Prefrontal Neural Activity When Feedback Is Not Relevant to Adjust Performance

It has been shown that the rostral cingulate zone (RCZ) in humans uses both positive and negative feedback to evaluate performance and to flexibly adjust behaviour. Less is known on how the feedback types are processed by the RCZ and other prefrontal brain areas, when feedback can only be used to evaluate performance, but cannot be used to adjust behaviour. The present fMRI study aimed at investigating feedback that can only be used to evaluate performance in a word-learning paradigm. One group of volunteers (N = 17) received informative, performance-dependent positive or negative feedback after each trial. Since new words had to be learnt in each trial, the feedback could not be used for task-specific adaptations. The other group (N = 17) always received non-informative feedback, providing neither information about performance nor about possible task-specific adaptations. Effects of the informational value of feedback were assessed between-subjects, comparing trials with positive and negative informative feedback to non-informative feedback. Effects of feedback valence were assessed by comparing neural activity to positive and negative feedback within the informative-feedback group. Our results show that several prefrontal regions, including the pre-SMA, the inferior frontal cortex and the insula were sensitive to both, the informational value and the valence aspect of the feedback with stronger activations to informative as compared to non-informative feedback and to informative negative compared to informative positive feedback. The only exception was RCZ which was sensitive to the informational value of the feedback, but not to feedback valence. The findings indicate that outcome information per se is sufficient to activate prefrontal brain regions, with the RCZ being the only prefrontal brain region which is equally sensitive to positive and negative feedback

Neural Correlates of the Outcome Processing of Dishonest Choices: An fMRI and ERP study

A dishonest person often utilizes another person’s obliviousness to appropriate the property that belongs to the other person. Previous researchers have studied the making of a dishonest choice and the manipulation of truthful information. Here, we have investigated the neural correlates of processing the outcomes of dishonest decisions. Participants in this study were asked to interact with counterparts in an economic game. They could accept the counterparts’ proposals on how to divide the profits (honest choice) or choose the alternative plan that was advantageous to themselves (dishonest choice), playing to the ignorance of their counterparts who had a 50% chance of detecting the situation. Successful dishonest choices (not being detected) would bring large rewards, whereas honest choices would lead to less of a reward, and failed dishonest choices (being caught) would result in no reward. Participants’ neural responses during the outcome presentations were recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) methods in different sessions. We found that the outcomes of successful dishonest (vs. honest) choices elicited stronger activations in the ventral striatum and posterior cingulate cortex and a smaller ERP component called feedback-related negativity (FRN), which suggests that positive outcome evaluation and attention processing were aroused by successful dishonest choices. Moreover, the outcomes of failed dishonest (relative to honest) choices were associated with different neural response patterns in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and P3b ERP component between human and computer counterparts, suggesting that processing the output of social decision making (playing human) is different from that of risk taking (playing computer). The findings advanced our understanding about the neural processing of outcome presentation after a dishonest choice has been made.published_or_final_versio

Interactions Between the Basolateral Amygdala and Ventral Striatum During Probabilistic Learning in Children and Associations with Individual Differences in Free Cortisol

Stress can drastically alter the behavioural and functional correlates of feedback learning; however, the functional correlates of these effects are poorly understood, particularly in children. In the present study, typically developing children between the ages of 9- and 11-years-old completed a probabilistic learning task with both appetitive and aversive outcomes in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Anticipatory stress to the experimental environment was measured via salivary cortisol at baseline and prior to completion of the task. Although baseline and pre-MRI cortisol values were not reliably different at the group level, subsequent analyses revealed that the basolateral amygdala was less responsive to positive feedback in children with higher pre-MRI cortisol levels. Furthermore, individual differences in feedback-related basolateral amygdala activity were positively associated with differences in striatal activity. Thus, the basolateral amygdala may be particularly sensitive to individual differences in active cortisol levels, and may also modulate striatal feedback sensitivity

Neural representation of social, monetary and chocolate reinforcer processing

Little attention has been paid to social reinforcer processing compared with food and monetary reinforcers, in the reward-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature. This is surprising as social reinforcers pervade our daily lives and are often experienced more frequently than food or monetary reinforcers. The question of whether social reinforcers are processed in the same or different brain regions as other reinforcer types remains poorly understood. In this thesis, three fMRI studies were employed to investigate this question, in healthy individuals. The experimental paradigms focused on two main aspects of reward processing: neural patterns of activation associated with different reward types and valance, and also correlations between neural activation to rewards and participants’ hedonic level. The studies reported in this thesis revealed that amygdala and a subregion of the OFC responded more sensitively to social reinforcers than monetary, or food reinforcers, indicating social reinforcers modulate the affective response more strongly in the brain reward network. The results also provide evidence for a medial-lateral functional dissociation in the OFC to rewards and punishment, so that medial OFC responded more strongly to rewards and lateral OFC to punishments. Moreover, fMRI study-1 revealed a crossover interaction between reinforcement valence and reward type in the lateral OFC, indicating this region may be involved in the functional integration of both reward type and valence. This is consistent with the theory of a common neural currency, for valuing different rewards in the OFC. As activation in the reward network may also be attributed to the hedonic experience of gaining rewards, fMRI study-2 and study-3 also explored the relationship between BOLD activity in response to rewards and participants’ hedonic scores. These two studies demonstrated highly significant correlations between BOLD activity in the OFC (positive correlation) and insula (negative correlation) and self-reported levels of hedonic response. The findings of the correlations between reward and hedonic level could have important implications for understanding how human hedonic levels affect responses to various reinforcements

Why we interact : on the functional role of the striatum in the subjective experience of social interaction

Acknowledgments We thank Neil Macrae and Axel Cleeremans for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Furthermore, we are grateful to Dorothé Krug and Barbara Elghahwagi for their assistance in data acquisition. This study was supported by a grant of the Köln Fortune Program of the Medical Faculty at the University of Cologne to L.S. and by a grant “Other Minds” of the German Ministry of Research and Education to K.V.Peer reviewedPreprin

The influence of time and money on product evaluations: A neurophysiological analysis

"Time is money" is how a common saying goes, reflecting a widespread assumption in many people\u27s everyday life. It seems that money and time are very similar concepts which might even be exchangeable all together. However, the neurophysiological processes underlying the activation of time or money are not yet completely understood. In order to understand in how far and in which dimensions the concept of time versus the concept of money effects human behavior we enquired the neural differences of the time versus money effect. This paper broadens the understanding of both concepts and investigates the posited distinct mindsets of time and money using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. A sample of 44 righthanded adults has been analyzed. Our data supports the idea of the existence of two distinct mindsets for time and money. However, contrasting both conditions in one general linear model only a few significant differences have been found. The insula seems to be a crucial locus for the neural difference of both mindsets. Higher insula activation in the time condition suggests stronger urge for the product primed with time

Mapping social reward and punishment processing in the human brain:A voxel-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging findings using the social incentive delay task

Social rewards or punishments motivate human learning and behaviour, and alterations in the brain circuits involved in the processing of these stimuli have been linked with several neuropsychiatric disorders. However, questions still remain about the exact neural substrates implicated in social reward and punishment processing. Here, we conducted four Anisotropic Effect Size Signed Differential Mapping voxel-based meta-analyses of fMRI studies investigating the neural correlates of the anticipation and receipt of social rewards and punishments using the Social Incentive Delay task. We found that the anticipation of both social rewards and social punishment avoidance recruits a wide network of areas including the basal ganglia, the midbrain, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the supplementary motor area, the anterior insula, the occipital gyrus and other frontal, temporal, parietal and cerebellar regions not captured in previous coordinate-based meta-analysis. We identified decreases in the BOLD signal during the anticipation of both social reward and punishment avoidance in regions of the default-mode network that were missed in individual studies likely due to a lack of power. Receipt of social rewards engaged a robust network of brain regions including the ventromedial frontal and orbitofrontal cortices, the anterior cingulate cortex, the amygdala, the hippocampus, the occipital cortex and the brainstem, but not the basal ganglia. Receipt of social punishments increased the BOLD signal in the orbitofrontal cortex, superior and inferior frontal gyri, lateral occipital cortex and the insula. In contrast to the receipt of social rewards, we also observed a decrease in the BOLD signal in the basal ganglia in response to the receipt of social punishments. Our results provide a better understanding of the brain circuitry involved in the processing of social rewards and punishment. Furthermore, they can inform hypotheses regarding brain areas where disruption in activity may be associated with dysfunctional social incentive processing during diseas

The Valuation System: A Coordinate-Based Meta-Analysis of BOLD fMRI Experiments Examining Neural Correlates of Subjective Value

Numerous experiments have recently sought to identify neural signals associated with the subjective value (SV) of choice alternatives. Theoretically, SV assessment is an intermediate computational step during decision making, in which alternatives are placed on a common scale to facilitate value-maximizing choice. Here we present a quantitative, coordinate-based meta-analysis of 206 published fMRI studies investigating neural correlates of SV. Our results identify two general patterns of SV-correlated brain responses. In one set of regions, both positive and negative effects of SV on BOLD are reported at above-chance rates across the literature. Areas exhibiting this pattern include anterior insula, dorsomedialprefrontal cortex, dorsal and posterior striatum, and thalamus. The mixture of positive and negative effects potentially reflects an underlying U-shaped function, indicative of signal related to arousal or salience. In a second set of areas, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex and anterior ventral striatum, positive effects predominate. Positive effects in the latter regions are seen both when a decision is confronted and when an outcome is delivered, as well as for both monetary and primary rewards. These regions appear to constitute a “valuation system,” carrying a domain-general SV signal and potentially contributing to value-based decision making