Frontal Cortex and Reward-Guided Learning and Decision-Making

Abstract

During decision making, individuals are prone to rely on external cues such as expert advice when the outcome is not known. However, the electrophysiological correlates associated with outcome uncertainty and the use of expert advice are not completely understood. The feedback-related negativity (FRN), P3a, and P3b are event-related brain potentials (ERPs) linked to dissociable stages of feedback and attentional processing during decision making. Even though these ERPs are influenced by both reward-and punishment-related feedback, it remains unclear how extrinsic information during uncertainty modulates these brain potentials. In this study, the effects of advice cues on decision making were investigated in two separate experiments. In the first experiment, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in healthy volunteers during a decision-making task in which the participants received reward or punishment feedback preceded by novice, amateur, or expert advice. The results showed that the P3a component was significantly influenced by the subjective predictive value of an advice cue, whereas the FRN and P3b were unaffected by the advice cues. In the second, sham-controlled experiment, cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) was administered in conjunction with EEG in order to explore the direct contributions of the frontal cortex to these brain potentials. Results showed no significant change in either advice-following behavior or decision times. However, ctDCS did decrease FRN amplitudes as compared to sham, with no effect on the P3a or P3b. Together, these findings suggest that advice information may act primarily on attention allocation during feedback processing, whereas the electrophysiological correlates of the detection and updating of internal prediction models are not affected.

A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of reward-related brain activation: Effects of age, pubertal stage, and reward sensitivity

“…That is, participants who generally played more often showed, as expected, increased activation in VS, but also increased activation in medial PFC after rewards compared to losses. Previous studies demonstrated that activation in medial PFC regions during decision-making was related to increased risk-taking tendencies (Van Leijenhorst, Gunther Moor, et al, 2010;Xue et al, 2009;but see Eshel, Nelson, Blair, Pine, & Ernst, 2007), which is consistent with its role in reward-related action tendencies (Rushworth et al, 2011;Rushworth et al, 2012). The current study extends previous findings by showing that medial PFC activation during outcome processing was positively related to the tendency to choose a risky option in a cross-sectional sample.…”

“…We, however, did not observe brain activation in a more ventral region of the medial PFC or the adjacent orbital frontal cortex. Given that these regions have been related to the representation and the comparison of value during risky choice (Kuhnen & Knutson, 2005;Rushworth et al, 2011), it may be that these regions are more readily activated in response to choice than outcome processing.…”

“…More specifically, ventral striatum (VS) has been implicated in anticipating and processing different types of rewards, as well as in producing learning signals known as prediction errors (Cohen et al, 2010;Delgado, 2007;Galvan et al, 2005;Knutson, Fong, Adams, Varner, & Hommer, 2001). Similarly, medial PFC -specifically the part that overlaps with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) -is also related to prediction-error coding (Van den Bos, Cohen, Kahnt, & Crone, 2012), but also to action-related reward associations (Kennerley & Walton, 2011;Rushworth, Noonan, Boorman, Walton, & Behrens, 2011), and detecting the need for increased control (Ridderinkhof, Ullsperger, Crone, & Nieuwenhuis, 2004). In contrast, a more ventral region of the medial prefrontal cortex, adjacent to medial orbital frontal cortex, has been implicated in coding rewards and is linked to representations of 'value' (Kuhnen & Knutson, 2005;McKell Carter, Meyer, & Huettel, 2010).…”

Social comparison in the brain: A coordinate‐based meta‐analysis of functional brain imaging studies on the downward and upward comparisons

“…Our meta-analysis first identified a consistent involvement of the VS and vmPFC in downward comparison. Based on the role of these regions in reward processing [Carlson et al, 2011;Cromwell et al, 2005;McClure et al, 2004;Rushworth et al, 2011;Sescousse et al, 2015], our findings dovetail with the notion that downward comparison is experienced as rewarding [Bault et al, 2011;Dvash et al, 2010;Fliessbach et al, 2007]. Prior studies have shown the involvement of the VS in the processing of other types of social rewards, including good reputation [Izuma et al, 2008;Meshi et al, 2013] and social approval [Izuma et al, 2010].…”

Reward circuitry dysfunction in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic syndromes: animal models and clinical findings

“…Although the terms ‘reinforcement,’ and ‘reward’ are often used interchangeably, these terms have discrete behavioral definitions, and describe largely distinct neurobiological processes. Indeed, there are multiple constructs mediated by the mesolimbic system, and at least four such systems have been described in depth in numerous seminal reviews [39-43]: 1) reward motivation, also termed anticipation (typically subsuming what is colloquially described as ‘wanting,’) refers to processes that facilitate anticipation of reward and approach behaviors towards biologically relevant goals, including reward valuation, willingness to expend effort to obtain rewards, reward prediction, and reward-based decision-making [44]; 2) reward outcome (or the hedonic responses widely referred to as ‘liking’ or ‘pleasure’) includes both consummatory behaviors during reward obtainment and the processes associated with regulation of such behaviors [45]; 3) reward learning includes reward processes that shape the experience-dependent learning that guides future behaviors [46]; and 4) reward-related habitual behavior reflects those processes that are initiated based on reward feedback, but that persist even in the absence of such feedback [47,48]. …”