Activation of the human brain by monetary reward

Abstract

With the purpose of studying neural activation associated with reward processing in humans, we measured regional cerebral blood flow in 10 right-handed healthy subjects performing a delayed go-no go task in two different reinforcement conditions. Correct responses were either rewarded by money or a simple "ok' reinforcer. Behaviour rewarded by money, as compared with the "ok' reinforcement, was most significantly associated with activation of dorsolateral and orbital frontal cortex and also involved the midbrain and thalamus. These results may reflect the processing of reward information, although arousal effects cannot be completely excluded. It is suggested that the observed foci are implicated in the assessment of consequences in goal-directed behaviour which agrees with research in non-human primates.

Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging of reward-related brain circuitry in children and adolescents

“…Delgado et al (Delgado et al 2000) also found a similar pattern of lateralization in adults, with stronger effects present in the left hemisphere of bilateral ROIs. Other imaging studies that use money as the rewarding stimuli show this pattern as well (Koepp et al 1998;Thut et al 1997). While we do not have a clear interpretation for this pattern, some research suggests that positive emotions are processed to a higher degree in the left rather than right hemisphere (Davidson and Irwin 1999) and reduced metabolic levels have been observed in the left hemisphere in participants with mood disorders (Drevets et al 1998).…”

“…Identification of specific elements of the reward system has become well established through electrophysiological studies in non-human primates, which have observed single-cell firing rates modulated by reward within the basal ganglia, ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, orbital-frontal and prefrontal cortex ( Knutson et al 2000;Thut et al 1997); abstract rewards such as video-game performance (Koepp et al 1998); simple feedback signals (Elliott et al 1997;Elliott et al 1998); and even faces (Aharon et al 2001). Many of these regions have also been linked to clinical pathologies related to gambling, depression, and substance abuse (Bechara et al 1994;Drevets 2000;Lafer et al 1997;Leshner and Koob 1999).…”

The effect of graded monetary reward on cognitive event-related potentials and behavior in young healthy adults

“…Stimuli presented during a brief training session were the same as those presented during the experimental conditions. Two distinct abstract (fractal) images ("Image 1" and "Image 2"; adapted from (Thut, et al, 1997)) served as the "Go" and "No-go" warning stimuli (S1) (Figure 1, bottom). The designation of the images as "Go" or "No-go" was counterbalanced across subjects such that the first eight subjects received Image 1 as the "Go" stimulus and the other eight subjects received Image 2 as the "Go" stimulus.…”

Subjective sensitivity to monetary gradients is associated with frontolimbic activation to reward in cocaine abusers

“…Following training, subjects either responded (pressed a button using their dominant hand) or refrained from responding during a trigger (a red square was the target stimulus), depending on one of two preceding instruction stimuli (adapted from Thut et al, 1997) (Fig. 1).…”