic reward system are more likely to retain satisfied and committed nurses at a time of increasing nursing shortages. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Video Game Training and the Reward System

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Robert C. Lorenz

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Video games contain elaborate reinforcement and reward schedules that have the potential to maximize motivation. Neuroimaging studies suggest that video games might have an influence on the reward system. However, it is not clear whether reward-related properties represent a precondition, which biases an individual towards playing video games, or if these changes are the result of playing video games. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore reward-related functional predictors in relation to video gaming experience as well as functional changes in the brain in response to video game training.Fifty healthy participants were randomly assigned to a video game training (TG or control group (CG. Before and after training/control period, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI was conducted using a non-video game related reward task.At pretest, both groups showed strongest activation in ventral striatum (VS during reward anticipation. At posttest, the TG showed very similar VS activity compared to pretest. In the CG, the VS activity was significantly attenuated.This longitudinal study revealed that video game training may preserve reward responsiveness in the ventral striatum in a retest situation over time. We suggest that video games are able to keep striatal responses to reward flexible, a mechanism which might be of critical value for applications such as therapeutic cognitive training.

Video game training and the reward system

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenz, Robert C.; Gleich, Tobias; Gallinat, Jürgen; Kühn, Simone

2015-01-01

Video games contain elaborate reinforcement and reward schedules that have the potential to maximize motivation. Neuroimaging studies suggest that video games might have an influence on the reward system. However, it is not clear whether reward-related properties represent a precondition, which biases an individual toward playing video games, or if these changes are the result of playing video games. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore reward-related functional predictors in relation to video gaming experience as well as functional changes in the brain in response to video game training. Fifty healthy participants were randomly assigned to a video game training (TG) or control group (CG). Before and after training/control period, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was conducted using a non-video game related reward task. At pretest, both groups showed strongest activation in ventral striatum (VS) during reward anticipation. At posttest, the TG showed very similar VS activity compared to pretest. In the CG, the VS activity was significantly attenuated. This longitudinal study revealed that video game training may preserve reward responsiveness in the VS in a retest situation over time. We suggest that video games are able to keep striatal responses to reward flexible, a mechanism which might be of critical value for applications such as therapeutic cognitive training. PMID:25698962

Reward disrupts reactivated human skill memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Dayan, Eran; Laor-Maayany, Rony; Censor, Nitzan

2016-06-16

Accumulating evidence across species and memory domains shows that when an existing memory is reactivated, it becomes susceptible to modifications. However, the potential role of reward signals in these mechanisms underlying human memory dynamics is unknown. Leaning on a wealth of findings on the role of reward in reinforcing memory, we tested the impact of reinforcing a skill memory trace with monetary reward following memory reactivation, on strengthening of the memory trace. Reinforcing reactivated memories did not strengthen the memory, but rather led to disruption of the memory trace, breaking down the link between memory reactivation and subsequent memory strength. Statistical modeling further revealed a strong mediating role for memory reactivation in linking between memory encoding and subsequent memory strength only when the memory was replayed without reinforcement. We suggest that, rather than reinforcing the existing memory trace, reward creates a competing memory trace, impairing expression of the original reward-free memory. This mechanism sheds light on the processes underlying skill acquisition, having wide translational implications.

Community-based faculty: motivation and rewards.

Science.gov (United States)

Fulkerson, P K; Wang-Cheng, R

1997-02-01

The reasons why practicing physicians precept students in their offices, and the rewards they wish to receive for this work, have not been clearly elucidated. This study determined the reasons for precepting and the rewards expected among a network of preceptors in Milwaukee. A questionnaire was mailed to 120 community-based physician preceptors in a required, third-year ambulatory care clerkship. Respondents were asked to identify why they volunteered and what they considered appropriate recognition or reward. The personal satisfaction derived from the student-teacher interaction was, by far, the most important motivator for preceptors (84%). The most preferred rewards for teaching included clinical faculty appointment, CME and bookstore discounts, computer networking, and workshops for improving skills in clinical teaching. Community-based private physicians who participate in medical student education programs are primarily motivated by the personal satisfaction that they derive from the teaching encounter. An effective preceptor recognition/reward program can be developed using input from the preceptors themselves.

Intersection of reward and memory in monkey rhinal cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Lighting up the brain's reward circuitry.

Science.gov (United States)

Lobo, Mary Kay

2012-07-01

The brain's reward circuit is critical for mediating natural reward behaviors including food, sex, and social interaction. Drugs of abuse take over this circuit and produce persistent molecular and cellular alterations in the brain regions and their neural circuitry that make up the reward pathway. Recent use of optogenetic technologies has provided novel insights into the functional and molecular role of the circuitry and cell subtypes within these circuits that constitute this pathway. This perspective will address the current and future use of light-activated proteins, including those involved in modulating neuronal activity, cellular signaling, and molecular properties in the neural circuitry mediating rewarding stimuli and maladaptive responses to drugs of abuse. © 2012 New York Academy of Sciences.

Reward prediction error signal enhanced by striatum-amygdala interaction explains the acceleration of probabilistic reward learning by emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Noriya; Sakagami, Masamichi; Haruno, Masahiko

2013-03-06

Learning does not only depend on rationality, because real-life learning cannot be isolated from emotion or social factors. Therefore, it is intriguing to determine how emotion changes learning, and to identify which neural substrates underlie this interaction. Here, we show that the task-independent presentation of an emotional face before a reward-predicting cue increases the speed of cue-reward association learning in human subjects compared with trials in which a neutral face is presented. This phenomenon was attributable to an increase in the learning rate, which regulates reward prediction errors. Parallel to these behavioral findings, functional magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated that presentation of an emotional face enhanced reward prediction error (RPE) signal in the ventral striatum. In addition, we also found a functional link between this enhanced RPE signal and increased activity in the amygdala following presentation of an emotional face. Thus, this study revealed an acceleration of cue-reward association learning by emotion, and underscored a role of striatum-amygdala interactions in the modulation of the reward prediction errors by emotion.

Two spatiotemporally distinct value systems shape reward-based learning in the human brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Fouragnan, Elsa; Retzler, Chris; Mullinger, Karen; Philiastides, Marios G

2015-09-08

Avoiding repeated mistakes and learning to reinforce rewarding decisions is critical for human survival and adaptive actions. Yet, the neural underpinnings of the value systems that encode different decision-outcomes remain elusive. Here coupling single-trial electroencephalography with simultaneously acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging, we uncover the spatiotemporal dynamics of two separate but interacting value systems encoding decision-outcomes. Consistent with a role in regulating alertness and switching behaviours, an early system is activated only by negative outcomes and engages arousal-related and motor-preparatory brain structures. Consistent with a role in reward-based learning, a later system differentially suppresses or activates regions of the human reward network in response to negative and positive outcomes, respectively. Following negative outcomes, the early system interacts and downregulates the late system, through a thalamic interaction with the ventral striatum. Critically, the strength of this coupling predicts participants' switching behaviour and avoidance learning, directly implicating the thalamostriatal pathway in reward-based learning.

Distinct Motivational Effects of Contingent and Noncontingent Rewards.

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Reward and attitudes: The unintended outcomes of an effective performance appraisal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Solomon M. Semakula-Katende

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Focus was on the role of reward and attitudes as major determinants in enhancing the effectiveness of performance appraisal systems. Research purpose: To develop a structural model from the qualitative and quantitative findings from which to address the identified gaps in order to improve the effectiveness of appraisals. Motivation for the study: The attention that role players tended to give to the rewarding of employees during the appraisal process made it appear as the only important determinant of an appraisal’s success. In appraisals in many public institutions, reward has been given unnecessary prominence over other drivers, such as management and development. That led most key role players (leaders, managers and employees to perceive the current employee performance management and development system (EPMDS to be purely for monetary (salary increments and cash bonuses and non-monetary (promotion purposes, which, in turn, compromised its effectiveness. Research design, approach and method: Structural equation modelling (SEM was utilised as a statistical technique for testing and estimating causal relations using a combination of statistical data and qualitative causal assumptions. This allowed both confirmatory and exploratory modelling to be undertaken, which is suited to both theory testing and theory development. A triangulation of quantitative (questionnaire and qualitative (interview study was conducted. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to nine government hospitals in the Free State province, namely Mofumahadi Manapo Mopeli, Dihlabeng, and Boitumelo regional hospitals, as well as Elizabeth Ross, Thebe, Phekolong, Mpumelelo, Reitz and Ficksburg district hospitals. There was a high response rate of 96 per cent, a total of 287 completed questionnaires. Respondents ranged from top executives, middle management, line management, to employees of all categories. Main findings: Reward and attitudes were found to

Mechanisms of impulsive choice: III. The role of reward processes

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, Andrew T.

2015-01-01

Two experiments examined the relationship between reward processing and impulsive choice. In Experiment 1, rats chose between a smaller-sooner (SS) reward (1 pellet, 10 s) and a larger-later (LL) reward (1, 2, and 4 pellets, 30 s). The rats then experienced concurrent variable-interval 30-s schedules with variations in reward magnitude to evaluate reward magnitude discrimination. LL choice behavior positively correlated with reward magnitude discrimination. In Experiment 2, rats chose between an SS reward (1 pellet, 10 s) and an LL reward (2 and 4 pellets, 30 s). The rats then received either a reward intervention which consisted of concurrent fixed-ratio schedules associated with different magnitudes to improve their reward magnitude discrimination, or a control task. All rats then experienced a post-intervention impulsive choice task followed by a reward magnitude discrimination task to assess intervention efficacy. The rats that received the intervention exhibited increases in post-intervention LL choice behavior, and made more responses for larger-reward magnitudes in the reward magnitude discrimination task, suggesting that the intervention heightened sensitivities to reward magnitude. The results suggest that reward magnitude discrimination plays a key role in individual differences in impulsive choice, and could be a potential target for further intervention developments. PMID:26506254

Validation and extension of the reward-mountain model.

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Informationally administered reward enhances intrinsic motivation in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hyeon-Seung; Jang, Seon-Kyeong; Lee, Ga-Young; Park, Seon-Cheol; Medalia, Alice; Choi, Kee-Hong

2017-10-01

Even when individuals with schizophrenia have an intact ability to enjoy rewarding moments, the means to assist them to translate rewarding experiences into goal-directed behaviors is unclear. The present study sought to determine whether informationally administered rewards enhance intrinsic motivation to foster goal-directed behaviors in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and healthy controls (HCs). Eighty-four participants (SZ=43, HCs=41) were randomly assigned to conditions involving either a performance-contingent reward with an informationally administered reward or a task-contingent reward with no feedback. Participants were asked to play two cognitive games of equalized difficulty. Accuracy, self-reported intrinsic motivation, free-choice intrinsic motivation (i.e., game play during a free-choice observation period), and perceived competency were measured. Intrinsic motivation and perceived competency in the cognitive games were similar between the two participant groups. The informationally administered reward significantly enhanced self-reported intrinsic motivation and perceived competency in both the groups. The likelihood that individuals with schizophrenia would play the game during the free-choice observation period was four times greater in the informationally administered reward condition than that in the no-feedback condition. Our findings suggest that, in the context of cognitive remediation, individuals with schizophrenia would benefit from informationally administered rewards. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Basolateral amygdala lesions abolish mutual reward preferences in rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernandez-Lallement, Julen; van Wingerden, Marijn; Schäble, Sandra; Kalenscher, Tobias

2016-01-01

In a recent study, we demonstrated that rats prefer mutual rewards in a Prosocial Choice Task. Here, employing the same task, we show that the integrity of basolateral amygdala was necessary for the expression of mutual reward preferences. Actor rats received bilateral excitotoxic (n=12) or sham lesions (n=10) targeting the basolateral amygdala and were subsequently tested in a Prosocial Choice Task where they could decide between rewarding ("Both Reward") or not rewarding a partner rat ("Own Reward"), either choice yielding identical reward to the actors themselves. To manipulate the social context and control for secondary reinforcement sources, actor rats were paired with either a partner rat (partner condition) or with an inanimate rat toy (toy condition). Sham-operated animals revealed a significant preference for the Both-Reward-option in the partner condition, but not in the toy condition. Amygdala-lesioned animals exhibited significantly lower Both-Reward preferences than the sham group in the partner but not in the toy condition, suggesting that basolateral amygdala was required for the expression of mutual reward preferences. Critically, in a reward magnitude discrimination task in the same experimental setup, both sham-operated and amygdala-lesioned animals preferred large over small rewards, suggesting that amygdala lesion effects were restricted to decision making in social contexts, leaving self-oriented behavior unaffected. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hedging Your Bets by Learning Reward Correlations in the Human Brain

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Wunderlich, Klaus; Symmonds, Mkael; Bossaerts, Peter; Dolan, Raymond J.

2011-01-01

Summary Human subjects are proficient at tracking the mean and variance of rewards and updating these via prediction errors. Here, we addressed whether humans can also learn about higher-order relationships between distinct environmental outcomes, a defining ecological feature of contexts where multiple sources of rewards are available. By manipulating the degree to which distinct outcomes are correlated, we show that subjects implemented an explicit model-based strategy to learn the associated outcome correlations and were adept in using that information to dynamically adjust their choices in a task that required a minimization of outcome variance. Importantly, the experimentally generated outcome correlations were explicitly represented neuronally in right midinsula with a learning prediction error signal expressed in rostral anterior cingulate cortex. Thus, our data show that the human brain represents higher-order correlation structures between rewards, a core adaptive ability whose immediate benefit is optimized sampling. PMID:21943609

Reward disrupts reactivated human skill memory

OpenAIRE

Dayan, Eran; Laor-Maayany, Rony; Censor, Nitzan

2016-01-01

Accumulating evidence across species and memory domains shows that when an existing memory is reactivated, it becomes susceptible to modifications. However, the potential role of reward signals in these mechanisms underlying human memory dynamics is unknown. Leaning on a wealth of findings on the role of reward in reinforcing memory, we tested the impact of reinforcing a skill memory trace with monetary reward following memory reactivation, on strengthening of the memory trace. Reinforcing re...

Reward and Attentional Control in Visual Search

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Anderson, Brian A.; Wampler, Emma K.; Laurent, Patryk A.

2015-01-01

It has long been known that the control of attention in visual search depends both on voluntary, top-down deployment according to context-specific goals, and on involuntary, stimulus-driven capture based on the physical conspicuity of perceptual objects. Recent evidence suggests that pairing target stimuli with reward can modulate the voluntary deployment of attention, but there is little evidence that reward modulates the involuntary deployment of attention to task-irrelevant distractors. We report several experiments that investigate the role of reward learning on attentional control. Each experiment involved a training phase and a test phase. In the training phase, different colors were associated with different amounts of monetary reward. In the test phase, color was not task-relevant and participants searched for a shape singleton; in most experiments no reward was delivered in the test phase. We first show that attentional capture by physically salient distractors is magnified by a previous association with reward. In subsequent experiments we demonstrate that physically inconspicuous stimuli previously associated with reward capture attention persistently during extinction—even several days after training. Furthermore, vulnerability to attentional capture by high-value stimuli is negatively correlated across individuals with working memory capacity and positively correlated with trait impulsivity. An analysis of intertrial effects reveals that value-driven attentional capture is spatially specific. Finally, when reward is delivered at test contingent on the task-relevant shape feature, recent reward history modulates value-driven attentional capture by the irrelevant color feature. The influence of learned value on attention may provide a useful model of clinical syndromes characterized by similar failures of cognitive control, including addiction, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and obesity. PMID:23437631

Dopamine agonist increases risk taking but blunts reward-related brain activity.

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Jordi Riba

Full Text Available The use of D2/D3 dopaminergic agonists in Parkinson's disease (PD may lead to pathological gambling. In a placebo-controlled double-blind study in healthy volunteers, we observed riskier choices in a lottery task after administration of the D3 receptor-preferring agonist pramipexole thus mimicking risk-taking behavior in PD. Moreover, we demonstrate decreased activation in the rostral basal ganglia and midbrain, key structures of the reward system, following unexpected high gains and therefore propose that pathological gambling in PD results from the need to seek higher rewards to overcome the blunted response in this system.

Reward-enhanced memory in younger and older adults.

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Spaniol, Julia; Schain, Cécile; Bowen, Holly J

2014-09-01

We investigated how the anticipation of remote monetary reward modulates intentional episodic memory formation in younger and older adults. On the basis of prior findings of preserved reward-cognition interactions in aging, we predicted that reward anticipation would be associated with enhanced memory in both younger and older adults. On the basis of previous demonstrations of a time-dependent effect of reward anticipation on memory, we expected the memory enhancement to increase with study-test delay. In Experiment 1, younger and older participants encoded a series of picture stimuli associated with high- or low-reward values. At test (24-hr postencoding), recognition hits resulted in either high or low monetary rewards, whereas false alarms were penalized to discourage guessing. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1, but the study-test delay was manipulated within subjects (immediate vs 24hr). In Experiment 1, younger and older adults showed enhanced recognition for high-reward pictures compared with low-reward pictures. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and additionally showed that the effect did not extend to immediate recognition. The current findings provide support for a time-dependent mechanism of reward-based memory enhancement. They also suggest that aging leaves intact the positive influence of reward anticipation on intentional long-term memory formation. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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

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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.

Neurocircuitry of drug reward

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Ikemoto, Satoshi; Bonci, Antonello

2013-01-01

In recent years, neuroscientists have produced profound conceptual and mechanistic advances on the neurocircuitry of reward and substance use disorders. Here, we will provide a brief review of intracranial drug self-administration and optogenetic self-stimulation studies that identified brain regions and neurotransmitter systems involved in drug- and reward-related behaviors. Also discussed is a theoretical framework that helps to understand the functional properties of the circuitry involved in these behaviors. The circuitry appears to be homeostatically regulated and mediate anticipatory processes that regulate behavioral interaction with the environment in response to salient stimuli. That is, abused drugs or, at least, some may act on basic motivation and mood processes, regulating behavior-environment interaction. Optogenetics and related technologies have begun to uncover detailed circuit mechanisms linking key brain regions in which abused drugs act for rewarding effects. PMID:23664810

Neural reward and punishment sensitivity in cigarette smokers.

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Potts, Geoffrey F; Bloom, Erika L; Evans, David E; Drobes, David J

2014-11-01

Nicotine addiction remains a major public health problem but the neural substrates of addictive behavior remain unknown. One characteristic of smoking behavior is impulsive choice, selecting the immediate reward of smoking despite the potential long-term negative consequences. This suggests that drug users, including cigarette smokers, may be more sensitive to rewards and less sensitive to punishment. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to test the hypothesis that smokers are more responsive to reward signals and less responsive to punishment, potentially predisposing them to risky behavior. We conducted two experiments, one using a reward prediction design to elicit a Medial Frontal Negativity (MFN) and one using a reward- and punishment-motivated flanker task to elicit an Error Related Negativity (ERN), ERP components thought to index activity in the cortical projection of the dopaminergic reward system. The smokers had a greater MFN response to unpredicted rewards, and non-smokers, but not smokers, had a larger ERN on punishment motivated trials indicating that smokers are more reward sensitive and less punishment sensitive than nonsmokers, overestimating the appetitive value and underestimating aversive outcomes of stimuli and actions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Employee Reward Systems in Organizations

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Došenović Dragana

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Employee rewarding is one of the activities of human resource management concerning the management of money, goods and services that employees receive from their employer in exchange for their work. Given that a properly designed reward system is one of the conditions for a stable business, successful performance of work activities and the achievement of set objectives in each organization, the basic theme of this paper is the employee reward system, with a special focus on different elements of it. The purpose of this paper is to describe the role and significance of the observed system and to draw attention to its role in employee’s motivation.

Motivational orientation modulates the neural response to reward.

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Linke, Julia; Kirsch, Peter; King, Andrea V; Gass, Achim; Hennerici, Michael G; Bongers, André; Wessa, Michèle

2010-02-01

Motivational orientation defines the source of motivation for an individual to perform a particular action and can either originate from internal desires (e.g., interest) or external compensation (e.g., money). To this end, motivational orientation should influence the way positive or negative feedback is processed during learning situations and this might in turn have an impact on the learning process. In the present study, we thus investigated whether motivational orientation, i.e., extrinsic and intrinsic motivation modulates the neural response to reward and punishment as well as learning from reward and punishment in 33 healthy individuals. To assess neural responses to reward, punishment and learning of reward contingencies we employed a probabilistic reversal learning task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation were assessed with a self-report questionnaire. Rewarding trials fostered activation in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate gyrus (ACC) as well as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens, whereas for punishment an increased neural response was observed in the medial and inferior prefrontal cortex, the superior parietal cortex and the insula. High extrinsic motivation was positively correlated to increased neural responses to reward in the ACC, amygdala and putamen, whereas a negative relationship between intrinsic motivation and brain activation in these brain regions was observed. These findings show that motivational orientation indeed modulates the responsiveness to reward delivery in major components of the human reward system and therefore extends previous results showing a significant influence of individual differences in reward-related personality traits on the neural processing of reward. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. 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

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

A Fly's Eye View of Natural and Drug Reward.

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Lowenstein, Eve G; Velazquez-Ulloa, Norma A

2018-01-01

Animals encounter multiple stimuli each day. Some of these stimuli are innately appetitive or aversive, while others are assigned valence based on experience. Drugs like ethanol can elicit aversion in the short term and attraction in the long term. The reward system encodes the predictive value for different stimuli, mediating anticipation for attractive or punishing stimuli and driving animal behavior to approach or avoid conditioned stimuli. The neurochemistry and neurocircuitry of the reward system is partly evolutionarily conserved. In both vertebrates and invertebrates, including Drosophila melanogaster , dopamine is at the center of a network of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators acting in concert to encode rewards. Behavioral assays in D. melanogaster have become increasingly sophisticated, allowing more direct comparison with mammalian research. Moreover, recent evidence has established the functional modularity of the reward neural circuits in Drosophila . This functional modularity resembles the organization of reward circuits in mammals. The powerful genetic and molecular tools for D. melanogaster allow characterization and manipulation at the single-cell level. These tools are being used to construct a detailed map of the neural circuits mediating specific rewarding stimuli and have allowed for the identification of multiple genes and molecular pathways that mediate the effects of reinforcing stimuli, including their rewarding effects. This report provides an overview of the research on natural and drug reward in D. melanogaster , including natural rewards such as sugar and other food nutrients, and drug rewards including ethanol, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and nicotine. We focused mainly on the known genetic and neural mechanisms underlying appetitive reward for sugar and reward for ethanol. We also include genes, molecular pathways, and neural circuits that have been identified using assays that test the palatability of the rewarding

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

Differential coding of reward and movement information in the dorsomedial striatal direct and indirect pathways.

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Shin, Jung Hwan; Kim, Dohoung; Jung, Min Whan

2018-01-26

The direct and indirect pathways of the basal ganglia have long been thought to mediate behavioral promotion and inhibition, respectively. However, this classic dichotomous model has been recently challenged. To better understand neural processes underlying reward-based learning and movement control, we recorded from direct (dSPNs) and indirect (iSPNs) pathway spiny projection neurons in the dorsomedial striatum of D1-Cre and D2-Cre mice performing a probabilistic Pavlovian conditioning task. dSPNs tend to increase activity while iSPNs decrease activity as a function of reward value, suggesting the striatum represents value in the relative activity levels of dSPNs versus iSPNs. Lick offset-related activity increase is largely dSPN selective, suggesting dSPN involvement in suppressing ongoing licking behavior. Rapid responses to negative outcome and previous reward-related responses are more frequent among iSPNs than dSPNs, suggesting stronger contributions of iSPNs to outcome-dependent behavioral adjustment. These findings provide new insights into striatal neural circuit operations.

A new perspective on human reward research: How consciously and unconsciously perceived reward information influences performance.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zedelius, Claire; Veling, Harm; Custers, Ruud; Bijleveld, Erik; Chiew, K.S.; Aarts, Henk

2014-01-01

The question of how human performance can be improved through rewards is a recurrent topic of interest in psychology and neuroscience. Traditional, cognitive approaches to this topic have focused solely on consciously communicated rewards. Recently, a largely neuroscience-inspired perspective has

A new perspective on human reward research: How consciously and unconsciously perceived reward information influences performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zedelius, C.M.; Veling, H.P.; Custers, R.; Bijleveld, E.H.; Chiew, K.S.; Aarts, H.A.G.

2014-01-01

The question of how human performance can be improved through rewards is a recurrent topic of interest in psychology and neuroscience. Traditional, cognitive approaches to this topic have focused solely on consciously communicated rewards. Recently, a largely neuroscience-inspired perspective has

Reward learning and negative emotion during rapid attentional competition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takemasa eYokoyama

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Learned stimulus-reward associations influence how attention is allocated, such that stimuli rewarded in the past are favored in situations involving limited resources and competition. At the same time, task-irrelevant, high-arousal negative stimuli capture attention and divert resources away from tasks resulting in poor behavioral performance. Yet, investigations of how reward learning and negative stimuli affect perceptual and attentional processing have been conducted in a largely independent fashion. We have recently reported that performance-based monetary rewards reduce negative stimuli interference during perception. The goal of the present study was to investigate how stimuli associated with past monetary rewards compete with negative stimuli during a subsequent attentional task when, critically, no performance-based rewards were at stake. Across two experiments, we found that target stimuli that were associated with high reward reduced the interference effect of potent, negative distractors. Similar to our recent findings with performance-based rewards, our results demonstrate that reward-associated stimuli reduce the deleterious impact of negative stimuli on behavior.

Total rewards and its effects on organisational commitment in higher education institutions

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Calvin M. Mabaso

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Retaining staff with special endeavours within higher education institutions has become a top priority and crucial for any organisational productivity and competiveness. Attracting and retaining talent has remained a critical and complex issue for human capital management in organisations. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of total rewards on organisational commitment measured by Total Rewards Scale and Organisational Commitment Questionnaire. Motivation for the study: There is paucity in research on the impact of total rewards on organisational commitment. Commitment of academic staff is significant as higher education institutions are influential in the development of a country. Research design, approach and method: This study employed the quantitative research method using a survey design. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect survey data. A sample of 279 academic staff, which was the total population of participants, was selected for this study. Main findings: Results show a positive and significant correlation between elements of total rewards (performance management, 0.387; recognition, 0.335; talent development and career opportunities, 0.328; compensation, 0.231; benefits, 0.213; work–life balance, 0.024 and organisational commitment. A variance of 52.3% of total rewards explained organisational commitment. Performance management, compensation, benefits, recognition, talent development and career opportunities significantly predicted organisational commitment. However, work–life balance indicated a negative effect on organisational commitment. Practical managerial implications: Findings of the study has implications to managers because they have to encourage and promote total rewards in order to enforce talent retention within higher education institutions for the benefit of both institutions and employees. Contribution: The results are important to managers

Dopamine signaling in reward-related behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Baik, Ja-Hyun

2013-01-01

Dopamine (DA) regulates emotional and motivational behavior through the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway. Changes in DA mesolimbic neurotransmission have been found to modify behavioral responses to various environmental stimuli associated with reward behaviors. Psychostimulants, drugs of abuse, and natural reward such as food can cause substantial synaptic modifications to the mesolimbic DA system. Recent studies using optogenetics and DREADDs, together with neuron-specific or circuit-specific genetic manipulations have improved our understanding of DA signaling in the reward circuit, and provided a means to identify the neural substrates of complex behaviors such as drug addiction and eating disorders. This review focuses on the role of the DA system in drug addiction and food motivation, with an overview of the role of D1 and D2 receptors in the control of reward-associated behaviors.

Dopamine Signaling in reward-related behaviors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ja-Hyun eBaik

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Dopamine (DA regulates emotional and motivational behavior through the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway. Changes in DAmesolimbic neurotransmission have been found to modify behavioral responses to various environmental stimuli associated with reward behaviors. Psychostimulants, drugs of abuse, and natural rewards such as food can cause substantial synaptic modifications to the mesolimbic DA system. Recent studies using optogenetics and DREADDs, together with neuron-specific or circuit-specific genetic manipulations have improved our understanding of DA signaling in the reward circuit, and provided a means to identify the neural substrates of complex behaviors such as drug addiction and eating disorders. This review focuses on the role of the DA system in drug addiction and food motivation, with an overview of the role of D1 and D2 receptors in the control of reward-associated behaviors.

Reward Anticipation in Ventral Striatum and Individual Sensitivity to Reward : A Pilot Study of a Child-Friendly fMRI Task

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Hulst, Branko M; de Zeeuw, Patrick; Lupas, Kellina; Bos, Dienke J; Neggers, Sebastiaan F W; Durston, Sarah

2015-01-01

Reward processing has been implicated in developmental disorders. However, the classic task to probe reward anticipation, the monetary incentive delay task, has an abstract coding of reward and no storyline and may therefore be less appropriate for use with developmental populations. We modified the

Pain and suicidality: insights from reward and addiction neuroscience.

Science.gov (United States)

Elman, Igor; Borsook, David; Volkow, Nora D

2013-10-01

Suicidality is exceedingly prevalent in pain patients. Although the pathophysiology of this link remains unclear, it may be potentially related to the partial congruence of physical and emotional pain systems. The latter system's role in suicide is also conspicuous during setbacks and losses sustained in the context of social attachments. Here we propose a model based on the neural pathways mediating reward and anti-reward (i.e., allostatic adjustment to recurrent activation of the reward circuitry); both are relevant etiologic factors in pain, suicide and social attachments. A comprehensive literature search on neurobiology of pain and suicidality was performed. The collected articles were critically reviewed and relevant data were extracted and summarized within four key areas: (1) physical and emotional pain, (2) emotional pain and social attachments, (3) pain- and suicide-related alterations of the reward and anti-reward circuits as compared to addiction, which is the premier probe for dysfunction of these circuits and (4) mechanistically informed treatments of co-occurring pain and suicidality. Pain-, stress- and analgesic drugs-induced opponent and proponent states of the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathways may render reward and anti-reward systems vulnerable to sensitization, cross-sensitization and aberrant learning of contents and contexts associated with suicidal acts and behaviors. These findings suggest that pain patients exhibit alterations in the brain circuits mediating reward (depressed function) and anti-reward (sensitized function) that may affect their proclivity for suicide and support pain and suicidality classification among other "reward deficiency syndromes" and a new proposal for "enhanced anti-reward syndromes". We suggest that interventions aimed at restoring the balance between the reward and anti-reward networks in patients with chronic pain may help decreasing their suicide risk. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Improving control over the impulse for reward: sensitivity of harmful alcohol drinkers to delayed reward but not immediate punishment.

Science.gov (United States)

Rossiter, Sarah; Thompson, Julian; Hester, Robert

2012-09-01

Cognitive control dysfunction has been identified in dependent alcohol users and implicated in the transition from abuse to dependence, although evidence of dyscontrol in chronic but non-dependent 'harmful' alcohol abusers is mixed. The current study examined harmful alcohol users response inhibition over rewarding stimuli in the presence of monetary reward and punishment, to determine whether changes in sensitivity to these factors, noted in imaging studies of dependent users, influences impulse control. Harmful (n=30) and non-hazardous (n=55) alcohol users were administered a Monetary Incentive Go/No-go task that required participants to inhibit a prepotent motor response associated with reward. Harmful alcohol users showed a significantly poorer ability to withhold their impulse for a rewarding stimulus in the presence of immediate monetary punishment for failure, while retaining equivalent response inhibition performance under neutral conditions (associated with neither monetary loss or gain), and significantly better performance under delayed reward conditions. The results of the present study suggest that non-dependent alcohol abusers have altered sensitivity to reward and punishment that influences their impulse control for reward, in the absence of gross dyscontrol that is consistent with past findings in which such performance contingencies were not used. The ability of delayed monetary reward, but not punishment, to increase sustained impulse control in this sample has implications for the mechanism that might underlie the transition from alcohol abuse to dependence, as well as intervention strategies aimed at preventing this transition. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adaptive scaling of reward in episodic memory: a replication study.

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Mason, Alice; Ludwig, Casimir; Farrell, Simon

2017-11-01

Reward is thought to enhance episodic memory formation via dopaminergic consolidation. Bunzeck, Dayan, Dolan, and Duzel [(2010). A common mechanism for adaptive scaling of reward and novelty. Human Brain Mapping, 31, 1380-1394] provided functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioural evidence that reward and episodic memory systems are sensitive to the contextual value of a reward-whether it is relatively higher or lower-as opposed to absolute value or prediction error. We carried out a direct replication of their behavioural study and did not replicate their finding that memory performance associated with reward follows this pattern of adaptive scaling. An effect of reward outcome was in the opposite direction to that in the original study, with lower reward outcomes leading to better memory than higher outcomes. There was a marginal effect of reward context, suggesting that expected value affected memory performance. We discuss the robustness of the reward memory relationship to variations in reward context, and whether other reward-related factors have a more reliable influence on episodic memory.

Effect of current on the maximum possible reward.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallistel, C R; Leon, M; Waraczynski, M; Hanau, M S

1991-12-01

Using a 2-lever choice paradigm with concurrent variable interval schedules of reward, it was found that when pulse frequency is increased, the preference-determining rewarding effect of 0.5-s trains of brief cathodal pulses delivered to the medial forebrain bundle of the rat saturates (stops increasing) at values ranging from 200 to 631 pulses/s (pps). Raising the current lowered the saturation frequency, which confirms earlier, more extensive findings showing that the rewarding effect of short trains saturates at pulse frequencies that vary from less than 100 pps to more than 800 pps, depending on the current. It was also found that the maximum possible reward--the magnitude of the reward at or beyond the saturation pulse frequency--increases with increasing current. Thus, increasing the current reduces the saturation frequency but increases the subjective magnitude of the maximum possible reward.

Associations among smoking, anhedonia, and reward learning in depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Liverant, Gabrielle I; Sloan, Denise M; Pizzagalli, Diego A; Harte, Christopher B; Kamholz, Barbara W; Rosebrock, Laina E; Cohen, Andrew L; Fava, Maurizio; Kaplan, Gary B

2014-09-01

Depression and cigarette smoking co-occur at high rates. However, the etiological mechanisms that contribute to this relationship remain unclear. Anhedonia and associated impairments in reward learning are key features of depression, which also have been linked to the onset and maintenance of cigarette smoking. However, few studies have investigated differences in anhedonia and reward learning among depressed smokers and depressed nonsmokers. The goal of this study was to examine putative differences in anhedonia and reward learning in depressed smokers (n=36) and depressed nonsmokers (n=44). To this end, participants completed self-report measures of anhedonia and behavioral activation (BAS reward responsiveness scores) and as well as a probabilistic reward task rooted in signal detection theory, which measures reward learning (Pizzagalli, Jahn, & O'Shea, 2005). When considering self-report measures, depressed smokers reported higher trait anhedonia and reduced BAS reward responsiveness scores compared to depressed nonsmokers. In contrast to self-report measures, nicotine-satiated depressed smokers demonstrated greater acquisition of reward-based learning compared to depressed nonsmokers as indexed by the probabilistic reward task. Findings may point to a potential mechanism underlying the frequent co-occurrence of smoking and depression. These results highlight the importance of continued investigation of the role of anhedonia and reward system functioning in the co-occurrence of depression and nicotine abuse. Results also may support the use of treatments targeting reward learning (e.g., behavioral activation) to enhance smoking cessation among individuals with depression. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Extending Markov Automata with State and Action Rewards

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guck, Dennis; Timmer, Mark; Blom, Stefan; Bertrand, N.; Bortolussi, L.

This presentation introduces the Markov Reward Automaton (MRA), an extension of the Markov automaton that allows the modelling of systems incorporating rewards in addition to nondeterminism, discrete probabilistic choice and continuous stochastic timing. Our models support both rewards that are

Functional requirements for reward-modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity.

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Frémaux, Nicolas; Sprekeler, Henning; Gerstner, Wulfram

2010-10-06

Recent experiments have shown that spike-timing-dependent plasticity is influenced by neuromodulation. We derive theoretical conditions for successful learning of reward-related behavior for a large class of learning rules where Hebbian synaptic plasticity is conditioned on a global modulatory factor signaling reward. We show that all learning rules in this class can be separated into a term that captures the covariance of neuronal firing and reward and a second term that presents the influence of unsupervised learning. The unsupervised term, which is, in general, detrimental for reward-based learning, can be suppressed if the neuromodulatory signal encodes the difference between the reward and the expected reward-but only if the expected reward is calculated for each task and stimulus separately. If several tasks are to be learned simultaneously, the nervous system needs an internal critic that is able to predict the expected reward for arbitrary stimuli. We show that, with a critic, reward-modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity is capable of learning motor trajectories with a temporal resolution of tens of milliseconds. The relation to temporal difference learning, the relevance of block-based learning paradigms, and the limitations of learning with a critic are discussed.

A test of the reward-contrast hypothesis.

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Dalecki, Stefan J; Panoz-Brown, Danielle E; Crystal, Jonathon D

2017-12-01

Source memory, a facet of episodic memory, is the memory of the origin of information. Whereas source memory in rats is sustained for at least a week, spatial memory degraded after approximately a day. Different forgetting functions may suggest that two memory systems (source memory and spatial memory) are dissociated. However, in previous work, the two tasks used baiting conditions consisting of chocolate and chow flavors; notably, the source memory task used the relatively better flavor. Thus, according to the reward-contrast hypothesis, when chocolate and chow were presented within the same context (i.e., within a single radial maze trial), the chocolate location was more memorable than the chow location because of contrast. We tested the reward-contrast hypothesis using baiting configurations designed to produce reward-contrast. The reward-contrast hypothesis predicts that under these conditions, spatial memory will survive a 24-h retention interval. We documented elimination of spatial memory performance after a 24-h retention interval using a reward-contrast baiting pattern. These data suggest that reward contrast does not explain our earlier findings that source memory survives unusually long retention intervals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Egalitarian reward contingency in competitive games and primate prefrontal neuronal activity.

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Hosokawa, Takayuki; Watanabe, Masataka

2015-01-01

How people work to obtain a reward depends on the context of the reward delivery, such as the presence/absence of competition and the contingency of reward delivery. Since resources are limited, winning a competition is critically important for organisms' obtaining a reward. People usually expect ordinary performance-reward contingency, with better performers obtaining better rewards. Unordinary reward contingency, such as egalitarianism (equal rewards/no-rewards to both good and poor performers), dampens people's motivation. We previously reported that monkeys were more motivated, and neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) showed higher outcome-related activity in a competitive than in a noncompetitive game (Hosokawa and Watanabe, 2012). However, monkey's behavior and LPFC neuronal activity have not been examined in a competitive situation with an unordinary performance-reward contingency. Also, the fixed performance-reward contingency in the previous study did not allow us to examine effects of win/loss separately from those of reward/no-reward on prefrontal neuronal activity. Here, we employed the egalitarian competitive situation in which both the winner and loser, or neither of them, got a reward as well as the normal competitive situation in which only the winner got a reward. Monkey's behavioral performance greatly deteriorated in trials with the egalitarian outcome conditions. LPFC neurons showed activities that reflected the normal or egalitarian outcome condition while very few neurons coded win/loss independent of reward/no-reward. Importantly, we found neurons that showed reward-related activity in the normal, but not in the egalitarian outcome conditions, even though the same reward was given to the animal. These results indicate that LPFC may play an important role in monitoring the current reward contingency and integrating it with the performance outcome (win-loss) for better performing the competitive game, and thus for better survival.

Endocannabinoid signaling in reward and addiction

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Parsons, Loren H.; Hurd, Yasmin L.

2015-01-01

Brain endocannabinoid signaling influences the motivation for natural rewards (such as palatable food, sexual activity and social interaction) and modulates the rewarding effects of addictive drugs. Pathological forms of natural and drug-induced reward are associated with dysregulated endocannabinoid signaling that may derive from pre-existing genetic factors or from prolonged drug exposure. Impaired endocannabinoid signaling contributes to dysregulated synaptic plasticity, increased stress responsivity, negative emotional states, and craving that propel addiction. Understanding the contributions of endocannabinoid disruptions to behavioral and physiological traits provides insight into the endocannabinoid influence on addiction vulnerability. PMID:26373473

Reward associations impact both iconic and visual working memory.

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Infanti, Elisa; Hickey, Clayton; Turatto, Massimo

2015-02-01

Reward plays a fundamental role in human behavior. A growing number of studies have shown that stimuli associated with reward become salient and attract attention. The aim of the present study was to extend these results into the investigation of iconic memory and visual working memory. In two experiments we asked participants to perform a visual-search task where different colors of the target stimuli were paired with high or low reward. We then tested whether the pre-established feature-reward association affected performance on a subsequent visual memory task, in which no reward was provided. In this test phase participants viewed arrays of 8 objects, one of which had unique color that could match the color associated with reward during the previous visual-search task. A probe appeared at varying intervals after stimulus offset to identify the to-be-reported item. Our results suggest that reward biases the encoding of visual information such that items characterized by a reward-associated feature interfere with mnemonic representations of other items in the test display. These results extend current knowledge regarding the influence of reward on early cognitive processes, suggesting that feature-reward associations automatically interact with the encoding and storage of visual information, both in iconic memory and visual working memory. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Brain reward circuitry beyond the mesolimbic dopamine system: a neurobiological theory.

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Ikemoto, Satoshi

2010-11-01

Reductionist attempts to dissect complex mechanisms into simpler elements are necessary, but not sufficient for understanding how biological properties like reward emerge out of neuronal activity. Recent studies on intracranial self-administration of neurochemicals (drugs) found that rats learn to self-administer various drugs into the mesolimbic dopamine structures-the posterior ventral tegmental area, medial shell nucleus accumbens and medial olfactory tubercle. In addition, studies found roles of non-dopaminergic mechanisms of the supramammillary, rostromedial tegmental and midbrain raphe nuclei in reward. To explain intracranial self-administration and related effects of various drug manipulations, I outlined a neurobiological theory claiming that there is an intrinsic central process that coordinates various selective functions (including perceptual, visceral, and reinforcement processes) into a global function of approach. Further, this coordinating process for approach arises from interactions between brain structures including those structures mentioned above and their closely linked regions: the medial prefrontal cortex, septal area, ventral pallidum, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, preoptic area, lateral hypothalamic areas, lateral habenula, periaqueductal gray, laterodorsal tegmental nucleus and parabrachical area. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The role of high-frequency oscillatory activity in reward processing and learning.

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Marco-Pallarés, Josep; Münte, Thomas F; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni

2015-02-01

Oscillatory activity has been proposed as a key mechanism in the integration of brain activity of distant structures. Particularly, high frequency brain oscillatory activity in the beta and gamma range has received increasing interest in the domains of attention and memory. In addition, a number of recent studies have revealed an increase of beta-gamma activity (20-35 Hz) after unexpected or relevant positive reward outcomes. In the present manuscript we review the literature on this phenomenon and we propose that this activity is a brain signature elicited by unexpected positive outcomes in order to transmit a fast motivational value signal to the reward network. In addition, we hypothesize that beta-gamma oscillatory activity indexes the interaction between attentional and emotional systems, and that it directly reflects the appearance of unexpected positive rewards in learning-related contexts. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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.

Impairment of probabilistic reward-based learning in schizophrenia.

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Weiler, Julia A; Bellebaum, Christian; Brüne, Martin; Juckel, Georg; Daum, Irene

2009-09-01

Recent models assume that some symptoms of schizophrenia originate from defective reward processing mechanisms. Understanding the precise nature of reward-based learning impairments might thus make an important contribution to the understanding of schizophrenia and the development of treatment strategies. The present study investigated several features of probabilistic reward-based stimulus association learning, namely the acquisition of initial contingencies, reversal learning, generalization abilities, and the effects of reward magnitude. Compared to healthy controls, individuals with schizophrenia exhibited attenuated overall performance during acquisition, whereas learning rates across blocks were similar to the rates of controls. On the group level, persons with schizophrenia were, however, unable to learn the reversal of the initial reward contingencies. Exploratory analysis of only the subgroup of individuals with schizophrenia who showed significant learning during acquisition yielded deficits in reversal learning with low reward magnitudes only. There was further evidence of a mild generalization impairment of the persons with schizophrenia in an acquired equivalence task. In summary, although there was evidence of intact basic processing of reward magnitudes, individuals with schizophrenia were impaired at using this feedback for the adaptive guidance of behavior.

Social Influences on Creativity: Interactive Effects of Reward and Choice.

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Amabile, Teresa M.

In a test of intrinsic motivation hypothesis of creativity, 60 undergraduate women did an artistic creativity task with either the expectation of receiving a reward or no expectation of reward. Reward was crossed with choice in task engagement, such that half of the reward Ss contracted to do the task in order to receive reward, and half simply…

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

Natural Rewards, Neuroplasticity, and Non-Drug Addictions

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Olsen, Christopher M.

2011-01-01

There is a high degree of overlap between brain regions involved in processing natural rewards and drugs of abuse. “Non-drug” or “behavioral” addictions have become increasingly documented in the clinic, and pathologies include compulsive activities such as shopping, eating, exercising, sexual behavior, and gambling. Like drug addiction, non-drug addictions manifest in symptoms including craving, impaired control over the behavior, tolerance, withdrawal, and high rates of relapse. These alterations in behavior suggest that plasticity may be occurring in brain regions associated with drug addiction. In this review, I summarize data demonstrating that exposure to non-drug rewards can alter neural plasticity in regions of the brain that are affected by drugs of abuse. Research suggests that there are several similarities between neuroplasticity induced by natural and drug rewards and that, depending on the reward, repeated exposure to natural rewards might induce neuroplasticity that either promotes or counteracts addictive behavior. PMID:21459101

Overlapping neural systems represent cognitive effort and reward anticipation.

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Vassena, Eliana; Silvetti, Massimo; Boehler, Carsten N; Achten, Eric; Fias, Wim; Verguts, Tom

2014-01-01

Anticipating a potential benefit and how difficult it will be to obtain it are valuable skills in a constantly changing environment. In the human brain, the anticipation of reward is encoded by the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and Striatum. Naturally, potential rewards have an incentive quality, resulting in a motivational effect improving performance. Recently it has been proposed that an upcoming task requiring effort induces a similar anticipation mechanism as reward, relying on the same cortico-limbic network. However, this overlapping anticipatory activity for reward and effort has only been investigated in a perceptual task. Whether this generalizes to high-level cognitive tasks remains to be investigated. To this end, an fMRI experiment was designed to investigate anticipation of reward and effort in cognitive tasks. A mental arithmetic task was implemented, manipulating effort (difficulty), reward, and delay in reward delivery to control for temporal confounds. The goal was to test for the motivational effect induced by the expectation of bigger reward and higher effort. The results showed that the activation elicited by an upcoming difficult task overlapped with higher reward prospect in the ACC and in the striatum, thus highlighting a pivotal role of this circuit in sustaining motivated behavior.

U.S. Geological Survey Rewarding Environment Culture Study, 2002

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Nash, Janis C.; Paradise-Tornow, Carol A.; Gray, Vicki K.; Griffin-Bemis, Sarah P.; Agnew, Pamela R.; Bouchet, Nicole M.

2010-01-01

In its 2001 review of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Research Council (NRC, p. 126) cautioned that ?high-quality personnel are essential for developing high-quality science information? and urged the USGS to ?devote substantial efforts to recruiting and retaining excellent staff.? Recognizing the importance of the NRC recommendation, the USGS has committed time and resources to create a rewarding work environment with the goal of achieving the following valued outcomes: ? USGS science vitality ? Customer satisfaction with USGS products and services ? Employee perceptions of the USGS as a rewarding place to work ? Heightened employee morale and commitment ? The ability to recruit and retain employees with critical skills To determine whether this investment of time and resources was proving to be successful, the USGS Human Resources Office conducted a Rewarding Environment Culture Study to answer the following four questions. ? Question 1: Does a rewarding work environment lead to the valued outcomes (identified above) that the USGS is seeking? ? Question 2: Which management, supervisory, and leadership behaviors contribute most to creating a rewarding work environment and to achieving the valued outcomes that the USGS is seeking? ? Question 3: Do USGS employees perceive that the USGS is a rewarding place to work? ? Question 4: What actions can and should be taken to enhance the USGS work environment? To begin the study, a conceptual model of a rewarding USGS environment was developed to test assumptions about a rewarding work environment. The Rewarding Environment model identifies the key components that are thought to contribute to a rewarding work environment and the valued outcomes that are thought to result from having a rewarding work environment. The 2002 Organizational Assessment Survey (OAS) was used as the primary data source for the study because it provided the most readily available data. Additional survey data were included as they

Altered social reward and attention in anorexia nervosa

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Karli K Watson

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Dysfunctional social reward and social orienting attend a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia, social anxiety, and psychopathy. Here we show that similar social reward and attention dysfunction attend anorexia nervosa, a disorder defined by avoidance of food and extreme weight loss. We measured the implicit reward value of social stimuli for female participants with (n=11 and without (n=11 anorexia nervosa using an econometric choice task and also tracked gaze patterns during free viewing of images of female faces and bodies. As predicted, the reward value of viewing bodies varied inversely with observed body weight for women with anorexia but not neurotypical women, in contrast with their explicit ratings of attractiveness. Surprisingly, women with anorexia nervosa, unlike neurotypical women, did not find female faces rewarding and avoided looking at both the face and eyes—independent of observed body weight. These findings demonstrate comorbid dysfunction in the neural circuits mediating gustatory and social reward in anorexia nervosa.

TOTAL REWARDS MODEL IN ROMANIAN COMPANIES

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Elena-Sabina HODOR

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Total Rewards Management is a subject of major importance for companies, because, by using models for this, firms can achieve their objectives of high performance. In order to analyse a validated total rewards model in Romanian Accounting and Consulting Companies, it is used The WorldatWork Total Rewards Model, which depict what contributes to applicant attraction and employee motivation and retention. Thus, the methodology of the previous survey is adjusted to the local context. The conclusions for the methodological aspects illustrate that the present research involves three strategic steps in order to achieve the objectives presented: the analysis of organizational environment of the companies from the sample, checking if Total Rewards Model proposed in the previous research is applicable for the same romanian companies from the previous survey, the analysing of the differences between results, and, if necessary, the adaptation of the model for Romania.

Fuel not fun: Reinterpreting attenuated brain responses to reward in obesity.

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Kroemer, Nils B; Small, Dana M

2016-08-01

There is a well-established literature linking obesity to altered dopamine signaling and brain response to food-related stimuli. Neuroimaging studies frequently report enhanced responses in dopaminergic regions during food anticipation and decreased responses during reward receipt. This has been interpreted as reflecting anticipatory "reward surfeit", and consummatory "reward deficiency". In particular, attenuated response in the dorsal striatum to primary food rewards is proposed to reflect anhedonia, which leads to overeating in an attempt to compensate for the reward deficit. In this paper, we propose an alternative view. We consider brain response to food-related stimuli in a reinforcement-learning framework, which can be employed to separate the contributions of reward sensitivity and reward-related learning that are typically entangled in the brain response to reward. Consequently, we posit that decreased striatal responses to milkshake receipt reflect reduced reward-related learning rather than reward deficiency or anhedonia because reduced reward sensitivity would translate uniformly into reduced anticipatory and consummatory responses to reward. By re-conceptualizing reward deficiency as a shift in learning about subjective value of rewards, we attempt to reconcile neuroimaging findings with the putative role of dopamine in effort, energy expenditure and exploration and suggest that attenuated brain responses to energy dense foods reflect the "fuel", not the fun entailed by the reward. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Incentives for healthy behaviors: experience from Florida Medicaid's Enhanced Benefit Rewards program.

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Hall, Allyson G; Lemak, Christy Harris; Landry, Amy Yarbrough; Duncan, R Paul

2013-04-01

Engaging individuals in their own health care proves challenging for policy makers, health plans, and providers. Florida Medicaid introduced the Enhanced Benefits Rewards (EBR) program in 2006, providing financial incentives as rewards to beneficiaries who engage in health care seeking and healthy behaviors. This study analyzed beneficiary survey data from 2009 to determine predictors associated with awareness of and participation in the EBR program. Non-English speakers, those in a racial and ethnic minority group, those with less than a high school education, and those with limited or no connection to a health care provider were associated with lower awareness of the program. Among those aware of the program, these factors were also associated with reduced likelihood of engaging in the program. Individuals in fair or poor health were also less likely to engage in an approved behavior. Individuals who speak Spanish at home and those without a high school diploma were more likely than other groups to spend their earned program credits. Findings underscore the fact that initial engagement in such a program can prove challenging as different groups are not equally likely to be aware of or participate in an approved activity or redeem a credit. Physicians may play important roles in encouraging participation in programs to incentivize healthy behaviors.

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.

Spatial discounting of food and social rewards in guppies (Poecilia reticulata

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Nelly eMühlhoff

2011-04-01

Full Text Available In temporal discounting, animals trade off the time to obtain a reward against the quality of a reward, choosing between a smaller reward available sooner versus a larger reward available later. Similar discounting can apply over space, when animals choose between smaller and closer versus larger and more distant rewards. Most studies of temporal and spatial discounting in nonhuman animals use food as the reward, and it is not established whether animals trade off other preferred stimuli in similar ways. Here, we offered female guppies (Poecilia reticulata a spatial discounting task in which we measured preferences for a larger reward as the distance to it increased relative to a closer but smaller reward. We tested whether the fish discounted reward types differently by offering subjects either food items or same-sex conspecifics as rewards. Before beginning the discounting tasks, we conducted validation tests to ensure that subjects equally valued the food and social stimuli in the quantities provided. In the discounting task, subjects switched their preferences from the larger to the smaller reward as the distance to the larger reward increased (spatial discounting, but the pattern and magnitude of discounting did not differ across the two reward types. These findings indicate that guppies show similar patterns of discounting food and social rewards in a spatial task. In an analysis of travel times, however, the fish swam faster to food rewards than to shoaling partners. This difference in travel times implies that fish temporally discounted social rewards less steeply than food rewards. Thus, reward type influences temporal discounting, suggesting a dissociation between temporal and spatial discounting. Our results illustrate how animals adjust choices and travel times depending on both the type of cost (time, distance and benefits (food, social partners.

The endocannabinoid system and nondrug rewarding behaviours.

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Fattore, Liana; Melis, Miriam; Fadda, Paola; Pistis, Marco; Fratta, Walter

2010-07-01

Rewarding behaviours such as sexual activity, eating, nursing, parenting, social interactions, and play activity are conserved strongly in evolution, and they are essential for development and survival. All of these behaviours are enjoyable and represent pleasant experiences with a high reward value. Remarkably, rewarding behaviours activate the same brain circuits that mediate the positive reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse and of other forms of addiction, such as gambling and food addiction. Given the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in a variety of physiological functions of the nervous system, it is not surprising that it takes part in the complex machinery that regulates gratification and perception of pleasure. In this review, we focus first on the role of the endocannabinoid system in the modulation of neural activity and synaptic functions in brain regions that are involved in natural and nonnatural rewards (namely, the ventral tegmental area, striatum, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex). Then, we examine the role of the endocannabinoid system in modulating behaviours that directly or indirectly activate these brain reward pathways. More specifically, current knowledge of the effects of the pharmacological manipulation of the endocannabinoid system on natural (eating, sexual behaviour, parenting, and social play) and pathological (gambling) rewarding behaviours is summarised and discussed. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Acute Stress Influences Neural Circuits of Reward Processing

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Anthony John Porcelli

2012-11-01

Full Text Available People often make decisions under aversive conditions such as acute stress. Yet, less is known about the process in which acute stress can influence decision-making. A growing body of research has established that reward-related information associated with the outcomes of decisions exerts a powerful influence over the choices people make and that an extensive network of brain regions, prominently featuring the striatum, is involved in the processing of this reward-related information. Thus, an important step in research on the nature of acute stress’ influence over decision-making is to examine how it may modulate responses to rewards and punishments within reward-processing neural circuitry. In the current experiment, we employed a simple reward processing paradigm – where participants received monetary rewards and punishments – known to evoke robust striatal responses. Immediately prior to performing each of two task runs, participants were exposed to acute stress (i.e., cold pressor or a no stress control procedure in a between-subjects fashion. No stress group participants exhibited a pattern of activity within the dorsal striatum and orbitofrontal cortex consistent with past research on outcome processing – specifically, differential responses for monetary rewards over punishments. In contrast, acute stress group participants’ dorsal striatum and orbitofrontal cortex demonstrated decreased sensitivity to monetary outcomes and a lack of differential activity. These findings provide insight into how neural circuits may process rewards and punishments associated with simple decisions under acutely stressful conditions.

Influence of dopaminergically mediated reward on somatosensory decision-making.

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Burkhard Pleger

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Reward-related dopaminergic influences on learning and overt behaviour are well established, but any influence on sensory decision-making is largely unknown. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI while participants judged electric somatosensory stimuli on one hand or other, before being rewarded for correct performance at trial end via a visual signal, at one of four anticipated financial levels. Prior to the procedure, participants received either placebo (saline, a dopamine agonist (levodopa, or an antagonist (haloperidol.higher anticipated reward improved tactile decisions. Visually signalled reward reactivated primary somatosensory cortex for the judged hand, more strongly for higher reward. After receiving a higher reward on one trial, somatosensory activations and decisions were enhanced on the next trial. These behavioural and neural effects were all enhanced by levodopa and attenuated by haloperidol, indicating dopaminergic dependency. Dopaminergic reward-related influences extend even to early somatosensory cortex and sensory decision-making.

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.

Self-choice enhances value in reward-seeking in primates.

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Setogawa, Tsuyoshi; Mizuhiki, Takashi; Matsumoto, Narihisa; Akizawa, Fumika; Shidara, Munetaka

2014-03-01

When an individual chooses one item from two or more alternatives, they compare the values of the expected outcomes. The outcome value can be determined by the associated reward amount, the probability of reward, and the workload required to earn the reward. Rational choice theory states that choices are made to maximize rewards over time, and that the same outcome values lead to an equal likelihood of choices. However, the theory does not distinguish between conditions with the same reward value, even when acquired under different circumstances, and does not always accurately describe real behavior. We have found that allowing a monkey to choose a reward schedule endows the schedule with extra value when compared to performance in an identical schedule that is chosen by another agent (a computer here). This behavior is not consistent with pure rational choice theory. Theoretical analysis using a modified temporal-difference learning model showed an enhanced schedule state value by self-choice. These results suggest that an increased reward value underlies the improved performances by self-choice during reward-seeking behavior. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

A Fly’s Eye View of Natural and Drug Reward

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Lowenstein, Eve G.; Velazquez-Ulloa, Norma A.

2018-01-01

Animals encounter multiple stimuli each day. Some of these stimuli are innately appetitive or aversive, while others are assigned valence based on experience. Drugs like ethanol can elicit aversion in the short term and attraction in the long term. The reward system encodes the predictive value for different stimuli, mediating anticipation for attractive or punishing stimuli and driving animal behavior to approach or avoid conditioned stimuli. The neurochemistry and neurocircuitry of the reward system is partly evolutionarily conserved. In both vertebrates and invertebrates, including Drosophila melanogaster, dopamine is at the center of a network of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators acting in concert to encode rewards. Behavioral assays in D. melanogaster have become increasingly sophisticated, allowing more direct comparison with mammalian research. Moreover, recent evidence has established the functional modularity of the reward neural circuits in Drosophila. This functional modularity resembles the organization of reward circuits in mammals. The powerful genetic and molecular tools for D. melanogaster allow characterization and manipulation at the single-cell level. These tools are being used to construct a detailed map of the neural circuits mediating specific rewarding stimuli and have allowed for the identification of multiple genes and molecular pathways that mediate the effects of reinforcing stimuli, including their rewarding effects. This report provides an overview of the research on natural and drug reward in D. melanogaster, including natural rewards such as sugar and other food nutrients, and drug rewards including ethanol, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and nicotine. We focused mainly on the known genetic and neural mechanisms underlying appetitive reward for sugar and reward for ethanol. We also include genes, molecular pathways, and neural circuits that have been identified using assays that test the palatability of the rewarding

A Fly’s Eye View of Natural and Drug Reward

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Eve G. Lowenstein

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Animals encounter multiple stimuli each day. Some of these stimuli are innately appetitive or aversive, while others are assigned valence based on experience. Drugs like ethanol can elicit aversion in the short term and attraction in the long term. The reward system encodes the predictive value for different stimuli, mediating anticipation for attractive or punishing stimuli and driving animal behavior to approach or avoid conditioned stimuli. The neurochemistry and neurocircuitry of the reward system is partly evolutionarily conserved. In both vertebrates and invertebrates, including Drosophila melanogaster, dopamine is at the center of a network of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators acting in concert to encode rewards. Behavioral assays in D. melanogaster have become increasingly sophisticated, allowing more direct comparison with mammalian research. Moreover, recent evidence has established the functional modularity of the reward neural circuits in Drosophila. This functional modularity resembles the organization of reward circuits in mammals. The powerful genetic and molecular tools for D. melanogaster allow characterization and manipulation at the single-cell level. These tools are being used to construct a detailed map of the neural circuits mediating specific rewarding stimuli and have allowed for the identification of multiple genes and molecular pathways that mediate the effects of reinforcing stimuli, including their rewarding effects. This report provides an overview of the research on natural and drug reward in D. melanogaster, including natural rewards such as sugar and other food nutrients, and drug rewards including ethanol, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and nicotine. We focused mainly on the known genetic and neural mechanisms underlying appetitive reward for sugar and reward for ethanol. We also include genes, molecular pathways, and neural circuits that have been identified using assays that test the palatability of

The Social Rewards of Engagement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Robison, Joshua

2017-01-01

Political interest is a crucial precursor to political engagement, but little is known about how to stimulate greater interest. The article explores the role social motives have in generating interest. A laboratory experiment is used in which it is possible to manipulate beliefs about the social...... rewards of political engagement as well as external efficacy beliefs. Across two types of measures for political interest (self-reports and revealed preferences), connecting political engagement with social rewards led to substantial increases in political interest. Moreover, these effects were...... particularly strong among individuals with low levels of external efficacy. Ultimately, the data provide clear evidence that political interest can be positively stimulated with social rewards mobilisation techniques and that it is rooted in beliefs about the potential motives pursuable through politics...

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.

Disentangling reward anticipation with simultaneous pupillometry / fMRI.

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Schneider, Max; Leuchs, Laura; Czisch, Michael; Sämann, Philipp G; Spoormaker, Victor I

2018-05-05

The reward system may provide an interesting intermediate phenotype for anhedonia in affective disorders. Reward anticipation is characterized by an increase in arousal, and previous studies have linked the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to arousal responses such as dilation of the pupil. Here, we examined pupil dynamics during a reward anticipation task in forty-six healthy human subjects and evaluated its neural correlates using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Pupil size showed a strong increase during monetary reward anticipation, a moderate increase during verbal reward anticipation and a decrease during control trials. For fMRI analyses, average pupil size and pupil change were computed in 1-s time bins during the anticipation phase. Activity in the ventral striatum was inversely related to the pupil size time course, indicating an early onset of activation and a role in reward prediction processing. Pupil dilations were linked to increased activity in the salience network (dorsal ACC and bilateral insula), which likely triggers an increase in arousal to enhance task performance. Finally, increased pupil size preceding the required motor response was associated with activity in the ventral attention network. In sum, pupillometry provides an effective tool for disentangling different phases of reward anticipation, with relevance for affective symptomatology. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural correlates of RDoC reward constructs in adolescents with diverse psychiatric symptoms: A Reward Flanker Task pilot study.

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Bradley, Kailyn A L; Case, Julia A C; Freed, Rachel D; Stern, Emily R; Gabbay, Vilma

2017-07-01

There has been growing interest under the Research Domain Criteria initiative to investigate behavioral constructs and their underlying neural circuitry. Abnormalities in reward processes are salient across psychiatric conditions and may precede future psychopathology in youth. However, the neural circuitry underlying such deficits has not been well defined. Therefore, in this pilot, we studied youth with diverse psychiatric symptoms and examined the neural underpinnings of reward anticipation, attainment, and positive prediction error (PPE, unexpected reward gain). Clinically, we focused on anhedonia, known to reflect deficits in reward function. Twenty-two psychotropic medication-free youth, 16 with psychiatric symptoms, exhibiting a full range of anhedonia, were scanned during the Reward Flanker Task. Anhedonia severity was quantified using the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale. Functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses were false discovery rate corrected for multiple comparisons. Anticipation activated a broad network, including the medial frontal cortex and ventral striatum, while attainment activated memory and emotion-related regions such as the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, but not the ventral striatum. PPE activated a right-dominant fronto-temporo-parietal network. Anhedonia was only correlated with activation of the right angular gyrus during anticipation and the left precuneus during PPE at an uncorrected threshold. Findings are preliminary due to the small sample size. This pilot characterized the neural circuitry underlying different aspects of reward processing in youth with diverse psychiatric symptoms. These results highlight the complexity of the neural circuitry underlying reward anticipation, attainment, and PPE. Furthermore, this study underscores the importance of RDoC research in youth. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

RM-SORN: a reward-modulated self-organizing recurrent neural network.

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Aswolinskiy, Witali; Pipa, Gordon

2015-01-01

Neural plasticity plays an important role in learning and memory. Reward-modulation of plasticity offers an explanation for the ability of the brain to adapt its neural activity to achieve a rewarded goal. Here, we define a neural network model that learns through the interaction of Intrinsic Plasticity (IP) and reward-modulated Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity (STDP). IP enables the network to explore possible output sequences and STDP, modulated by reward, reinforces the creation of the rewarded output sequences. The model is tested on tasks for prediction, recall, non-linear computation, pattern recognition, and sequence generation. It achieves performance comparable to networks trained with supervised learning, while using simple, biologically motivated plasticity rules, and rewarding strategies. The results confirm the importance of investigating the interaction of several plasticity rules in the context of reward-modulated learning and whether reward-modulated self-organization can explain the amazing capabilities of the brain.

The reward-based eating drive scale: a self-report index of reward-based eating.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elissa S Epel

Full Text Available Why are some individuals more vulnerable to persistent weight gain and obesity than are others? Some obese individuals report factors that drive overeating, including lack of control, lack of satiation, and preoccupation with food, which may stem from reward-related neural circuitry. These are normative and common symptoms and not the sole focus of any existing measures. Many eating scales capture these common behaviors, but are confounded with aspects of dysregulated eating such as binge eating or emotional overeating. Across five studies, we developed items that capture this reward-based eating drive (RED. Study 1 developed the items in lean to obese individuals (n = 327 and examined changes in weight over eight years. In Study 2, the scale was further developed and expert raters evaluated the set of items. Study 3 tested psychometric properties of the final 9 items in 400 participants. Study 4 examined psychometric properties and race invariance (n = 80 women. Study 5 examined psychometric properties and age/gender invariance (n = 381. Results showed that RED scores correlated with BMI and predicted earlier onset of obesity, greater weight fluctuations, and greater overall weight gain over eight years. Expert ratings of RED scale items indicated that the items reflected characteristics of reward-based eating. The RED scale evidenced high internal consistency and invariance across demographic factors. The RED scale, designed to tap vulnerability to reward-based eating behavior, appears to be a useful brief tool for identifying those at higher risk of weight gain over time. Given the heterogeneity of obesity, unique brief profiling of the reward-based aspect of obesity using a self-report instrument such as the RED scale may be critical for customizing effective treatments in the general population.

Atypical valuation of monetary and cigarette rewards in substance dependent smokers.

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Baker, Travis E; Wood, Jonathan M A; Holroyd, Clay B

2016-02-01

Substance dependent (SD) relative to non-dependent (ND) individuals exhibit an attenuated reward positivity, an electrophysiological signal believed to index sensitivity of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to rewards. Here we asked whether this altered neural response reflects a specific devaluation of monetary rewards relative to drug-related rewards by ACC. We recorded the reward positivity from SD and ND individuals who currently smoke, following an overnight period of abstinence, while they engaged in two feedback tasks. In a money condition the feedback indicated either a monetary reward or no reward, and in a cigarette condition the feedback indicated either a drug-related reward or no reward. Overall, cigarette relative to monetary rewards elicited a larger reward positivity. Further, for the subjects who engaged in the money condition first, the reward positivity was smaller for the SD compared to the ND participants, but for the subjects who engaged in the cigarette condition first, the reward positivity was larger for the SD compared to the ND participants. Our results suggest that the initial category of feedback "primed" the response of the ACC to the alternative feedback type on subsequent trials, and that SD and ND individuals responded differently to this priming effect. We propose that for people who misuse addictive substances, the prospect of obtaining drug-related rewards engages the ACC to exert control over extended behaviors. Copyright © 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pavlovian reward prediction and receipt in schizophrenia: relationship to anhedonia.

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Erin C Dowd

Full Text Available Reward processing abnormalities have been implicated in the pathophysiology of negative symptoms such as anhedonia and avolition in schizophrenia. However, studies examining neural responses to reward anticipation and receipt have largely relied on instrumental tasks, which may confound reward processing abnormalities with deficits in response selection and execution. 25 chronic, medicated outpatients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging using a pavlovian reward prediction paradigm with no response requirements. Subjects passively viewed cues that predicted subsequent receipt of monetary reward or non-reward, and blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal was measured at the time of cue presentation and receipt. At the group level, neural responses to both reward anticipation and receipt were largely similar between groups. At the time of cue presentation, striatal anticipatory responses did not differ between patients and controls. Right anterior insula demonstrated greater activation for nonreward than reward cues in controls, and for reward than nonreward cues in patients. At the time of receipt, robust responses to receipt of reward vs. nonreward were seen in striatum, midbrain, and frontal cortex in both groups. Furthermore, both groups demonstrated responses to unexpected versus expected outcomes in cortical areas including bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Individual difference analyses in patients revealed an association between physical anhedonia and activity in ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during anticipation of reward, in which greater anhedonia severity was associated with reduced activation to money versus no-money cues. In ventromedial prefrontal cortex, this relationship held among both controls and patients, suggesting a relationship between anticipatory activity and anhedonia irrespective of diagnosis. These findings suggest that in the absence of

Cognitive regulation of saccadic velocity by reward prospect.

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Chen, Lewis L; Hung, Leroy Y; Quinet, Julie; Kosek, Kevin

2013-08-01

It is known that expectation of reward speeds up saccades. Past studies have also shown the presence of a saccadic velocity bias in the orbit, resulting from a biomechanical regulation over varying eccentricities. Nevertheless, whether and how reward expectation interacts with the biomechanical regulation of saccadic velocities over varying eccentricities remains unknown. We addressed this question by conducting a visually guided double-step saccade task. The role of reward expectation was tested in monkeys performing two consecutive horizontal saccades, one associated with reward prospect and the other not. To adequately assess saccadic velocity and avoid adaptation, we systematically varied initial eye positions, saccadic directions and amplitudes. Our results confirmed the existence of a velocity bias in the orbit, i.e., saccadic peak velocity decreased linearly as the initial eye position deviated in the direction of the saccade. The slope of this bias increased as saccadic amplitudes increased. Nevertheless, reward prospect facilitated velocity to a greater extent for saccades away from than for saccades toward the orbital centre, rendering an overall reduction in the velocity bias. The rate (slope) and magnitude (intercept) of reward modulation over this velocity bias were linearly correlated with amplitudes, similar to the amplitude-modulated velocity bias without reward prospect, which presumably resulted from a biomechanical regulation. Small-amplitude (≤ 5°) saccades received little modulation. These findings together suggest that reward expectation modulated saccadic velocity not as an additive signal but as a facilitating mechanism that interacted with the biomechanical regulation. © 2013 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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.

CRF1 receptor-deficiency increases cocaine reward.

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Contarino, Angelo; Kitchener, Pierre; Vallée, Monique; Papaleo, Francesco; Piazza, Pier-Vincenzo

2017-05-01

Stimulant drugs produce reward but also activate stress-responsive systems. The corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and the related hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stress-responsive systems are activated by stimulant drugs. However, their role in stimulant drug-induced reward remains poorly understood. Herein, we report that CRF 1 receptor-deficient (CRF 1 -/-), but not wild-type, mice show conditioned place preference (CPP) responses to a relatively low cocaine dose (5 mg/kg, i.p.). Conversely, wild-type, but not CRF 1 -/-, mice display CPP responses to a relatively high cocaine dose (20 mg/kg, i.p.), indicating that CRF 1 receptor-deficiency alters the rewarding effects of cocaine. Acute pharmacological antagonism of the CRF 1 receptor by antalarmin also eliminates cocaine reward. Nevertheless, CRF 1 -/- mice display higher stereotypy responses to cocaine than wild-type mice. Despite the very low plasma corticosterone concentration, CRF 1 -/- mice show higher nuclear glucocorticoid receptor (GR) levels in the brain region of the hippocampus than wild-type mice. Full rescue of wild-type-like corticosterone and GR circadian rhythm and level in CRF 1 -/- mice by exogenous corticosterone does not affect CRF 1 receptor-dependent cocaine reward but induces stereotypy responses to cocaine. These results indicate a critical role for the CRF 1 receptor in cocaine reward, independently of the closely related HPA axis activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Changes in Incentives, Rewards and Sanctions.

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Lonsdale, Alan

1993-01-01

A review of the literature over the past decade reflects substantial changes in rewards, incentives, and sanctions used with college faculty. These changes parallel changes in the public sector generally. Increasing emphasis on formal evaluation and on use of money as an incentive and reward for performance is noted. (MSE)

Affordances and Alignments: Continuing Challenges in Advising Undergraduate Psychology Majors

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Landrum, R. Eric

2018-01-01

Challenges abound in providing accurate and useful information to prospective and declared psychology majors about their career options and how to make decisions that will lead to satisfying and rewarding postgraduate lives. One component of this challenge is that by majoring in psychology, career affordances (i.e., the opportunities and…

Developmental continuity in reward-related enhancement of cognitive control.

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Strang, Nicole M; Pollak, Seth D

2014-10-01

Adolescents engage in more risky behavior than children or adults. The most prominent hypothesis for this phenomenon is that brain systems governing reward sensitivity and brain systems governing self-regulation mature at different rates. Those systems governing reward sensitivity mature in advance of those governing self-control. This hypothesis has substantial empirical support, however, the evidence supporting this theory has been exclusively derived from contexts where self-control systems are required to regulate reward sensitivity in order to promote adaptive behavior. In adults, reward promotes a shift to a proactive control strategy and better cognitive control performance. It is unclear whether children and adolescents will respond to reward in the same way. Using fMRI methodology, we explored whether children and adolescents would demonstrate a shift to proactive control in the context of reward. We tested 22 children, 20 adolescents, and 23 adults. In contrast to our hypothesis, children, adolescents, and adults all demonstrated a shift to proactive cognitive control in the context of reward. In light of the results, current neurobiological theories of adolescent behavior need to be refined to reflect that in certain contexts there is continuity in the manner reward and cognitive control systems interact across development. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Extrinsic Rewards Diminish Costly Sharing in 3-Year-Olds.

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Ulber, Julia; Hamann, Katharina; Tomasello, Michael

2016-07-01

Two studies investigated the influence of external rewards and social praise in young children's fairness-related behavior. The motivation of ninety-six 3-year-olds' to equalize unfair resource allocations was measured in three scenarios (collaboration, windfall, and dictator game) following three different treatments (material reward, verbal praise, and neutral response). In all scenarios, children's willingness to engage in costly sharing was negatively influenced when they had received a reward for equal sharing during treatment than when they had received praise or no reward. The negative effect of material rewards was not due to subjects responding in kind to their partner's termination of rewards. These results provide new evidence for the intrinsic motivation of prosociality-in this case, costly sharing behavior-in preschool children. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Rewards, Intrinsic Motivation, and Achievement in Intact Classrooms

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Luis, Melissa Ann

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of performance-contingent rewards in a real-world setting, namely the sixth grade math classroom. This study is significant in that it represents a field study on the effects of rewards in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate what effect, if any, the choice of a reward had…

Neurogenetic Impairments of Brain Reward Circuitry Links to Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS): Potential Nutrigenomic Induced Dopaminergic Activation

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Blum, K; Oscar-Berman, M; Giordano, J; Downs, BW; Simpatico, T; Han, D; Femino, John

2012-01-01

Work from our laboratory in both in-patient and outpatient facilities utilizing the Comprehensive Analysis of Reported Drugs (CARD)™ found a significant lack of compliance to prescribed treatment medications and a lack of abstinence from drugs of abuse during active recovery. This unpublished, ongoing research provides an impetus to develop accurate genetic diagnosis and holistic approaches that will safely activate brain reward circuitry in the mesolimbic dopamine system. This editorial focuses on the neurogenetics of brain reward systems with particular reference to genes related to dopaminergic function. The terminology “Reward Deficiency Syndrome” (RDS), used to describe behaviors found to have an association with gene-based hypodopaminergic function, is a useful concept to help expand our understanding of Substance Use Disorder (SUD), process addictions, and other obsessive, compulsive and impulsive behaviors. This editorial covers the neurological basis of pleasure and the role of natural and unnatural reward in motivating and reinforcing behaviors. Additionally, it briefly describes the concept of natural dopamine D2 receptor agonist therapy coupled with genetic testing of a panel of reward genes, the Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS). It serves as a spring-board for this combination of novel approaches to the prevention and treatment of RDS that was developed from fundamental genomic research. We encourage further required studies. PMID:23264886

'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.

Performance-Based Rewards and Work Stress

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Ganster, Daniel C.; Kiersch, Christa E.; Marsh, Rachel E.; Bowen, Angela

2011-01-01

Even though reward systems play a central role in the management of organizations, their impact on stress and the well-being of workers is not well understood. We review the literature linking performance-based reward systems to various indicators of employee stress and well-being. Well-controlled experiments in field settings suggest that certain…

Reward systems and food intake: role of opioids.

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Gosnell, B A; Levine, A S

2009-06-01

Humans eat for many reasons, including the rewarding qualities of foods. A host of neurotransmitters have been shown to influence eating behavior and some of these appear to be involved in reward-induced eating. Endogenous opioid peptides and their receptors were first reported more than 30 years ago, and studies suggesting a role of opioids in the regulation of food intake date back nearly as far. Opioid agonists and antagonists have corresponding stimulatory and inhibitory effects on feeding. In addition to studies aimed at identifying the relevant receptor subtypes and sites of action within the brain, there has been a continuing interest in the role of opioids on diet/taste preferences, food reward, and the overlap of food reward with others types of reward. Data exist that suggest a role for opioids in the control of appetite for specific macronutrients, but there is also evidence for their role in the stimulation of intake based on already-existing diet or taste preferences and in controlling intake motivated by hedonics rather than by energy needs. Finally, various types of studies indicate an overlap between mechanisms mediating drug reward and palatable food reward. Preference or consumption of sweet substances often parallels the self-administration of several drugs of abuse, and under certain conditions, the termination of intermittent access to sweet substances produces symptoms that resemble those observed during opiate withdrawal. The overconsumption of readily available and highly palatable foods likely contributes to the growing rates of obesity worldwide. An understanding of the role of opioids in mediating food reward and promoting the overconsumption of palatable foods may provide insights into new approaches for preventing obesity.

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.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

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.

Sensitivity to reward: implications for overeating and overweight.

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Davis, Caroline; Strachan, Shaelyn; Berkson, Marni

2004-04-01

Sensitivity to reward (STR)-a personality trait firmly rooted in the neurobiology of the mesolimbic dopamine system-has been strongly implicated in the risk for addiction. This construct describes the ability to derive pleasure or reward from natural reinforcers like food, and from pharmacologic rewards like addictive drugs. Recently experts in the field of addiction research have acknowledged that psychomotor stimulant drugs are no longer at the heart of all addictions, and that brain circuits can also be deranged with natural rewards like food. The present study tested a model in which STR was expected to relate positively to overeating, which in turn would be associated with higher body weight in woman aged 25-45 years. As predicted, STR was correlated positively with measures of emotional overeating. Also, overweight woman were significantly more sensitive to reward than those of normal weight. Interestingly, however, the obese woman (Body Mass Index>30) were more anhedonic than the overweight woman (Body Mass Index>25reward circuits. Results also indicate that STR may serve as a risk factor for overeating and overweight, especially in cultures such as ours where palatable, calorically-dense food is plentiful.

Reward priming eliminates color-driven affect in perception.

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Hu, Kesong

2018-01-03

Brain and behavior evidence suggests that colors have distinct affective properties. Here, we investigated how reward influences color-driven affect in perception. In Experiment 1, we assessed competition between blue and red patches during a temporal-order judgment (TOJ) across a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). During the value reinforcement, reward was linked to either blue (version 1) or red (version 2) in the experiment. The same stimuli then served as test ones in the following unrewarded, unspeeded TOJ task. Our analysis showed that blue patches were consistently seen as occurring first, even when objectively appearing 2nd at short SOAs. This accelerated perception of blue over red was disrupted by prior primes related to reward (vs. neutral) but not perceptional (blue vs. red) priming. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1 while uncoupling action and stimulus values. These results are consistent with the blue-approach and red-avoidance motivation hypothesis and highlight an active nature of the association of reward priming and color processing. Together, the present study implies a link between reward and color affect and contributes to the understanding of how reward influences color affect in visual processing.

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

Reward associations magnify memory-based biases on perception.

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Doallo, Sonia; Patai, Eva Zita; Nobre, Anna Christina

2013-02-01

Long-term spatial contextual memories are a rich source of predictions about the likely locations of relevant objects in the environment and should enable tuning of neural processing of unfolding events to optimize perception and action. Of particular importance is whether and how the reward outcome of past events can impact perception. We combined behavioral measures with recordings of brain activity with high temporal resolution to test whether the previous reward outcome associated with a memory could modulate the impact of memory-based biases on perception, and if so, the level(s) at which visual neural processing is biased by reward-associated memory-guided attention. Data showed that past rewards potentiate the effects of spatial memories upon the discrimination of target objects embedded within complex scenes starting from early perceptual stages. We show that a single reward outcome of learning impacts on how we perceive events in our complex environments.

Altered functional connectivity within the central reward network in overweight and obese women

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Coveleskie, K; Gupta, A; Kilpatrick, L A; Mayer, E D; Ashe-McNalley, C; Stains, J; Labus, J S; Mayer, E A

2015-01-01

Background/Objectives: Neuroimaging studies in obese subjects have identified abnormal activation of key regions of central reward circuits, including the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), in response to food-related stimuli. We aimed to examine whether women with elevated body mass index (BMI) show structural and resting state (RS) functional connectivity alterations within regions of the reward network. Subjects/Methods: Fifty healthy, premenopausal women, 19 overweight and obese (high BMI=26–38 kg m−2) and 31 lean (BMI=19–25 kg m−2) were selected from the University of California Los Angeles' Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress database. Structural and RS functional scans were collected. Group differences in grey matter volume (GMV) of the NAcc, oscillation dynamics of intrinsic brain activity and functional connectivity of the NAcc to regions within the reward network were examined. Results: GMV of the left NAcc was significantly greater in the high BMI group than in the lean group (P=0.031). Altered frequency distributions were observed in women with high BMI compared with lean group in the left NAcc (P=0.009) in a medium-frequency (MF) band, and in bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (P=0.014, ingestive behaviors. PMID:25599560

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

Science.gov (United States)

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.

A Monetary Reward Alters Pacing but Not Performance in Competitive Cyclists.

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Skorski, Sabrina; Thompson, Kevin G; Keegan, Richard J; Meyer, Tim; Abbiss, Chris R

2017-01-01

Money has frequently been used as an extrinsic motivator since it is assumed that humans are willing to invest more effort for financial reward. However, the influence of a monetary reward on pacing and performance in trained athletes is not well-understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the influence of a monetary reward in well-trained cyclists on their pacing and performance during short and long cycling time trials (TT). Twentythree cyclists (6 ♀, 17 ♂) completed 4 self-paced time trials (TTs, 2 short: 4 km and 6 min; 2 long: 20 km and 30 min); in a randomized order. Participants were separated into parallel, non-randomized "rewarded" and "non-rewarded" groups. Cyclists in the rewarded group received a monetary reward based on highest mean power output across all TTs. Cyclists in the non-rewarded group did not receive a monetary reward. Overall performance was not significantly different between groups in short or long TTs ( p > 0.48). Power output showed moderatly lower effect sizes at comencement of the short TTs ( P meandiff = 36.6 W; d > 0.44) and the 20 km TT ( P meandiff = 22.6 W; d = 0.44) in the rewarded group. No difference was observed in pacing during the 30 min TT ( p = 0.95). An external reward seems to have influenced pacing at the commencement of time trials. Participants in the non-rewarded group adopted a typical parabolic shaped pattern, whereas participants in the rewarded group started trials more conservatively. Results raise the possibility that using money as an extrinsic reward may interfere with regulatory processes required for effective pacing.

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

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.

Changes in reward-induced brain activation in opiate addicts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Martin-Soelch, C; Chevalley, AF; Kunig, G; Missimer, J; Magyar, S; Mino, A; Schultz, W; Leenders, KL

2001-01-01

Many studies indicate a role of the cerebral dopaminergic reward system in addiction. Motivated by these findings, we examined in opiate addicts whether brain regions involved in the reward circuitry also react to human prototypical rewards. We measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) with

Reward association facilitates distractor suppression in human visual search.

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Gong, Mengyuan; Yang, Feitong; Li, Sheng

2016-04-01

Although valuable objects are attractive in nature, people often encounter situations where they would prefer to avoid such distraction while focusing on the task goal. Contrary to the typical effect of attentional capture by a reward-associated item, we provide evidence for a facilitation effect derived from the active suppression of a high reward-associated stimulus when cuing its identity as distractor before the display of search arrays. Selection of the target is shown to be significantly faster when the distractors were in high reward-associated colour than those in low reward-associated or non-rewarded colours. This behavioural reward effect was associated with two neural signatures before the onset of the search display: the increased frontal theta oscillation and the strengthened top-down modulation from frontal to anterior temporal regions. The former suggests an enhanced working memory representation for the reward-associated stimulus and the increased need for cognitive control to override Pavlovian bias, whereas the latter indicates that the boost of inhibitory control is realized through a frontal top-down mechanism. These results suggest a mechanism in which the enhanced working memory representation of a reward-associated feature is integrated with task demands to modify attentional priority during active distractor suppression and benefit behavioural performance. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Ventral striatal activity links adversity and reward processing in children

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Niki H. Kamkar

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Adversity impacts many aspects of psychological and physical development including reward-based learning and decision-making. Mechanisms relating adversity and reward processing in children, however, remain unclear. Here, we show that adversity is associated with potentiated learning from positive outcomes and impulsive decision-making, but unrelated to learning from negative outcomes. We then show via functional magnetic resonance imaging that the link between adversity and reward processing is partially mediated by differences in ventral striatal response to rewards. The findings suggest that early-life adversity is associated with alterations in the brain’s sensitivity to rewards accounting, in part, for the link between adversity and altered reward processing in children.

Monetary reward activates human prefrontal cortex

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thut, G.; Roelcke, U.; Nienhusmeier, M.; Missimer, J.; Maguire, R.P.; Leenders, K.L.; Schultz, W.

1997-01-01

We present a rCBF PET activation study, in which we demonstrated that reward processing in humans activates a cortical-subcortical network including dorsolateral prefrontal, orbital frontal, thalamic and midbrain regions. It is suggested that, as found for non-human primates, the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical system is implicated in reward processing. (author) 1 fig., 3 refs

Rewarding and punishing children of different social behavior

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Lalić-Vučetić Nataša

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the actions of rewarding and punishing children of different social behavior. The application of rewarding and punishing demands knowing and fulfilling several conditions which enable their efficiency: the nature of reward and punishment, the way in which pupils receive them, the context in which rewarding and punishing takes place and the characteristics of the subject (age, gender, cognitive capacities, social behavior. It is familiar that teachers prefer pupils who are cooperative, socially responsible, prone to conforming to school rules, kind, friendly and polite, while teacher’s work can often be aggravated on the part of the pupils who are aggressive, asocial, socially irresponsible, disruptive or prone to deviant behavior. In order to accomplish the outcomes which want to be achieved by these procedures, in applying reward and punishment, it is necessary to figure out carefully the criteria of rewarding and punishing and adhere to them consistently, paying attention to the characteristics of social behavior of the pupils. A special chapter is devoted to the consideration of unjust reward and punishment as one of the phenomena present in the experience of a large number of children. The analyzed problems assume adequate preparation of teachers, that is, the knowledge about basic characteristics of upbringing procedures applied in working with pupils, and which will have as a result a more successful social behavior, a more positive attitude towards school and studying.

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

Counteracting effect of threat on reward enhancements during working memory.

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

2015-01-01

Cognitive performance has been shown to be enhanced when performance-based rewards are at stake. On the other hand, task-irrelevant threat processing has been shown to have detrimental effects during several cognitive tasks. Crucially, the impact of reward and threat on cognition has been studied largely independently of one another. Hence, our understanding of how reward and threat simultaneously contribute to performance is incomplete. To fill in this gap, the present study investigated how reward and threat interact with one another during a cognitive task. We found that threat of shock counteracted the beneficial effect of reward during a working memory task. Furthermore, individual differences in self-reported reward-sensitivity and anxiety were linked to the extent to which reward and threat interacted during behaviour. Together, the current findings contribute to a limited but growing literature unravelling how positive and negative information processing jointly influence cognition.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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.

An affect misattribution pathway to perceptions of intrinsic reward

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leander, N. Pontus; Kay, Aaron C.; Chartrand, Tanya L.; Payne, B. Keith

Intrinsic rewards are typically thought to stem from an activity's inherent properties and not from separable rewards one receives from it. Yet, people may not consciously notice or remember all the subtle external rewards that correspond with an activity and may misattribute some directly to the

Promising high monetary rewards for future task performance increases intermediate task performance.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claire M Zedelius

Full Text Available In everyday life contexts and work settings, monetary rewards are often contingent on future performance. Based on research showing that the anticipation of rewards causes improved task performance through enhanced task preparation, the present study tested the hypothesis that the promise of monetary rewards for future performance would not only increase future performance, but also performance on an unrewarded intermediate task. Participants performed an auditory Simon task in which they responded to two consecutive tones. While participants could earn high vs. low monetary rewards for fast responses to every second tone, their responses to the first tone were not rewarded. Moreover, we compared performance under conditions in which reward information could prompt strategic performance adjustments (i.e., when reward information was presented for a relatively long duration to conditions preventing strategic performance adjustments (i.e., when reward information was presented very briefly. Results showed that high (vs. low rewards sped up both rewarded and intermediate, unrewarded responses, and the effect was independent of the duration of reward presentation. Moreover, long presentation led to a speed-accuracy trade-off for both rewarded and unrewarded tones, whereas short presentation sped up responses to rewarded and unrewarded tones without this trade-off. These results suggest that high rewards for future performance boost intermediate performance due to enhanced task preparation, and they do so regardless whether people respond to rewards in a strategic or non-strategic manner.

Promising high monetary rewards for future task performance increases intermediate task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Zedelius, Claire M; Veling, Harm; Bijleveld, Erik; Aarts, Henk

2012-01-01

In everyday life contexts and work settings, monetary rewards are often contingent on future performance. Based on research showing that the anticipation of rewards causes improved task performance through enhanced task preparation, the present study tested the hypothesis that the promise of monetary rewards for future performance would not only increase future performance, but also performance on an unrewarded intermediate task. Participants performed an auditory Simon task in which they responded to two consecutive tones. While participants could earn high vs. low monetary rewards for fast responses to every second tone, their responses to the first tone were not rewarded. Moreover, we compared performance under conditions in which reward information could prompt strategic performance adjustments (i.e., when reward information was presented for a relatively long duration) to conditions preventing strategic performance adjustments (i.e., when reward information was presented very briefly). Results showed that high (vs. low) rewards sped up both rewarded and intermediate, unrewarded responses, and the effect was independent of the duration of reward presentation. Moreover, long presentation led to a speed-accuracy trade-off for both rewarded and unrewarded tones, whereas short presentation sped up responses to rewarded and unrewarded tones without this trade-off. These results suggest that high rewards for future performance boost intermediate performance due to enhanced task preparation, and they do so regardless whether people respond to rewards in a strategic or non-strategic manner.

Reward-based spatial crowdsourcing with differential privacy preservation

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Ping; Zhang, Lefeng; Zhu, Tianqing

2017-11-01

In recent years, the popularity of mobile devices has transformed spatial crowdsourcing (SC) into a novel mode for performing complicated projects. Workers can perform tasks at specified locations in return for rewards offered by employers. Existing methods ensure the efficiency of their systems by submitting the workers' exact locations to a centralised server for task assignment, which can lead to privacy violations. Thus, implementing crowsourcing applications while preserving the privacy of workers' location is a key issue that needs to be tackled. We propose a reward-based SC method that achieves acceptable utility as measured by task assignment success rates, while efficiently preserving privacy. A differential privacy model ensures rigorous privacy guarantee, and Laplace noise is introduced to protect workers' exact locations. We then present a reward allocation mechanism that adjusts each piece of the reward for a task using the distribution of the workers' locations. Through experimental results, we demonstrate that this optimised-reward method is efficient for SC applications.

Reward and motivation in pain and pain relief

Science.gov (United States)

Navratilova, Edita; Porreca, Frank

2015-01-01

Pain is fundamentally unpleasant, a feature that protects the organism by promoting motivation and learning. Relief of aversive states, including pain, is rewarding. The aversiveness of pain, as well as the reward from relief of pain, is encoded by brain reward/motivational mesocorticolimbic circuitry. In this Review, we describe current knowledge of the impact of acute and chronic pain on reward/motivation circuits gained from preclinical models and from human neuroimaging. We highlight emerging clinical evidence suggesting that anatomical and functional changes in these circuits contribute to the transition from acute to chronic pain. We propose that assessing activity in these conserved circuits can offer new outcome measures for preclinical evaluation of analgesic efficacy to improve translation and speed drug discovery. We further suggest that targeting reward/motivation circuits may provide a path for normalizing the consequences of chronic pain to the brain, surpassing symptomatic management to promote recovery from chronic pain. PMID:25254980

Extrinsic rewards undermine altruistic tendencies in 20-month-olds.

Science.gov (United States)

Warneken, Felix; Tomasello, Michael

2008-11-01

The current study investigated the influence of rewards on very young children's helping behavior. After 20-month-old infants received a material reward during a treatment phase, they subsequently were less likely to engage in further helping during a test phase as compared with infants who had previously received social praise or no reward at all. This so-called overjustification effect suggests that even the earliest helping behaviors of young children are intrinsically motivated and that socialization practices involving extrinsic rewards can undermine this tendency.

Ventral striatal activity links adversity and reward processing in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Kamkar, Niki H; Lewis, Daniel J; van den Bos, Wouter; Morton, J Bruce

2017-08-01

Adversity impacts many aspects of psychological and physical development including reward-based learning and decision-making. Mechanisms relating adversity and reward processing in children, however, remain unclear. Here, we show that adversity is associated with potentiated learning from positive outcomes and impulsive decision-making, but unrelated to learning from negative outcomes. We then show via functional magnetic resonance imaging that the link between adversity and reward processing is partially mediated by differences in ventral striatal response to rewards. The findings suggest that early-life adversity is associated with alterations in the brain's sensitivity to rewards accounting, in part, for the link between adversity and altered reward processing in children. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Dopamine and reward: comment on Hernandez et al. (2006).

Science.gov (United States)

Gallistel, C R

2006-08-01

Many lines of evidence suggest that the dopaminergic projection from the midbrain tegmentum to the forebrain must play a critical role in mediating the behavioral effects of natural and artificial rewards, with brain stimulation reward and addictive drugs included in the latter category. However, a closer look reveals many incongruities. The work of G. Hernandez et al. (2006) resolves several puzzles. It implies that the dopaminergic projection does not carry the signal that encodes the magnitude of a brain stimulation reward. It suggests that the elevation in the tonic levels of dopamine consequent on brain stimulation reward modulates the registration of the magnitude of the reward. This reconciles the psychophysical evidence with the pharmacological, electrophysiological, and anatomical evidence. However, some serious puzzles do remain.

Ethical challenges for accountable care organizations: a structured review.

Science.gov (United States)

DeCamp, Matthew; Farber, Neil J; Torke, Alexia M; George, Maura; Berger, Zackary; Keirns, Carla C; Kaldjian, Lauris C

2014-10-01

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are proliferating as a solution to the cost crisis in American health care, and already involve as many as 31 million patients. ACOs hold clinicians, group practices, and in many circumstances hospitals financially accountable for reducing expenditures and improving their patients' health outcomes. The structure of health care affects the ethical issues arising in the practice of medicine; therefore, like all health care organizational structures, ACOs will experience ethical challenges. No framework exists to assist key ACO stakeholders in identifying or managing these challenges. We conducted a structured review of the medical ACO literature using qualitative content analysis to inform identification of ethical challenges for ACOs. Our analysis found infrequent discussion of ethics as an explicit concern for ACOs. Nonetheless, we identified nine critical ethical challenges, often described in other terms, for ACO stakeholders. Leaders could face challenges regarding fair resource allocation (e.g., about fairly using ACOs' shared savings), protection of professionals' ethical obligations (especially related to the design of financial incentives), and development of fair decision processes (e.g., ensuring that beneficiary representatives on the ACO board truly represent the ACO's patients). Clinicians could perceive threats to their professional autonomy (e.g., through cost control measures), a sense of dual or conflicted responsibility to their patients and the ACO, or competition with other clinicians. For patients, critical ethical challenges will include protecting their autonomy, ensuring privacy and confidentiality, and effectively engaging them with the ACO. ACOs are not inherently more or less "ethical" than other health care payment models, such as fee-for-service or pure capitation. ACOs' nascent development and flexibility in design, however, present a time-sensitive opportunity to ensure their ethical operation

Post-learning hippocampal dynamics promote preferential retention of rewarding events

Science.gov (United States)

Gruber, Matthias J.; Ritchey, Maureen; Wang, Shao-Fang; Doss, Manoj K.; Ranganath, Charan

2016-01-01

Reward motivation is known to modulate memory encoding, and this effect depends on interactions between the substantia nigra/ ventral tegmental area complex (SN/VTA) and the hippocampus. It is unknown, however, whether these interactions influence offline neural activity in the human brain that is thought to promote memory consolidation. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test the effect of reward motivation on post-learning neural dynamics and subsequent memory for objects that were learned in high- or low-reward motivation contexts. We found that post-learning increases in resting-state functional connectivity between the SN/VTA and hippocampus predicted preferential retention of objects that were learned in high-reward contexts. In addition, multivariate pattern classification revealed that hippocampal representations of high-reward contexts were preferentially reactivated during post-learning rest, and the number of hippocampal reactivations was predictive of preferential retention of items learned in high-reward contexts. These findings indicate that reward motivation alters offline post-learning dynamics between the SN/VTA and hippocampus, providing novel evidence for a potential mechanism by which reward could influence memory consolidation. PMID:26875624

The Attraction Effect Modulates Reward Prediction Errors and Intertemporal Choices.

Science.gov (United States)

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

Rhetoric and reward in higher education: how the pillars of tradition impede academic reform and what might be done about it

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John F. LeBaron

2001-01-01

Full Text Available A contemporary deluge of negative polemic about higher education has resulted in an alarming erosion of public support. This paper examines the organizational traditions of "the university" in the context of improved teaching and academic reform. It takes the position that small scale, individual initiatives to improve university teaching can initially inform a more general population of higher education stakeholders as they re-think their basic purposes, missions, and collective actions, but that systemic change requires system wide commitment. In particular, issues related to university incentives and rewards are examined in the context of structural practice and tradition, with a discussion of the challenges of institutional change and survival.

Olfactory tubercle stimulation alters odor preference behavior and recruits forebrain reward and motivational centers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brynn J FitzGerald

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Rodents show robust behavioral responses to odors, including strong preferences or aversions for certain odors. The neural mechanisms underlying the effects of odors on these behaviors in animals are not well understood. Here, we provide an initial proof-of-concept study into the role of the olfactory tubercle (OT, a structure with known anatomical connectivity with both brain reward and olfactory structures, in regulating odor-motivated behaviors. We implanted c57bl/6 male mice with an ipsilateral bipolar electrode into the OT to administer electric current and thereby yield gross activation of the OT. We confirmed that electrical stimulation of the OT was rewarding, with mice frequently self-administering stimulation on a fixed ratio schedule. In a separate experiment, mice were presented with either fox urine or peanut odors in a three-chamber preference test. In absence of OT stimulation, significant preference for the peanut odor chamber was observed which was abolished in the presence of OT stimulation. Perhaps providing a foundation for this modulation in behavior, we found that OT stimulation significantly increased the number of c-Fos positive neurons in not only the OT, but also in forebrain structures essential to motivated behaviors, including the nucleus accumbens and lateral septum. The present results support the notion that the OT is integral to the display of motivated behavior and possesses the capacity to modulate odor hedonics either by directly altering odor processing or perhaps by indirect actions on brain reward and motivation structures.

Challenges for Large Scale Structure Theory

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2018-01-01

I will describe some of the outstanding questions in Cosmology where answers could be provided by observations of the Large Scale Structure of the Universe at late times.I will discuss some of the theoretical challenges which will have to be overcome to extract this information from the observations. I will describe some of the theoretical tools that might be useful to achieve this goal. 

Reward sensitivity to faces versus objects in children: an ERP study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stavropoulos, Katherine K M; Carver, Leslie J

2014-10-01

How children respond to social and nonsocial rewards has important implications for understanding social cognitive development. Adults find faces intrinsically rewarding. However, little is known about how children respond to face vs nonface rewards. We utilized event-related potentials (the stimulus-preceding negativity, SPN) to measure differences in reward anticipation during a guessing game in 6- to 8-year-olds. Children were presented with reward indicators accompanied by incidental face or nonface stimuli. Nonface stimuli were comprised of scrambled faces in the shape of arrows, controlling for low-level properties of the two conditions. Children showed an increased SPN when the reward stimuli were accompanied by faces, relative to nonface stimuli. This suggests that children find a face stimulus more rewarding than a nonface stimulus. The results have important implications for processing social vs nonsocial rewards in typically developing children, and allow testing of populations with deficits in social reward processing, such as autism spectrum disorder. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Striatal response to reward anticipation: evidence for a systems-level intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia.

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Grimm, Oliver; Heinz, Andreas; Walter, Henrik; Kirsch, Peter; Erk, Susanne; Haddad, Leila; Plichta, Michael M; Romanczuk-Seiferth, Nina; Pöhland, Lydia; Mohnke, Sebastian; Mühleisen, Thomas W; Mattheisen, Manuel; Witt, Stephanie H; Schäfer, Axel; Cichon, Sven; Nöthen, Markus; Rietschel, Marcella; Tost, Heike; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas

2014-05-01

Attenuated ventral striatal response during reward anticipation is a core feature of schizophrenia that is seen in prodromal, drug-naive, and chronic schizophrenic patients. Schizophrenia is highly heritable, raising the possibility that this phenotype is related to the genetic risk for the disorder. To examine a large sample of healthy first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients and compare their neural responses to reward anticipation with those of carefully matched controls without a family psychiatric history. To further support the utility of this phenotype, we studied its test-retest reliability, its potential brain structural contributions, and the effects of a protective missense variant in neuregulin 1 (NRG1) linked to schizophrenia by meta-analysis (ie, rs10503929). Examination of a well-established monetary reward anticipation paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging at a university hospital; voxel-based morphometry; test-retest reliability analysis of striatal activations in an independent sample of 25 healthy participants scanned twice with the same task; and imaging genetics analysis of the control group. A total of 54 healthy first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients and 80 controls matched for demographic, psychological, clinical, and task performance characteristics were studied. Blood oxygen level-dependent response during reward anticipation, analysis of intraclass correlations of functional contrasts, and associations between striatal gray matter volume and NRG1 genotype. Compared with controls, healthy first-degree relatives showed a highly significant decrease in ventral striatal activation during reward anticipation (familywise error-corrected P systems-level functional phenotype is reliable (with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.59-0.73), independent of local gray matter volume (with no corresponding group differences and no correlation to function, and with all uncorrected P values >.05), and affected by

Reward-Enhanced Memory in Younger and Older Adults

OpenAIRE

Julia Spaniol; Cécile Schain; Holly J. Bowen

2014-01-01

Objectives. We investigated how the anticipation of remote monetary reward modulates intentional episodic memory formation in younger and older adults. On the basis of prior findings of preserved reward–cognition interactions in aging, we predicted that reward anticipation would be associated with enhanced memory in both younger and older adults. On the basis of previous demonstrations of a time-dependent effect of reward anticipation on memory, we expected the memory enhancement to increase ...

Reward retroactively enhances memory consolidation for related items

OpenAIRE

Patil, Anuya; Murty, Vishnu P.; Dunsmoor, Joseph E.; Phelps, Elizabeth A.; Davachi, Lila

2017-01-01

Reward motivation has been shown to modulate episodic memory processes in order to support future adaptive behavior. However, for a memory system to be truly adaptive, it should enhance memory for rewarded events as well as for neutral events that may seem inconsequential at the time of encoding but can gain importance later. Here, we investigated the influence of reward motivation on retroactive memory enhancement selectively for conceptually related information. We found behavioral evidence...

Aversive counterconditioning attenuates reward signalling in the ventral striatum

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

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.

Changes in reward-induced brain activation in opiate addicts.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin-Soelch, C; Chevalley, A F; Künig, G; Missimer, J; Magyar, S; Mino, A; Schultz, W; Leenders, K L

2001-10-01

Many studies indicate a role of the cerebral dopaminergic reward system in addiction. Motivated by these findings, we examined in opiate addicts whether brain regions involved in the reward circuitry also react to human prototypical rewards. We measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) with H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography (PET) during a visuo-spatial recognition task with delayed response in control subjects and in opiate addicts participating in a methadone program. Three conditions were defined by the types of feedback: nonsense feedback; nonmonetary reinforcement; or monetary reward, received by the subjects for a correct response. We found in the control subjects rCBF increases in regions associated with the meso-striatal and meso-corticolimbic circuits in response to both monetary reward and nonmonetary reinforcement. In opiate addicts, these regions were activated only in response to monetary reward. Furthermore, nonmonetary reinforcement elicited rCBF increases in limbic regions of the opiate addicts that were not activated in the control subjects. Because psychoactive drugs serve as rewards and directly affect regions of the dopaminergic system like the striatum, we conclude that the differences in rCBF increases between controls and addicts can be attributed to an adaptive consequence of the addiction process.

Compensation neurosis: financial reward for illness as nocebo.

Science.gov (United States)

Bellamy, R

1997-03-01

Results of medical treatment are notoriously poor in patients with pending litigation after personal injury or disability claims, and for those covered by workers' compensation programs. Although some instances of overt malingering are documented by surveillance videos, most exaggerated illness behavior in compensation situations takes place because of a combination of suggestion, somatization, and rationalization. A distorted sense of justice, victim status, and entitlement may further the exaggerated sick role. Adversarial administrative and legal systems challenging the claimant to prove repeatedly he or she is permanently ill harden the conviction of illness and the individual's defense of the claim. Unfortunately, after advocating for one's injury before a sometimes doubting public for the several years required to resolve such claims, care eliciting behavior too often remains permanent. Because any improvement in the claimant's health condition may result in denial of disability status in the future, the claimant is compelled to guard against getting well and is left with no honorable way to recover from illness. Financial reward for illness thus functions as a powerful nocebo, a nonspecific force creating and exacerbating illness. Solutions require recognition that judging disability and work incapacity in others is an unscientific process and that adversarial systems rewarding permanent illness or injury, particularly self reported pain, are often permanently harmful. The remainder of the solution must be political.

Reward/Punishment reversal learning in older suicide attempters.

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Dombrovski, Alexandre Y; Clark, Luke; Siegle, Greg J; Butters, Meryl A; Ichikawa, Naho; Sahakian, Barbara J; Szanto, Katalin

2010-06-01

Suicide rates are high in old age, and the contribution of cognitive risk factors remains poorly understood. Suicide may be viewed as an outcome of an altered decision process. The authors hypothesized that impairment in reward/punishment-based learning, a component of affective decision making, is associated with attempted suicide in late-life depression. They expected that suicide attempters would discount past reward/punishment history, focusing excessively on the most recent rewards and punishments. The authors further hypothesized that this impairment could be dissociated from executive abilities, such as forward planning. The authors assessed reward/punishment-based learning using the probabilistic reversal learning task in 65 individuals age 60 and older: suicide attempters, suicide ideators, nonsuicidal depressed elderly, and nondepressed comparison subjects. The authors used a reinforcement learning computational model to decompose reward/punishment processing over time. The Stockings of Cambridge test served as a control measure of executive function. Suicide attempters but not suicide ideators showed impaired probabilistic reversal learning compared to both nonsuicidal depressed elderly and nondepressed comparison subjects, after controlling for effects of education, global cognitive function, and substance use. Model-based analyses revealed that suicide attempters discounted previous history to a higher degree relative to comparison subjects, basing their choice largely on reward/punishment received on the last trial. Groups did not differ in their performance on the Stockings of Cambridge test. Older suicide attempters display impaired reward/punishment-based learning. The authors propose a hypothesis that older suicide attempters make overly present-focused decisions, ignoring past experiences. Modification of this "myopia for the past" may have therapeutic potential.

Reward-modulated motor information in identified striatum neurons.

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Isomura, Yoshikazu; Takekawa, Takashi; Harukuni, Rie; Handa, Takashi; Aizawa, Hidenori; Takada, Masahiko; Fukai, Tomoki

2013-06-19

It is widely accepted that dorsal striatum neurons participate in either the direct pathway (expressing dopamine D1 receptors) or the indirect pathway (expressing D2 receptors), controlling voluntary movements in an antagonistically balancing manner. The D1- and D2-expressing neurons are activated and inactivated, respectively, by dopamine released from substantia nigra neurons encoding reward expectation. However, little is known about the functional representation of motor information and its reward modulation in individual striatal neurons constituting the two pathways. In this study, we juxtacellularly recorded the spike activity of single neurons in the dorsolateral striatum of rats performing voluntary forelimb movement in a reward-predictable condition. Some of these neurons were identified morphologically by a combination of juxtacellular visualization and in situ hybridization for D1 mRNA. We found that the striatal neurons exhibited distinct functional activations before and during the forelimb movement, regardless of the expression of D1 mRNA. They were often positively, but rarely negatively, modulated by expecting a reward for the correct motor response. The positive reward modulation was independent of behavioral differences in motor performance. In contrast, regular-spiking and fast-spiking neurons in any layers of the motor cortex displayed only minor and unbiased reward modulation of their functional activation in relation to the execution of forelimb movement. Our results suggest that the direct and indirect pathway neurons cooperatively rather than antagonistically contribute to spatiotemporal control of voluntary movements, and that motor information is subcortically integrated with reward information through dopaminergic and other signals in the skeletomotor loop of the basal ganglia.

The Dilemmas of Adopting Performance Related Pay as a Reward ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Dilemmas of Adopting Performance Related Pay as a Reward Strategy for ... over automatic pay increase (formal and transparent reward systems linked to ... of reward and compensation, and low level of motivation and performance.

Influences of social reward experience on behavioral responses to drugs of abuse: Review of shared and divergent neural plasticity mechanisms for sexual reward and drugs of abuse.

Science.gov (United States)

Beloate, Lauren N; Coolen, Lique M

2017-12-01

Different factors influence the development of drug addiction in humans, including social reward experiences. In animals, experience with social rewards, such as sexual behavior, pair bonding, social and environmental enrichment, can be protective. However, loss or lack of social rewards can lead to a vulnerability to drug-seeking behavior. The effects of social reward experience on drug-seeking behavior are associated with changes in the neural pathways that control drug-related behavior. This review will provide an introduction and overview of the mesolimbic pathway and the influence of social reward experience on drug-seeking behavior in rodents. Moreover, the research from our laboratory on effects of sexual experience and loss of sex reward on psychostimulant and opiate reward will be reviewed. Finally, we will review current knowledge of the neural mechanisms that underlie these interactions. Investigations of the neural underpinnings by which social and drug rewards interact contribute to improved understanding of the neural basis of vulnerability for drug addiction and reward-related behaviors in general. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Orbitofrontal reward sensitivity and impulsivity in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

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Wilbertz, Gregor; van Elst, Ludger Tebartz; Delgado, Mauricio R; Maier, Simon; Feige, Bernd; Philipsen, Alexandra; Blechert, Jens

2012-03-01

Impulsivity symptoms of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) such as increased risk taking have been linked with impaired reward processing. Previous studies have focused on reward anticipation or on rewarded executive functioning tasks and have described a striatal hyporesponsiveness and orbitofrontal alterations in adult and adolescent ADHD. Passive reward delivery and its link to behavioral impulsivity are less well understood. To study this crucial aspect of reward processing we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combined with electrodermal assessment in male and female adult ADHD patients (N=28) and matched healthy control participants (N=28) during delivery of monetary and non-monetary rewards. Further, two behavioral tasks assessed risky decision making (game of dice task) and delay discounting. Results indicated that both groups activated ventral and dorsal striatum and the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) in response to high-incentive (i.e. monetary) rewards. A similar, albeit less strong activation pattern was found for low-incentive (i.e. non-monetary) rewards. Group differences emerged when comparing high and low incentive rewards directly: activation in the mOFC coded for the motivational change in reward delivery in healthy controls, but not ADHD patients. Additionally, this dysfunctional mOFC activity in patients correlated with risky decision making and delay discounting and was paralleled by physiological arousal. Together, these results suggest that the mOFC codes reward value and type in healthy individuals whereas this function is deficient in ADHD. The brain-behavior correlations suggest that this deficit might be related to behavioral impulsivity. Reward value processing difficulties in ADHD should be considered when assessing reward anticipation and emotional learning in research and applied settings. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Divergent circuitry underlying food reward and intake effects of ghrelin: dopaminergic VTA-accumbens projection mediates ghrelin's effect on food reward but not food intake.

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Skibicka, Karolina P; Shirazi, Rozita H; Rabasa-Papio, Cristina; Alvarez-Crespo, Mayte; Neuber, Corinna; Vogel, Heike; Dickson, Suzanne L

2013-10-01

Obesity has reached global epidemic proportions and creating an urgent need to understand mechanisms underlying excessive and uncontrolled food intake. Ghrelin, the only known circulating orexigenic hormone, potently increases food reward behavior. The neurochemical circuitry that links ghrelin to the mesolimbic reward system and to the increased food reward behavior remains unclear. Here we examine whether VTA-NAc dopaminergic signaling is required for the effects of ghrelin on food reward and intake. In addition, we examine the possibility of endogenous ghrelin acting on the VTA-NAc dopamine neurons. A D1-like or a D2 receptor antagonist was injected into the NAc in combination with ghrelin microinjection into the VTA to investigate whether this blockade attenuates ghrelin-induced food reward behavior. VTA injections of ghrelin produced a significant increase in food motivation/reward behavior, as measured by sucrose-induced progressive ratio operant conditioning, and chow intake. Pretreatment with either a D1-like or D2 receptor antagonist into the NAc, completely blocked the reward effect of ghrelin, leaving chow intake intact. We also found that this circuit is potentially relevant for the effects of endogenously released ghrelin as both antagonists reduced fasting (a state of high circulating levels of ghrelin) elevated sucrose-motivated behavior but not chow hyperphagia. Taken together our data identify the VTA to NAc dopaminergic projections, along with D1-like and D2 receptors in the NAc, as essential elements of the ghrelin responsive circuits controlling food reward behavior. Interestingly results also suggest that food reward behavior and simple intake of chow are controlled by divergent circuitry, where NAc dopamine plays an important role in food reward but not in food intake. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Cigarette craving is associated with blunted reward processing in nicotine-dependent smokers.

Science.gov (United States)

Peechatka, Alyssa L; Whitton, Alexis E; Farmer, Stacey L; Pizzagalli, Diego A; Janes, Amy C

2015-10-01

Dysfunctional reward processing leading to the undervaluation of non-drug rewards is hypothesized to play a crucial role in nicotine dependence. However, it is unclear if blunted reward responsivity and the desire to use nicotine are directly linked after a brief period of abstinence. Such an association would suggest that individuals with reduced reward responsivity may be at increased risk to experience nicotine craving. Reward function was evaluated with a probabilistic reward task (PRT), which measures reward responsivity to monetary incentives. To identify whether smoking status influenced reward function, PRT performance was compared between non-depressed, nicotine-dependent smokers and non-smokers. Within smokers, correlations were conducted to determine if blunted reward responsivity on the PRT was associated with increased nicotine craving. Time since last nicotine exposure was standardized to 4h for all smokers. Smokers and non-smokers did not differ in reward responsivity on the PRT. However, within smokers, a significant negative correlation was found between reward responsivity and intensity of nicotine craving. The current findings show that, among smokers, the intensity of nicotine craving is linked to lower sensitivity to non-drug rewards. This finding is in line with prior theories that suggest reward dysfunction in some clinical populations (e.g., depressive disorders, schizophrenia) may facilitate nicotine use. The current study expands on such theories by indicating that sub-clinical variations in reward function are related to motivation for nicotine use. Identifying smokers who show blunted sensitivity to non-drug rewards may help guide treatments aimed at mitigating the motivation to smoke. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dopamine Signaling in reward-related behaviors

OpenAIRE

Baik, Ja-Hyun

2013-01-01

Dopamine (DA) regulates emotional and motivational behavior through the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway. Changes in DA mesolimbic neurotransmission have been found to modify behavioral responses to various environmental stimuli associated with reward behaviors. Psychostimulants, drugs of abuse, and natural reward such as food can cause substantial synaptic modifications to the mesolimbic DA system. Recent studies using optogenetics and DREADDs, together with neuron-specific or circuit-specifi...

Loyalty programs challenges in retail banking industry

OpenAIRE

Ivanauskienė, Neringa; Auruškevičienė, Viltė

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges of loyalty programs in retail banks in Lithuania. Case study methodology was chosen to analyze the loyalty programs launched by various banks to show how banks are building the loyalty of individual customers and what challenges these banks face. The findings suggest that the majority of analyzed loyalty programs reward a repeat purchasing. Lithuanian retail banks launching loyalty programs for two customer segments - the potentially prof...

Payment card rewards programs and consumer payment choice

OpenAIRE

Andrew Ching; Fumiko Hayashi

2006-01-01

Card payments have been growing very rapidly. To continue the growth, payment card networks keep adding new merchants and card issuers try to stimulate their existing customers’ card usage by providing rewards. This paper seeks to analyze the effects of payment card rewards programs on consumer payment choice, by using consumer survey data. Specifically, we examine whether credit/debit reward receivers use credit/debit cards relatively more often than other consumers, if so how much more ofte...

Neurobiological underpinnings of reward anticipation and outcome evaluation in gambling disorder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Linnet, Jakob

2014-01-01

Gambling disorder is characterized by persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior, which leads to clinically significant impairment or distress. The disorder is associated with dysfunctions in the dopamine system. The dopamine system codes reward anticipation and outcome evaluation....... Reward anticipation refers to dopaminergic activation prior to reward, while outcome evaluation refers to dopaminergic activation after reward. This article reviews evidence of dopaminergic dysfunctions in reward anticipation and outcome evaluation in gambling disorder from two vantage points: a model...... of reward prediction and reward prediction error by Wolfram Schultz et al. and a model of “wanting” and “liking” by Terry E. Robinson and Kent C. Berridge. Both models offer important insights on the study of dopaminergic dysfunctions in addiction, and implications for the study of dopaminergic dysfunctions...

What's the Point?: A Review of Reward Systems Implemented in Gamification Interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Zakkoyya H; Swartz, Maria C; Lyons, Elizabeth J

2016-04-01

Rewards are commonly used in interventions to change behavior, but they can inhibit development of intrinsic motivation, which is associated with long-term behavior maintenance. Gamification is a novel intervention strategy that may target intrinsic motivation through fun and enjoyment. Before the effects of gamified interventions on motivation can be determined, there must be an understanding of how gamified interventions operationalize rewards, such as point systems. The purpose of this review is to determine the prevalence of different reward types, specifically point systems, within gamified interventions. Electronic databases were searched for relevant articles. Data sources included Medline OVID, Medline PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Cochrane Central, and PsycINFO. Out of the 21 articles retrieved, 18 studies described a reward system and were included in this review. Gamified interventions were designed to target a myriad of clinical outcomes across diverse populations. Rewards included points (n = 14), achievements/badges/medals (n = 7), tangible rewards (n = 7), currency (n = 4), other unspecified rewards (n = 3), likes (n = 2), animated feedback (n = 1), and kudos (n = 1). Rewards, and points in particular, appear to be a foundational component of gamified interventions. Despite their prevalence, authors seldom described the use of noncontingent rewards or how the rewards interacted with other game features. The reward systems relying on tangible rewards and currency may have been limited by inhibited intrinsic motivation. As gamification proliferates, future research should explicitly describe how rewards were operationalized in the intervention and evaluate the effects of gamified rewards on motivation across populations and research outcomes.

A Monetary Reward Alters Pacing but Not Performance in Competitive Cyclists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabrina Skorski

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Money has frequently been used as an extrinsic motivator since it is assumed that humans are willing to invest more effort for financial reward. However, the influence of a monetary reward on pacing and performance in trained athletes is not well-understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the influence of a monetary reward in well-trained cyclists on their pacing and performance during short and long cycling time trials (TT. Twentythree cyclists (6 ♀, 17 ♂ completed 4 self-paced time trials (TTs, 2 short: 4 km and 6 min; 2 long: 20 km and 30 min; in a randomized order. Participants were separated into parallel, non-randomized “rewarded” and “non-rewarded” groups. Cyclists in the rewarded group received a monetary reward based on highest mean power output across all TTs. Cyclists in the non-rewarded group did not receive a monetary reward. Overall performance was not significantly different between groups in short or long TTs (p > 0.48. Power output showed moderatly lower effect sizes at comencement of the short TTs (Pmeandiff = 36.6 W; d > 0.44 and the 20 km TT (Pmeandiff = 22.6 W; d = 0.44 in the rewarded group. No difference was observed in pacing during the 30 min TT (p = 0.95. An external reward seems to have influenced pacing at the commencement of time trials. Participants in the non-rewarded group adopted a typical parabolic shaped pattern, whereas participants in the rewarded group started trials more conservatively. Results raise the possibility that using money as an extrinsic reward may interfere with regulatory processes required for effective pacing.

Reward devaluation disrupts latent inhibition in fear conditioning.

Science.gov (United States)

De la Casa, Luís Gonzalo; Mena, Auxiliadora; Ruiz-Salas, Juán Carlos; Quintero, Esperanza; Papini, Mauricio R

2018-03-01

Three experiments explored the link between reward shifts and latent inhibition (LI). Using consummatory procedures, rewards were either downshifted from 32% to 4% sucrose (Experiments 1-2), or upshifted from 4% to 32% sucrose (Experiment 3). In both cases, appropriate unshifted controls were also included. LI was implemented in terms of fear conditioning involving a single tone-shock pairing after extensive tone-only preexposure. Nonpreexposed controls were also included. Experiment 1 demonstrated a typical LI effect (i.e., disruption of fear conditioning after preexposure to the tone) in animals previously exposed only to 4% sucrose. However, the LI effect was eliminated by preexposure to a 32%-to-4% sucrose devaluation. Experiment 2 replicated this effect when the LI protocol was administered immediately after the reward devaluation event. However, LI was restored when preexposure was administered after a 60-min retention interval. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that a reward upshift did not affect LI. These results point to a significant role of negative emotion related to reward devaluation in the enhancement of stimulus processing despite extensive nonreinforced preexposure experience.

The Effects of Rewarding User Engagement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Claussen, Jörg; Kretschmer, Tobias; Mayrhofer, Philip

2013-01-01

We study the market for apps on Facebook, the dominant social networking platform, and make use of a rule change by Facebook by which highly engaging apps were rewarded with further opportunities to engage users. The rule change led to new applications with significantly higher user ratings being...... declined less rapidly with age. Our results show that social media channels do not necessarily have to be managed through hard exclusion of participants but can also be steered through “softer” changes in reward and incentive systems.......We study the market for apps on Facebook, the dominant social networking platform, and make use of a rule change by Facebook by which highly engaging apps were rewarded with further opportunities to engage users. The rule change led to new applications with significantly higher user ratings being...

Performance-based Reward Administration Enhancing Employees’ Feelings of Interactional Justice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Azman Ismail

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The transformation in international business landscape has changed organizational management especially reward administration. This is done in order to maintain the organization’s competitiveness in global market place. In the field of reward administration, an emerging trend can be observed whereby most organizations are moving toward the application of psychological elements in administering organizational reward system. The ultimate objective of this study is to investigate the association between performance-based reward administration and interactional justice. The proposed model was empirically tested using a sample of 113 employees from fire and rescue agency in Peninsular Malaysia. This study found an evidence that performance-based reward administration (i.e., communication, participation and performance appraisal is positively and significantly associated with interactional justice. This findings proves that the ability of administrators to appropriately implement communication openness, inspire participative decision-making and organize fairness performance appraisal in administering performance-based reward have significantly evoked the feeling of interactional justice when employees perceived that they are being fairly treated in the reward system.

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).

Total rewards that retain: A study of demographic preferences

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Monica Pregnolato

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Changing workplace demographics and a dearth of employees with scarce skills have forced employers to better understand the various factors that retain talented employees. Research purpose: In this empirical study, the reward preferences and ideal combination of total reward elements (based on an estimation of their relative importance that retain employees from various demographic groups, including employees of different race, gender and age groups, were investigated. Motivation for study: Organisations are competing for talented employees and to benefit from the value these individuals add, it is required of them to stay at the respective businesses. Previous studies have indicated that employees who are offered a reward package that is aligned to their personal preferences are prone to stay longer at the organisation and to be more engaged at work. However, new and novel ways need to be found to identify the reward preferences of employees. Research design, approach and method: A quantitative approach and descriptive research design was employed to estimate the individual reward preferences and identify an ideal mix of total reward elements that retain different cohorts of employees. Three questionnaires were distributed, including a Remuneration Managers Questionnaire (n = 7, a Remuneration Preference Questionnaire (n = 368 and a Choice-based Conjoint Task Questionnaire (n = 368. The latter two questionnaires were distributed as an online questionnaire to South African businesses and consisted of eight choice-based conjoint tasks, as well as a field survey. Main findings: The results of the choice-based conjoint analysis revealed that all respondents considered financial rewards (Benefits, Performance and Recognition, Remuneration, Career, in that order as relatively speaking, the most important components in their total rewards package that would lead to their retention. For most demographic groups, the remaining three places

I endeavor to make it: effort increases valuation of subsequent monetary reward.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Qingguo; Meng, Liang; Wang, Lei; Shen, Qiang

2014-03-15

Although it is commonly accepted that the amount of effort we put into accomplishing a task would exert an influence on subsequent reward processing and outcome evaluation, whether effort is incorporated as a cost or it would increase the valuation of concomitant reward is still under debate. In this study, EEGs were recorded while subjects performed calculation tasks that required different amount of effort, correct responses of which were followed by either no reward or fixed compensation. Results showed that high effort induced larger differentiated FRN responses to the reward and non-reward discrepancy across two experimental conditions. Furthermore, P300 manifested valence effect during reward feedback, with more positive amplitudes for reward than for non-reward only in the high effort condition. These results suggest that effort might increase subjective evaluation toward subsequent reward. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

Pervasive negative effects of rewards on intrinsic motivation: The myth continues.

Science.gov (United States)

Cameron, J; Banko, K M; Pierce, W D

2001-01-01

A major concern in psychology and education is that rewards decrease intrinsic motivation to perform activities. Over the past 30 years, more than 100 experimental studies have been conducted on this topic. In 1994, Cameron and Pierce conducted a meta-analysis of this literature and concluded that negative effects of reward were limited and could be easily prevented in applied settings. A more recent meta-analysis of the literature by Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (1999) shows pervasive negative effects of reward. The purpose of the present article is to resolve differences in previous meta-analytic findings and to provide a meta-analysis of rewards and intrinsic motivation that permits tests of competing theoretical explanations. Our results suggest that in general, rewards are not harmful to motivation to perform a task. Rewards given for low-interest tasks enhance free-choice intrinsic motivation. On high-interest tasks, verbal rewards produce positive effects on free-choice motivation and self-reported task interest. Negative effects are found on high-interest tasks when the rewards are tangible, expected (offered beforehand), and loosely tied to level of performance. When rewards are linked to level of performance, measures of intrinsic motivation increase or do not differ from a nonrewarded control group. Overall, the pattern of results indicates that reward contingencies do not have pervasive negative effects on intrinsic motivation. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are addressed.

A Systematic Review of fMRI Reward Paradigms in Adolescents versus Adults: The Impact of Task Design and Implications for Understanding Neurodevelopment

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Richards, Jessica M.; Plate, Rista C.; Ernst, Monique

2013-01-01

The neural systems underlying reward-related behaviors across development have recently generated a great amount of interest. Yet, the neurodevelopmental literature on reward processing is marked by inconsistencies due to the heterogeneity of the reward paradigms used, the complexity of the behaviors being studied, and the developing brain itself as a moving target. The present review will examine task design as one source of variability across findings by compiling this literature along three dimensions: (1) task structures, (2) cognitive processes, and (3) neural systems. We start with the presentation of a heuristic neural systems model, the Triadic Model, as a way to provide a theoretical framework for the neuroscience research on motivated behaviors. We then discuss the principles guiding reward task development. Finally, we review the extant developmental neuroimaging literature on reward-related processing, organized by reward task type. We hope that this approach will help to clarify the literature on the functional neurodevelopment of reward-related neural systems, and to identify the role of the experimental parameters that significantly influence these findings. PMID:23518270

Reward and punishment enhance motor adaptation in stroke.

Science.gov (United States)

Quattrocchi, Graziella; Greenwood, Richard; Rothwell, John C; Galea, Joseph M; Bestmann, Sven

2017-09-01

The effects of motor learning, such as motor adaptation, in stroke rehabilitation are often transient, thus mandating approaches that enhance the amount of learning and retention. Previously, we showed in young individuals that reward and punishment feedback have dissociable effects on motor adaptation, with punishment improving adaptation and reward enhancing retention. If these findings were able to generalise to patients with stroke, they would provide a way to optimise motor learning in these patients. Therefore, we tested this in 45 patients with chronic stroke allocated in three groups. Patients performed reaching movements with their paretic arm with a robotic manipulandum. After training (day 1), day 2 involved adaptation to a novel force field. During the adaptation phase, patients received performance-based feedback according to the group they were allocated: reward, punishment or no feedback (neutral). On day 3, patients readapted to the force field but all groups now received neutral feedback. All patients adapted, with reward and punishment groups displaying greater adaptation and readaptation than the neutral group, irrespective of demographic, cognitive or functional differences. Remarkably, the reward and punishment groups adapted to similar degree as healthy controls. Finally, the reward group showed greater retention. This study provides, for the first time, evidence that reward and punishment can enhance motor adaptation in patients with stroke. Further research on reinforcement-based motor learning regimes is warranted to translate these promising results into clinical practice and improve motor rehabilitation outcomes in patients with stroke. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Working memory and reward association learning impairments in obesity.

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Coppin, Géraldine; Nolan-Poupart, Sarah; Jones-Gotman, Marilyn; Small, Dana M

2014-12-01

Obesity has been associated with impaired executive functions including working memory. Less explored is the influence of obesity on learning and memory. In the current study we assessed stimulus reward association learning, explicit learning and memory and working memory in healthy weight, overweight and obese individuals. Explicit learning and memory did not differ as a function of group. In contrast, working memory was significantly and similarly impaired in both overweight and obese individuals compared to the healthy weight group. In the first reward association learning task the obese, but not healthy weight or overweight participants consistently formed paradoxical preferences for a pattern associated with a negative outcome (fewer food rewards). To determine if the deficit was specific to food reward a second experiment was conducted using money. Consistent with Experiment 1, obese individuals selected the pattern associated with a negative outcome (fewer monetary rewards) more frequently than healthy weight individuals and thus failed to develop a significant preference for the most rewarded patterns as was observed in the healthy weight group. Finally, on a probabilistic learning task, obese compared to healthy weight individuals showed deficits in negative, but not positive outcome learning. Taken together, our results demonstrate deficits in working memory and stimulus reward learning in obesity and suggest that obese individuals are impaired in learning to avoid negative outcomes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neurobiological underpinnings of reward anticipation and outcome evaluation in gambling disorder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Linnet, Jakob

2014-01-01

Gambling disorder is characterized by persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior, which leads to clinically significant impairment or distress. The disorder is associated with dysfunctions in the dopamine system. The dopamine system codes reward anticipation and outcome evaluation....... Reward anticipation refers to dopaminergic activation prior to reward, while outcome evaluation refers to dopaminergic activation after reward. This article reviews evidence of dopaminergic dysfunctions in reward anticipation and outcome evaluation in gambling disorder from two vantage points: a model...... in gambling disorder are suggested....

Pathways to Structure-Property Relationships of Peptide-Materials Interfaces: Challenges in Predicting Molecular Structures.

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Tiffany R

2017-07-18

An in-depth appreciation of how to manipulate the molecular-level recognition between peptides and aqueous materials interfaces, including nanoparticles, will advance technologies based on self-organized metamaterials for photonics and plasmonics, biosensing, catalysis, energy generation and harvesting, and nanomedicine. Exploitation of the materials-selective binding of biomolecules is pivotal to success in these areas and may be particularly key to producing new hierarchically structured biobased materials. These applications could be accomplished by realizing preferential adsorption of a given biomolecule onto one materials composition over another, one surface facet over another, or one crystalline polymorph over another. Deeper knowledge of the aqueous abiotic-biotic interface, to establish clear structure-property relationships in these systems, is needed to meet this goal. In particular, a thorough structural characterization of the surface-adsorbed peptides is essential for establishing these relationships but can often be challenging to accomplish via experimental approaches alone. In addition to myriad existing challenges associated with determining the detailed molecular structure of any molecule adsorbed at an aqueous interface, experimental characterization of materials-binding peptides brings new, complex challenges because many materials-binding peptides are thought to be intrinsically disordered. This means that these peptides are not amenable to experimental techniques that rely on the presence of well-defined secondary structure in the peptide when in the adsorbed state. To address this challenge, and in partnership with experiment, molecular simulations at the atomistic level can bring complementary and critical insights into the origins of this abiotic/biotic recognition and suggest routes for manipulating this phenomenon to realize new types of hybrid materials. For the reasons outlined above, molecular simulation approaches also face

Commercial viability of CNS drugs: balancing the risk/reward profile.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Ginger S

2014-01-01

CNS has historically been a formidable therapeutic area in which to innovate owing to biological (e.g., complex neurobiology, difficulty reaching the target), as well as clinical (e.g., subjective clinical endpoints, high placebo response, lack of biomarkers) challenges. In the current market where many of the larger diseases are dominated by a generic standard of care, commercial challenges now make the triple threat of scientific-clinical-commercial risk too much for many players to tackle. However, opportunities do exist for smaller biotech companies to concentrate on narrowly focused patient populations associated with high unmet need for which risk can be tightly defined. In CNS, there are two major areas to balance the risk/reward profile and create commercially viable opportunities: To realize value, all companies (start-ups and big players) must define, measure and quantify clear and meaningful value to all stakeholders: physicians, patients, caregivers and payers. © 2013.

Reward Processing and Risk for Depression Across Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Luking, Katherine R; Pagliaccio, David; Luby, Joan L; Barch, Deanna M

2016-06-01

Striatal response to reward has been of great interest in the typical development and psychopathology literatures. These parallel lines of inquiry demonstrate that although typically developing adolescents show robust striatal response to reward, adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and those at high risk for MDD show a blunted response to reward. Understanding how these findings intersect is crucial for the development and application of early preventative interventions in at-risk children, ideally before the sharp increase in the rate of MDD onset that occurs in adolescence. Robust findings relating blunted striatal response to reward and MDD risk are reviewed and situated within a normative developmental context. We highlight the need for future studies investigating longitudinal development, specificity to MDD, and roles of potential moderators and mediators. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is the enhancement of memory due to reward driven by value or salience?

Science.gov (United States)

Madan, Christopher R; Spetch, Marcia L

2012-02-01

Past research using two levels of reward has shown that the higher-value items are remembered better than lower-value items and this enhancement is assumed to be driven by an effect of reward value. In the present study, multiple levels of reward were used to test the influence of reward salience on memory. Using a value-learning procedure, words were associated with reward values, and then memory for these words was later tested with free recall. Critically, multiple reward levels were used, allowing us to test two specific hypotheses whereby rewards can influence memory: (a) higher value items are remembered better than lower value items (reward value hypothesis), and (b) highest and lowest value items are remembered best and intermediate-value items are remembered worst (following a U-shaped relationship between value and memory; reward salience hypothesis). In two experiments we observed a U-shaped relationship between reward value and memory, supporting the notion that memory is enhanced due to reward salience, and not purely through reward value. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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

Pressure to cooperate: is positive reward interdependence really needed in cooperative learning?

Science.gov (United States)

Buchs, Céline; Gilles, Ingrid; Dutrévis, Marion; Butera, Fabrizio

2011-03-01

BACKGROUND. Despite extensive research on cooperative learning, the debate regarding whether or not its effectiveness depends on positive reward interdependence has not yet found clear evidence. AIMS. We tested the hypothesis that positive reward interdependence, as compared to reward independence, enhances cooperative learning only if learners work on a 'routine task'; if the learners work on a 'true group task', positive reward interdependence induces the same level of learning as reward independence. SAMPLE. The study involved 62 psychology students during regular workshops. METHOD. Students worked on two psychology texts in cooperative dyads for three sessions. The type of task was manipulated through resource interdependence: students worked on either identical (routine task) or complementary (true group task) information. Students expected to be assessed with a Multiple Choice Test (MCT) on the two texts. The MCT assessment type was introduced according to two reward interdependence conditions, either individual (reward independence) or common (positive reward interdependence). A follow-up individual test took place 4 weeks after the third session of dyadic work to examine individual learning. RESULTS. The predicted interaction between the two types of interdependence was significant, indicating that students learned more with positive reward interdependence than with reward independence when they worked on identical information (routine task), whereas students who worked on complementary information (group task) learned the same with or without reward interdependence. CONCLUSIONS. This experiment sheds light on the conditions under which positive reward interdependence enhances cooperative learning, and suggests that creating a real group task allows to avoid the need for positive reward interdependence. © 2010 The British Psychological Society.

Reward-dependent modulation of working memory in lateral prefrontal cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Kennerley, Steven W; Wallis, Jonathan D

2009-03-11

Although research implicates lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in executive control and goal-directed behavior, it remains unclear how goals influence executive processes. One possibility is that goal-relevant information, such as expected rewards, could modulate the representation of information relating to executive control, thereby ensuring the efficient allocation of cognitive resources. To investigate this, we examined how reward modulated spatial working memory. Past studies investigating spatial working memory have focused on dorsolateral PFC, but this area only weakly connects with areas processing reward. Ventrolateral PFC has better connections in this regard. Thus, we contrasted the functional properties of single neurons in ventrolateral and dorsolateral PFC as two subjects performed a task that required them to hold spatial information in working memory under different expectancies of reward for correct performance. We balanced the order of presentation of spatial and reward information so we could assess the neuronal encoding of the two pieces of information independently and conjointly. Neurons in ventrolateral PFC encoded both spatial and reward information earlier, stronger and in a more sustained manner than neurons in dorsolateral PFC. Within ventrolateral PFC, spatial selectivity was more prevalent on the inferior convexity than within the principal sulcus. Finally, when reward increased spatial selectivity, behavioral performance improved, whereas when reward decreased spatial selectivity, behavioral performance deteriorated. These results suggest that ventrolateral PFC may be a locus whereby information about expected rewards can modulate information in working memory. The pattern of results is consistent with a role for ventrolateral PFC in attentional control.

Cognitive Control Over Immediate Reward in Binge Alcohol Drinkers.

Science.gov (United States)

Poulton, Antoinette; Mackenzie, Caitlyn; Harrington, Kaitlyn; Borg, Sarah; Hester, Robert

2016-02-01

Cognitive control deficits, as captured by inhibitory control measures, are indicative of increased impulsivity and are considered a marker for substance use disorder vulnerability. While individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) typically exhibit inhibitory control dysfunction, evidence of impaired inhibitory control among harmful drinkers, who are at increased risk of developing an AUD, is mixed. This study examined the response inhibition of binge drinkers using a task that employed neutral, as well as both immediate and delayed reward contingencies, to determine whether reward induced heightened impulsivity in this population. Binge alcohol users (n = 42) and controls (n = 42) were administered a Monetary Incentive Control Task that required participants to successfully inhibit a prepotent motor response to both neutral and immediately rewarding stimuli in order to secure a large delayed reward. Binge drinkers had significantly worse response inhibition than controls irrespective of trial condition and even after controlling for differences in weekly intake. Although both binge and control participants exhibited significantly worse inhibitory control in the presence of immediate reward, the control group showed a greater reduction in inhibition accuracy compared to the binge group in reward relative to neutral conditions. Both groups demonstrated significantly enhanced control when forewarned there was an increased chance response inhibition would be required. Control participants secured the delayed reward more often than binge participants. Despite the variability in the literature, this study demonstrated consistent generalized impulse control deficits among binge-drinking individuals that were unrelated to reward manipulations. These findings point to mechanisms that may confer vulnerability for transition from binge drinking to AUD. Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Stress and reward

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chumbley, J R; Hulme, O; Köchli, H

2014-01-01

Healthy individuals tend to consume available rewards like food and sex. This tendency is attenuated or amplified in most stress-related psychiatric conditions, so we asked if it depends on endogenous levels of the 'canonical stress hormone' cortisol. We unobtrusively quantified how hard healthy...

Rats prefer mutual rewards in a prosocial choice task.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernandez-Lallement, Julen; van Wingerden, Marijn; Marx, Christine; Srejic, Milan; Kalenscher, Tobias

2014-01-01

Pro-sociality, i.e., the preference for outcomes that produce benefits for other individuals, is ubiquitous in humans. Recently, cross-species comparisons of social behavior have offered important new insights into the evolution of pro-sociality. Here, we present a rodent analog of the Pro-social Choice Task that controls strategic components, de-confounds other-regarding choice motives from the animals' natural tendencies to maximize own food access and directly tests the effect of social context on choice allocation. We trained pairs of rats-an actor and a partner rat-in a double T-maze task where actors decided between two alternatives only differing in the reward delivered to the partner. The "own reward" choice yielded a reward only accessible to the actor whereas the "both reward" choice produced an additional reward for a partner (partner condition) or an inanimate toy (toy Condition), located in an adjacent compartment. We found that actors chose "both reward" at levels above chance and more often in the partner than in the toy condition. Moreover, we show that this choice pattern adapts to the current social context and that the observed behavior is stable over time.

Intrinsic Motivation and Rewards: What Sustains Young Children's Engagement with Text?

Science.gov (United States)

Marinak, Barbara A.; Gambrell, Linda B.

2008-01-01

This study investigated the effects of reward proximity and choice of reward on the reading motivation of third-grade students as measured by indicators of task persistence. The major finding from this study was that students who were given a book as a reward and students who received no reward were more motivated to engage in subsequent reading…

Frontal glutamate and reward processing in adolescence and adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Gleich, Tobias; Lorenz, Robert C; Pöhland, Lydia; Raufelder, Diana; Deserno, Lorenz; Beck, Anne; Heinz, Andreas; Kühn, Simone; Gallinat, Jürgen

2015-11-01

The fronto-limbic network interaction, driven by glutamatergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission, represents a core mechanism of motivated behavior and personality traits. Reward seeking behavior undergoes tremendous changes in adolescence paralleled by neurobiological changes of this network including the prefrontal cortex, striatum and amygdala. Since fronto-limbic dysfunctions also underlie major psychiatric diseases beginning in adolescence, this investigation focuses on network characteristics separating adolescents from adults. To investigate differences in network interactions, the brain reward system activity (slot machine task) together with frontal glutamate concentration (anterior cingulate cortex, ACC) was measured in 28 adolescents and 26 adults employing functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, respectively. An inverse coupling of glutamate concentrations in the ACC and activation of the ventral striatum was observed in adolescents. Further, amygdala response in adolescents was negatively correlated with the personality trait impulsivity. For adults, no significant associations of network components or correlations with impulsivity were found. The inverse association between frontal glutamate concentration and striatal activation in adolescents is in line with the triadic model of motivated behavior stressing the important role of frontal top-down inhibition on limbic structures. Our data identified glutamate as the mediating neurotransmitter of this inhibitory process and demonstrates the relevance of glutamate on the reward system and related behavioral traits like impulsivity. This fronto-limbic coupling may represent a vulnerability factor for psychiatric disorders starting in adolescence but not in adulthood.

Autistic Traits Moderate the Impact of Reward Learning on Social Behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Panasiti, Maria Serena; Puzzo, Ignazio; Chakrabarti, Bhismadev

2016-04-01

A deficit in empathy has been suggested to underlie social behavioural atypicalities in autism. A parallel theoretical account proposes that reduced social motivation (i.e., low responsivity to social rewards) can account for the said atypicalities. Recent evidence suggests that autistic traits modulate the link between reward and proxy metrics related to empathy. Using an evaluative conditioning paradigm to associate high and low rewards with faces, a previous study has shown that individuals high in autistic traits show reduced spontaneous facial mimicry of faces associated with high vs. low reward. This observation raises the possibility that autistic traits modulate the magnitude of evaluative conditioning. To test this, we investigated (a) if autistic traits could modulate the ability to implicitly associate a reward value to a social stimulus (reward learning/conditioning, using the Implicit Association Task, IAT); (b) if the learned association could modulate participants' prosocial behaviour (i.e., social reciprocity, measured using the cyberball task); (c) if the strength of this modulation was influenced by autistic traits. In 43 neurotypical participants, we found that autistic traits moderated the relationship of social reward learning on prosocial behaviour but not reward learning itself. This evidence suggests that while autistic traits do not directly influence social reward learning, they modulate the relationship of social rewards with prosocial behaviour. © 2015 The Authors Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Autism Research.

Effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibition on neural activity related to risky decisions and monetary rewards in healthy males

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Macoveanu, Julian; Fisher, Patrick M; Haahr, Mette E

2014-01-01

the involvement of the normally functioning 5HT-system in decision-making under risk and processing of monetary rewards. The data suggest that prolonged SSRI treatment might reduce emotional engagement by reducing the impact of risk during decision-making or the impact of reward during outcome evaluation....... to placebo, the SSRI intervention did not alter individual risk-choice preferences, but modified neural activity during decision-making and reward processing: During the choice phase, SSRI reduced the neural response to increasing risk in lateral orbitofrontal cortex, a key structure for value-based decision-making...... functional MRI (fMRI) to investigate how a three-week fluoxetine intervention influences neural activity related to risk taking and reward processing. Employing a double-blinded parallel-group design, 29 healthy young males were randomly assigned to receive 3 weeks of a daily dose of 40 mg fluoxetine...

Risk, reward, and decision-making in a rodent model of cognitive aging.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilbert, Ryan J; Mitchell, Marci R; Simon, Nicholas W; Bañuelos, Cristina; Setlow, Barry; Bizon, Jennifer L

2011-01-01

Impaired decision-making in aging can directly impact factors (financial security, health care) that are critical to maintaining quality of life and independence at advanced ages. Naturalistic rodent models mimic human aging in other cognitive domains, and afford the opportunity to parse the effects of age on discrete aspects of decision-making in a manner relatively uncontaminated by experiential factors. Young adult (5-7 months) and aged (23-25 months) male F344 rats were trained on a probability discounting task in which they made discrete-trial choices between a small certain reward (one food pellet) and a large but uncertain reward (two food pellets with varying probabilities of delivery ranging from 100 to 0%). Young rats chose the large reward when it was associated with a high probability of delivery and shifted to the small but certain reward as probability of the large reward decreased. As a group, aged rats performed comparably to young, but there was significantly greater variance among aged rats. One subgroup of aged rats showed strong preference for the small certain reward. This preference was maintained under conditions in which large reward delivery was also certain, suggesting decreased sensitivity to reward magnitude. In contrast, another subgroup of aged rats showed strong preference for the large reward at low probabilities of delivery. Interestingly, this subgroup also showed elevated preference for probabilistic rewards when reward magnitudes were equalized. Previous findings using this same aged study population described strongly attenuated discounting of delayed rewards with age, together suggesting that a subgroup of aged rats may have deficits associated with accounting for reward costs (i.e., delay or probability). These deficits in cost-accounting were dissociable from the age-related differences in sensitivity to reward magnitude, suggesting that aging influences multiple, distinct mechanisms that can impact cost-benefit decision-making.

Neuropsychology of Reward Learning and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

OpenAIRE

Nestor, Paul G.; Choate, Victoria; Niznikiewicz, Margaret; Levitt, James J.; Shenton, Martha E; McCarley, Robert W.

2014-01-01

We used the Iowa Gambling Test (IGT) to examine the relationship of reward learning to both neuropsychological functioning and symptom formation in 65 individuals with schizophrenia. Results indicated that compared to controls, participants with schizophrenia showed significantly reduced reward learning, which in turn correlated with reduced intelligence, memory and executive function, and increased negative symptoms. The current findings suggested that a disease-related disturbance in reward...

Model Appreciative Learning Untuk Perancangan Reward Pada Game Pendidikan

OpenAIRE

Haryanto, Hanny; Kardianawati, Acun; Rosyidah, Umi

2017-01-01

Reward adalah elemen dari game yang sangat penting untuk membentuk pengalaman positif dan motivasi bagi pemain. Reward dalam suatu game pendidikan memegang peranan penting dalam menjaga motivasi pembelajar dan memberikan evaluasi dari apa yang dikerjakan. Namun perancangan reward seringkali masih tidak terkonsep dengan baik, acak dan bersifat subjektif. Penelitian ini menggunakan model Appreciative Learning, yang terdiri dari tahapan Discovery, Dream, Design dan Destiny, untuk mel...

Addiction and brain reward and antireward pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Gardner, Eliot L

2011-01-01

Addictive drugs have in common that they are voluntarily self-administered by laboratory animals (usually avidly), and that they enhance the functioning of the reward circuitry of the brain (producing the 'high' that the drug user seeks). The core reward circuitry consists of an 'in-series' circuit linking the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum via the medial forebrain bundle. Although originally believed to simply encode the set point of hedonic tone, these circuits are now believed to be functionally far more complex, also encoding attention, expectancy of reward, disconfirmation of reward expectancy, and incentive motivation. 'Hedonic dysregulation' within these circuits may lead to addiction. The 'second-stage' dopaminergic component in this reward circuitry is the crucial addictive-drug-sensitive component. All addictive drugs have in common that they enhance (directly or indirectly or even transsynaptically) dop-aminergic reward synaptic function in the nucleus accumbens. Drug self-administration is regulated by nucleus accumbens dopamine levels, and is done to keep nucleus accumbens dopamine within a specific elevated range (to maintain a desired hedonic level). For some classes of addictive drugs (e.g. opiates), tolerance to the euphoric effects develops with chronic use. Postuse dysphoria then comes to dominate reward circuit hedonic tone, and addicts no longer use drugs to get high, but simply to get back to normal ('get straight'). The brain circuits mediating the pleasurable effects of addictive drugs are anatomically, neurophysiologically and neurochemically different from those mediating physical dependence, and from those mediating craving and relapse. There are important genetic variations in vulnerability to drug addiction, yet environmental factors such as stress and social defeat also alter brain-reward mechanisms in such a manner as to impart vulnerability to addiction. In short, the 'bio-psycho-social' model of