How do alterations of the basal ganglia affect procedural memory in Tourette syndrome?

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by repetitive movements and vocalizations called tics, which are linked to alterations in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical (CBGTC) circuits. CBGTC circuits also play a key role in procedural memory, which is a fundamental human ability that enables us to extract repeating patterns from the environment and underlies skill-based and habitual behavior. The present review summarizes findings on procedural memory in TS, with a focus on more recent studies probing the acquisition and consolidation of procedural knowledge in TS. The review reveals mixed findings; some aspects of procedural memory seem to be impaired in TS, whereas other aspects appear intact or even enhanced. We discuss these results in relation to alterations in the CBGTC circuits in TS, suggest reasons for potential inconsistencies across studies, and propose directions for future research

Connected to TV series: Quantifying series watching engagement

Background and aims Television series watching stepped into a new golden age with the appearance of online series. Being highly involved in series could potentially lead to negative outcomes, but the distinction between highly engaged and problematic viewers should be distinguished. As no appropriate measure is available for identifying such differences, a short and valid measure was constructed in a multistudy investigation: the Series Watching Engagement Scale (SWES). Methods In Study 1 (NSample1 = 740 and NSample2 = 740), exploratory structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis were used to identify the most important facets of series watching engagement. In Study 2 (N = 944), measurement invariance of the SWES was investigated between males and females. In Study 3 (N = 1,520), latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted to identify subgroups of viewers. Results Five factors of engagement were identified in Study 1 that are of major relevance: persistence, identification, social interaction, overuse, and self-development. Study 2 supported the high levels of equivalence between males and females. In Study 3, three groups of viewers (low-, medium-, and high-engagement viewers) were identified. The highly engaged at-risk group can be differentiated from the other two along key variables of watching time and personality. Discussion The present findings support the overall validity, reliability, and usefulness of the SWES and the results of the LPA showed that it might be useful to identify at-risk viewers before the development of problematic use

Do adolescents take more risks? Not when facing a novel uncertain situation

Real-life risky behavior seems to peak in adolescence, increasing the chance of negative and even irreversible outcomes, such as road traffic accidents, in this period of life. We are still lacking conclusive evidence, however, for an inverted U-shaped developmental trajectory for risk-taking. This raises the question whether adolescents are really more risk-prone or when facing a novel risky situation, they behave just as children and adults do. To answer this question, we used the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) to assess the risky decision making of 188 individuals ranging in age from 7 to 30. The BART provided useful data for characterizing multiple aspects of risk-taking under uncertainty. Participants in all age groups were able to adapt their learning processes to the probabilistic environment and improve their performance during the sequential risky choice. Surprisingly, we found that adolescents were not more inclined to take risks than children or young adults at any stage of the task. Likewise, neither negative feedback reactivity nor overall task performance distinguished adolescents from the younger and older age groups. Our findings prompt (1) methodological considerations about the validity of the BART and (2) theoretical debate on whether experience accumulation on its own may account for age-related changes in decision making both in the lab and the real world, since risk-taking in a novel and uncertain situation was invariant across developmental stages

Adaptation to recent outcomes attenuates the lasting effect of initial experience on risky decisions

Both primarily and recently encountered information have been shown to influence experience-based risky decision making. The primacy effect predicts that initial experience will influence later choices even if outcome probabilities change and reward is ultimately more or less sparse than primarily experienced. However, it has not been investigated whether extended initial experience would induce a more profound primacy effect upon risky choices than brief experience. Therefore, the present study tested in two experiments whether young adults adjusted their risk-taking behavior in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task after an unsignaled and unexpected change point. The change point separated early "good luck" or "bad luck" trials from subsequent ones. While mostly positive (more reward) or mostly negative (no reward) events characterized the early trials, subsequent trials were unbiased. In Experiment 1, the change point occurred after one-sixth or one-third of the trials (brief vs. extended experience) without intermittence, whereas in Experiment 2, it occurred between separate task phases. In Experiment 1, if negative events characterized the early trials, after the change point, risk-taking behavior increased as compared with the early trials. Conversely, if positive events characterized the early trials, risk-taking behavior decreased after the change point. Although the adjustment of risk-taking behavior occurred due to integrating recent experiences, the impact of initial experience was simultaneously observed. The length of initial experience did not reliably influence the adjustment of behavior. In Experiment 2, participants became more prone to take risks as the task progressed, indicating that the impact of initial experience could be overcome. Altogether, we suggest that initial beliefs about outcome probabilities can be updated by recent experiences to adapt to the continuously changing decision environment

How does hyperfunctioning of basal ganglia affect procedural learning and consolidation in Tourette syndrome?

Tourette syndrome is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by repetitive movements and vocalizations and by alterations in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuits. The behavioral and neurobiological profile of Tourette syndrome points towards the high relevance of procedural memory in the disorder. Procedural memory makes us able to extract different kinds of regularities, such as probabilistic or deterministic information from the environment and is related to skills and habits. The present short review aims to summarize the findings on the acquisition of different regularities as well as their consolidation in Tourette syndrome. Altogether, regarding the acquisition of probabilistic and deterministic regularities, previous results show a mixed picture with mostly intact or enhanced performance in Tourette syndrome. Studies on the consolidation of such regularities are scarce, but empirical evidence suggests intact consolidation so far. Potential implications and future directions are also discussed

Regularity detection under stress: Faster extraction of probability-based regularities

Acute stress can crucially influence learning and memory processes. One of the key processes underlying human learning and memory is the ability of our brain to rapidly detect and extract regularities from sensory input across time and space leading to effective predictive processing. Here, we aimed to get an in-depth look into the effect of stress on the acquisition of two aspects of regularity extraction. We examined whether and how stress affects the learning (1) of probability-based regularities and (2) of serial order-based regularities in the same experimental design, and (3) the explicit access to the acquired information. Considering that the acquisition of probability-based regularities is a relatively rapid process, we primarily focused on the early phase of the task. We induced stress with the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test in 27 young adults, while 26 participants were enrolled in the control group. Salivary cortisol levels and subjective ratings of affective states showed successful stress induction. After the stress induction, we measured regularity extraction with the cued Alternating Serial Reaction Time task. We found that stress promoted the extraction of probability-based regularities measured by the learning performance in the early phase of the task and did not alter the learning of serial order-based regularities. Post-block reports showed weaker explicit access to the serial order-based regularities in the stress group. Our results can contribute to a process-level understanding on how stress alters learning and memory functions related to predictive processes

Deterministic and probabilistic regularities underlying risky choices are acquired in a changing decision context

Predictions supporting risky decisions could become unreliable when outcome probabilities temporarily change, making adaptation more challenging. Therefore, this study investigated whether sensitivity to the temporal structure in outcome probabilities can develop and remain persistent in a changing decision environment. In a variant of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task with 90 balloons, outcomes (rewards or balloon bursts) were predictable in the task’s first and final 30 balloons and unpredictable in the middle 30 balloons. The temporal regularity underlying the predictable outcomes differed across three experimental conditions. In the deterministic condition, a repeating three-element sequence dictated the maximum number of pumps before a balloon burst. In the probabilistic condition, a single probabilistic regularity ensured that burst probability increased as a function of pumps. In the hybrid condition, a repeating sequence of three different probabilistic regularities increased burst probabilities. In every condition, the regularity was absent in the middle 30 balloons. Participants were not informed about the presence or absence of the regularity. Sensitivity to both the deterministic and hybrid regularities emerged and influenced risk taking. Unpredictable outcomes of the middle phase did not deteriorate this sensitivity. In conclusion, humans can adapt their risky choices in a changing decision environment by exploiting the statistical structure that controls how the environment changes