Activity in human reward-sensitive brain areas is strongly context dependent

Functional neuroimaging research in humans has identified a number of brain areas that are activated by the delivery of primary and secondary reinforcers. The present study investigated how activity in these reward-sensitive regions is modulated by the context in which rewards and punishments are experienced. Fourteen healthy volunteers were scanned during the performance of a simple monetary gambling task that involved a "win" condition (in which the possible outcomes were a large monetary gain, a small gain, or no gain of money) and a "lose" condition (in which the possible outcomes were a large monetary loss, a small loss, or no loss of money). We observed reward-sensitive activity in a number of brain areas previously implicated in reward processing, including the striatum, prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and inferior parietal lobule. Critically, activity in these reward-sensitive areas was highly sensitive to the range of possible outcomes from which an outcome was selected. In particular, these regions were activated to a comparable degree by the best outcomes in each condition-a large gain in the win condition and no loss of money in the lose condition-despite the large difference in the objective value of these outcomes. In addition, some reward-sensitive brain areas showed a binary instead of graded sensitivity to the magnitude of the outcomes from each distribution. These results provide important evidence regarding the way in which the brain scales the motivational value of events by the context in which these events occur

Damage to insula abolishes cognitive distortions during simulated gambling.

This is the accepted version of an article originally published in PNAS. The version of record is available at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/04/02/1322295111.Gambling is a naturalistic example of risky decision-making. During gambling, players typically display an array of cognitive biases that create a distorted expectancy of winning. This study investigated brain regions underpinning gambling-related cognitive distortions, contrasting patients with focal brain lesions to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), insula, or amygdala ("target patients") against healthy comparison participants and lesion comparison patients (i.e., with lesions that spare the target regions). A slot machine task was used to deliver near-miss outcomes (i.e., nonwins that fall spatially close to a jackpot), and a roulette game was used to examine the gambler's fallacy (color decisions following outcome runs). Comparison groups displayed a heightened motivation to play following near misses (compared with full misses), and manifested a classic gambler's fallacy effect. Both effects were also observed in patients with vmPFC and amygdala damage, but were absent in patients with insula damage. Our findings indicate that the distorted cognitive processing of near-miss outcomes and event sequences may be ordinarily supported by the recruitment of the insula. Interventions to reduce insula reactivity could show promise in the treatment of disordered gambling.LC was supported by a grant from the Medical Research Council (UK) (G1100554). BS was supported by a PhD studentship from the Medical Research Council. AB and DT, as well as the lesion patient research, were supported by grants from the National Institute of Health, namely the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [P01 NS19632], and by the National Institute on Drug Abuse [R01 DA023051, R01 DA022549]

The role of simulation in intertemporal choices

One route to understanding the thoughts and feelings of others is by mentally putting one's self in their shoes and seeing the world from their perspective, i.e., by simulation. Simulation is potentially used not only for inferring how others feel, but also for predicting how we ourselves will feel in the future. For instance, one might judge the worth of a future reward by simulating how much it will eventually be enjoyed. In intertemporal choices between smaller immediate and larger delayed rewards, it is observed that as the length of delay increases, delayed rewards lose subjective value; a phenomenon known as temporal discounting. In this article, we develop a theoretical framework for the proposition that simulation mechanisms involved in empathizing with others also underlie intertemporal choices. This framework yields a testable psychological account of temporal discounting based on simulation. Such an account, if experimentally validated, could have important implications for how simulation mechanisms are investigated, and makes predictions about special populations characterized by putative deficits in simulating others

Atypical empathic responses in adolescents with aggressive conduct disorder: A functional MRI investigation

Abstract Because youth with aggressive conduct disorder (CD) often inflict pain on others, it is important to determine if they exhibit atypical empathic responses to viewing others in pain. In this initial functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 8 adolescents with aggressive CD and 8 matched controls were scanned while watching animated visual stimuli depicting other people experiencing pain or not experiencing pain. Furthermore, these situations involved either an individual whose pain was caused by accident or an individual whose pain was inflicted on purpose by another person. After scanning, participants rated how painful the situations were. In both groups the perception of others in pain was associated with activation of the pain matrix, including the ACC, insula, somatosensory cortex, supplementary motor area and periaqueductal gray. The pain matrix was activated to a significantly greater extent in participants with CD, who also showed strong amygdala, ventral striatum, and temporal pole activation. When watching situations in which pain was intentionally inflicted, control youth also exhibited signal increase in the medial prefrontal frontal cortex, lateral obitofrontal cortex, and temporoparietal junction, whereas youth with CD only exhibited activation in the insula. Furthermore, connectivity analyses demonstrated that youth with CD exhibited less amygdala/prefrontal coupling when watching pain inflicted by another than did control youth. These preliminary findings suggest that youth with aggressive CD exhibit an atypical pattern of neural response to viewing others in pain that should be explored in further studies

Brain Training Game Improves Executive Functions and Processing Speed in the Elderly: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The beneficial effects of brain training games are expected to transfer to other cognitive functions, but these beneficial effects are poorly understood. Here we investigate the impact of the brain training game (Brain Age) on cognitive functions in the elderly.Thirty-two elderly volunteers were recruited through an advertisement in the local newspaper and randomly assigned to either of two game groups (Brain Age, Tetris). This study was completed by 14 of the 16 members in the Brain Age group and 14 of the 16 members in the Tetris group. To maximize the benefit of the interventions, all participants were non-gamers who reported playing less than one hour of video games per week over the past 2 years. Participants in both the Brain Age and the Tetris groups played their game for about 15 minutes per day, at least 5 days per week, for 4 weeks. Each group played for a total of about 20 days. Measures of the cognitive functions were conducted before and after training. Measures of the cognitive functions fell into four categories (global cognitive status, executive functions, attention, and processing speed). Results showed that the effects of the brain training game were transferred to executive functions and to processing speed. However, the brain training game showed no transfer effect on any global cognitive status nor attention.Our results showed that playing Brain Age for 4 weeks could lead to improve cognitive functions (executive functions and processing speed) in the elderly. This result indicated that there is a possibility which the elderly could improve executive functions and processing speed in short term training. The results need replication in large samples. Long-term effects and relevance for every-day functioning remain uncertain as yet.UMIN Clinical Trial Registry 000002825

Anterior insular cortex and emotional awareness.

This paper reviews the foundation for a role of the human anterior insular cortex (AIC) in emotional awareness, defined as the conscious experience of emotions. We first introduce the neuroanatomical features of AIC and existing findings on emotional awareness. Using empathy, the awareness and understanding of other people's emotional states, as a test case, we then present evidence to demonstrate: 1) AIC and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are commonly coactivated as revealed by a meta-analysis; 2) AIC is functionally dissociable from ACC; 3) AIC integrates stimulus-driven and top-down information; and 4) AIC is necessary for emotional awareness. We propose a model in which AIC serves two major functions: integrating bottom-up interoceptive signals with top-down predictions to generate a current awareness state; and providing descending predictions to visceral systems that provide a point of reference for autonomic reflexes. We argue that AIC is critical and necessary for, emotional awareness. J. Comp. Neurol., 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Activity in the primary somatosensory cortex induced by reflexological stimulation is unaffected by pseudo-information: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

BACKGROUND: Reflexology is an alternative medical practice that produces beneficial effects by applying pressure to specific reflex areas. Our previous study suggested that reflexological stimulation induced cortical activation in somatosensory cortex corresponding to the stimulated reflex area; however, we could not rule out the possibility of a placebo effect resulting from instructions given during the experimental task. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how reflexological stimulation of the reflex area is processed in the primary somatosensory cortex when correct and pseudo-information about the reflex area is provided. Furthermore, the laterality of activation to the reflexological stimulation was investigated. METHODS: Thirty-two healthy Japanese volunteers participated. The experiment followed a double-blind design. Half of the subjects received correct information, that the base of the second toe was the eye reflex area, and pseudo-information, that the base of the third toe was the shoulder reflex area. The other half of the subjects received the opposite information. fMRI time series data were acquired during reflexological stimulation to both feet. The experimenter stimulated each reflex area in accordance with an auditory cue. The fMRI data were analyzed using a conventional two-stage approach. The hemodynamic responses produced by the stimulation of each reflex area were assessed using a general linear model on an intra-subject basis, and a two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was performed on an intersubject basis to determine the effect of reflex area laterality and information accuracy. RESULTS: Our results indicated that stimulation of the eye reflex area in either foot induced activity in the left middle postcentral gyrus, the area to which tactile sensation to the face projects, as well as in the postcentral gyrus contralateral foot representation area. This activity was not affected by pseudo information. The results also indicate that the relationship between the reflex area and the projection to the primary somatosensory cortex has a lateral pattern that differs from that of the actual somatotopical representation of the body. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that a robust relationship exists between neural processing of somatosensory percepts for reflexological stimulation and the tactile sensation of a specific reflex area

平野五岳の磐井・石人観

はじめに / 一 平野五岳の磐井・石人の漢詩 / 二 江戸時代の磐井観 / 三 平野五岳と日田の石人 / おわり

Processing of Anomalous Sentences in Japanese: An fMRI Study

Most previous ncuroimaging studies of anomalous sentence processing have used Indo-Huropean languages to separately identify syntactic and semantic processing mechanisms. However, typologically distant languages such as Japanese use different sources of information in grammatical role assignments. Thus, we expected that the activation pattern during processing of anomalous sentences in Japanese would be at least partially different from that in other languages reported in previous studies. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure activation during judgments of the correctness of normal and anomalous sentences in native Japanese speakers. We presented simple Japanese sentences as auditory stimuli. Significant activation was found in the left middle and inferior frontal regions (pars orbitaris and pars triangularis) and the superior parietal lobule during processing of sentences with semantic violations. On the other hand, no preferential activation was found, except for the left anterior part of the superior temporal gyrus, during the processing of sentences with syntactic violations. Additionally, activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, which has been reported in previous studies using Indo-European languages, was not found in our study. The results support our assumption that the left inferior frontal gyrus plays a minor role in syntactic processing of simple Japanese sentences