Conflicted between Goal-Directed and Habitual Control, an fMRI Investigation

Abstract

Abstract“Slips of action” occur in everyday life when we momentarily lose sight of a goal (for example, when in a rush or distracted). Associative models propose that these habitual responses can be activated via a direct stimulus-response (S-R) mechanism, regardless of the current hedonic value of the outcome. The slips-of-action task (SOAT) has been extensively used in both healthy and pathological populations to measure habit tendencies, the likelihood of making erroneous responses for devalued outcomes. Inspection of behavioral performance does not reveal, however, whether the impairments were due to impaired goal-directed control or aberrantly strong habit formation. In the current study, we used functional MRI while human participants performed both the instrumental training and SOAT test phases, to elucidate the relative contributions of these mechanisms to performance on the SOAT. On trials in which conflict arises between competing goal-directed and habitual responses, we observed increased activation across areas including the anterior cingulate cortex, paracingulate gyrus, lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), insula, and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Responding for devalued outcomes was related to increased activation in the premotor cortex and cerebellum, implicating these regions in habitual responding. Increased activation in the caudate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and frontal pole during training was associated with better performance during the test phase, indicative of goal-directed action control. These results endorse interpretation of the SOAT in terms of competing goal-directed and habitual mechanisms and highlight that cognitive control processes present an additional bottleneck for successful performance on this task.

Dopaminergic modulation of stress-induced alterations in goal-directed behaviour and associated brain activation

“…Moreover, stress changes the functional connectivity between areas involved in goal-directed behavior, i.e., vmPFC-ventral striatum and vmPFC-amygdala increased while vmPFC-dlPFC decreased (Maier, Makwana, & Hare, 2015). In line with previous studies (Watson et al, 2018), the OFC and ACC were also activated more during devalued rewards in the control placebo group. Reversing the required response for devalued outcomes increased the demand of S-R-O information processing compared with well-trained S-R-O associations that had to be utilised when responding for valuable outcomes.…”

“…We focused the imaging data on regions associated with goal-directed behaviour as shown by previous studies (de Wit, Watson, et al, 2012;Tricomi, Balleine, & O'Doherty, 2009;Valentin, Dickinson, & O'Doherty, 2007;Watson, van Wingen, & de Wit, 2018), i.e. orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), anterior cingulate (ACC), paracingulate, putamen, caudate, operculum and insula.…”

Transcranial direct current stimulation in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder: A randomized controlled trial

“…These connections might be extremely relevant in the cerebellar setting where sensorimotor, cognition and emotion share the same type of processing (Universal Cerebellar transform theory [44]). Therefore, the cerebellum and its connection with the basal ganglia and cortical area may implement habitual, nonflexible patterns of movement (rituals), cognitions and emotions (obsessions) [45]. The cerebellum and its connection with basal ganglia loops are involved in setting habits [45] and could, in this way, contribute to the imbalance between goal-directed actions and habits in OCD [46].…”

“…Therefore, the cerebellum and its connection with the basal ganglia and cortical area may implement habitual, nonflexible patterns of movement (rituals), cognitions and emotions (obsessions) [45]. The cerebellum and its connection with basal ganglia loops are involved in setting habits [45] and could, in this way, contribute to the imbalance between goal-directed actions and habits in OCD [46]. Volume alteration has not been reported in children with OCD [9], suggesting that cerebellum enlargement could be an adaptive process of OCD tendencies to over-rely on habitual rigid automatic stimulus-driven behaviors and cognitions.…”

The effect of distress on the balance between goal-directed and habit networks in obsessive-compulsive disorder

“…Both rodent and human studies have pointed towards the involvement of the posterior putamen and the caudate nucleus in the habit and goal-directed network, respectively [6][7][8][9][10] . Both structures are part of the corticostriatal circuitry, the dysfunction of which is seen as the neuroanatomical basis of OCD 11,12 .…”