Meta-analytic clustering dissociates brain activity and behavior profiles across reward processing paradigms

Abstract

Reward learning is a ubiquitous cognitive mechanism guiding adaptive choices and behaviors, and when impaired, can lead to considerable mental health consequences. Reward-related functional neuroimaging studies have begun to implicate networks of brain regions essential for processing various peripheral influences (e.g., risk, subjective preference, delay, social context) involved in the multifaceted reward processing construct. To provide a more complete neurocognitive perspective on reward processing that synthesizes findings across the literature while also appreciating these peripheral influences, we utilized emerging meta-analytic techniques to elucidate brain regions, and in turn networks, consistently engaged in distinct aspects of reward processing. Using a data-driven, meta-analytic, k-means clustering approach, we dissociated seven meta-analytic groupings (MAGs) of neuroimaging results (i.e., brain activity maps) from 749 experimental contrasts across 176 reward processing studies involving 13,358 healthy participants.We then performed an exploratory functional decoding approach to gain insight into the putative functions associated with each MAG. We identified a seven-MAG clustering solution which represented dissociable patterns of convergent brain activity across reward processing tasks.Additionally, our functional decoding analyses revealed that each of these MAGs mapped onto discrete behavior profiles that suggested specialized roles in predicting value and processing a variety of emotional (MAG-3), external (MAG-4 & MAG-5), and internal (MAG-6 & MAG-7) influences across reward processing paradigms. These findings support and extend aspects of well-accepted reward learning theories and highlight large-scale brain network activity associated with distinct aspects of reward processing.

The cue-reactivity paradigm: An ensemble of networks driving attention and cognition when viewing drug and natural reward-related stimuli

“…Currently, there is no established statistical test for determining whether a term is "significantly" associated with a given input map. However, previous approaches[71,72] have interpreted the top functional and anatomical terms, while disregarding terms which provide less interpretational value. Specifically, prior work has classified Neurosynth terms as 'functional', 'anatomical', 'non-content', or 'participant-related' (https://github.com/62442katieb/ns-v-bm-decoding).…”

Neural systems underlying RDoC social constructs: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis

“…Our top-down meta-analytic approach was motivated by our primary aim to evaluate the neural systems underlying the RDoC framework. An alternative approach to synthesize this literature would have been to identify data-driven groupings of experiments reporting similar brain activation patterns, as we have done in previous studies (Bottenhorn et al, 2019; Flannery et al, 2020; Laird et al, 2015; Morawetz et al, 2020; Riedel et al, 2018). A preliminary comparison of the forward and data-driven meta-analytic approaches revealed a lack of correspondence ( Figures S2 and S3 available in Supplemental Information), suggesting that there are challenges in evaluating RDoC-based social categorizations in the context of real-world tasks and that further work is needed.…”

Acculturative orientations among Hispanic/Latinx caregivers in the ABCD Study: Associations with caregiver and youth mental health and youth brain function

“…The insula is a complex, multifaceted structure (88). If indeed detached caregivers transmit their acculturative orientation directly to their children, and if detached orientations are linked to anhedonia and/or altered reward behaviors, then it is possible that dysregulated insula function is a central neurobiological mechanism of interest, given its prominent role in reward processing (89,90). Finally, we note that while differences in rs-fMRI activity (i.e., fALFF and ReHo) were observed, significant effects were not found for long-range connectivity differences.…”