Population Response Profiles in Early Visual Cortex Are Biased in Favor of More Valuable Stimuli

Serences, John T.; Saproo, Sameer

doi:10.1152/jn.01090.2009

Cited by 104 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 103 publications

(108 reference statements)

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“…We always placed the neurons' RFs on the curve but not on the circle itself, and the increased neuronal activity must therefore have spread from the circle onto the curve, suggesting that reward information influences neuronal activity in an object-based manner. Effects of reward value have been reported previously for rat area V1 (27) and also in human visual cortex with fMRI (28,39,40). The findings of this study are compatible with these previous results, but they also go beyond by showing that reward effects in V1 are mostly driven by relative value, which is a quantity that is useful for the guidance of choice behavior.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

A unified selection signal for attention and reward in primary visual cortex

Stănişor

Togt

Pennartz

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

155

164

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Stimuli associated with high rewards evoke stronger neuronal activity than stimuli associated with lower rewards in many brain regions. It is not well understood how these reward effects influence activity in sensory cortices that represent low-level stimulus features. Here, we investigated the effects of reward information in the primary visual cortex (area V1) of monkeys. We found that the reward value of a stimulus relative to the value of other stimuli is a good predictor of V1 activity. Relative value biases the competition between stimuli, just as has been shown for selective attention. The neuronal latency of this reward value effect in V1 was similar to the latency of attentional influences. Moreover, V1 neurons with a strong value effect also exhibited a strong attention effect, which implies that relative value and top-down attention engage overlapping, if not identical, neuronal selection mechanisms. Our findings demonstrate that the effects of reward value reach down to the earliest sensory processing levels of the cerebral cortex and imply that theories about the effects of reward coding and top-down attention on visual representations should be unified.object-based attention | reward expectancy R eward and punishment shape behavior. The representations of actual and anticipated rewards in the brain are widespread and multifaceted (1-4). There are many brain areas that code the value, taste, and other perceptual qualities of incentive stimuli (5-14). Furthermore, rewards are motivating. Motivational effects influence neuronal activity in brain structures responsible for goal-directed behavior in cortex, in the basal ganglia, and also at the level of the superior colliculus where neurons increase their activity if larger rewards can be obtained (1,3,9,(15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Finally, rewards influence the choice of an animal (20,21). If different stimuli are associated with distinct rewards, then it is optimal to choose the one with the highest expected value (22,23). Neurons in the parietal and orbitofrontal cortex and also in the basal ganglia increase their activity for those stimuli that predict rewards that are larger or more probable (21,22,(24)(25)(26).Intriguingly, reward value also influences neuronal activity in early visual cortex. Shuler and Bear (27) demonstrated that neurons in rat primary visual cortex predict the timing of reward delivery, even in a phase of the task when the cells are not driven by a visual stimulus. This result is remarkable because primary visual cortex (V1) neurons are usually thought to code low-level visual features rather than stimulus value. Moreover, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study by Serences (28) demonstrated that reward value also influences V1 activity in humans. Subjects chose between two stimuli, and the one that was more rewarding evoked more activity. Apparently, the effects of reward value can reach back to the earliest cortical processing levels, where they might influence the coding of low-level features. However, the precise me...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

A unified selection signal for attention and reward in primary visual cortex

Stănişor

Togt

Pennartz

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

155

164

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Numerous studies have demonstrated that sensory processing in the cortex can be potentiated when associated with reward (e.g. Mogami and Tanaka, 2006;Hui et al, 2009;Franko et al, 2010;Hickey et al, 2010;Serences and Saproo, 2010;Weil et al, 2010). Our finding that the cortex can transmit information to DA neurons via the SC thus provides a mechanism by which short-latency sensory signals relayed to DA neurons can reflect stimulus value.…”

Section: Functional Implicationssupporting

confidence: 52%

Sensory regulation of dopaminergic cell activity: Phenomenology, circuitry and function

2014

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“…Although rarely emphasized, visual cortex activation is consistently apparent in studies using visual cues to probe craving (11,12), and visual cortex response to high-calorie foods has been shown to be modulated by positive affect (13). Given top-down influences over visual processing (14) and evidence that higher-value targets recruit greater visual activation (15), it is also reasonable to hypothesize that altered valuation mediates the robust effect that food cues had on activity within the visual cortex. Thus, greater food-cue reactivity in the visual cortex after fructose than glucose may indicate a greater incentive value of food cues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential effects of fructose versus glucose on brain and appetitive responses to food cues and decisions for food rewards

Luo

Monterosso

Sarpelleh

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Prior studies suggest that fructose compared with glucose may be a weaker suppressor of appetite, and neuroimaging research shows that food cues trigger greater brain reward responses in a fasted relative to a fed state. We sought to determine the effects of ingesting fructose versus glucose on brain, hormone, and appetitive responses to food cues and food-approach behavior. Twenty-four healthy volunteers underwent two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions with ingestion of either fructose or glucose in a double-blinded, random-order cross-over design. fMRI was performed while participants viewed images of high-calorie foods and nonfood items using a block design. After each block, participants rated hunger and desire for food. Participants also performed a decision task in which they chose between immediate food rewards and delayed monetary bonuses. Hormones were measured at baseline and 30 and 60 min after drink ingestion. Ingestion of fructose relative to glucose resulted in smaller increases in plasma insulin levels and greater brain reactivity to food cues in the visual cortex (in whole-brain analysis) and left orbital frontal cortex (in region-of-interest analysis). Parallel to the neuroimaging findings, fructose versus glucose led to greater hunger and desire for food and a greater willingness to give up long-term monetary rewards to obtain immediate highcalorie foods. These findings suggest that ingestion of fructose relative to glucose results in greater activation of brain regions involved in attention and reward processing and may promote feeding behavior.fructose | glucose | fMRI | food cue | decision making O besity is a major public health problem, and increases in the consumption of fructose as a sweetener may be an important contributor to the current obesity epidemic (1). Fructose and glucose are both monosaccharides with the same number of calories, but they are metabolized differently. In the glycolytic pathway, glucose metabolism is regulated through feedback inhibition by the end products ATP and citrate, but fructose bypasses the main regulatory step, catalyzed by phosphofructokinase (2). Whereas glucose is the main circulating sugar in the blood, the majority of fructose is extracted from the bloodstream into the liver, where unregulated fructose metabolism can lead to increased lipogenesis (3). Similarly, unregulated fructose metabolism in the hypothalamus may lead to rapid depletion of hypothalamic ATP and consequently to increased food intake (4). Moreover, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate the secretion of insulin (5), a hormone that signals the brain to increase satiety and to blunt the reward value of food (6, 7). These unique properties of fructose versus glucose may help explain their differential effects on brain appetite pathways (4,8). The central administration of fructose was shown to decrease hypothalamic satiety signaling and increase feeding in animals, whereas glucose increased satiety signaling and reduced food intake (4). Likewise, the hypothala...

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Population Response Profiles in Early Visual Cortex Are Biased in Favor of More Valuable Stimuli

Cited by 104 publications

References 103 publications

A unified selection signal for attention and reward in primary visual cortex

A unified selection signal for attention and reward in primary visual cortex

Sensory regulation of dopaminergic cell activity: Phenomenology, circuitry and function

Differential effects of fructose versus glucose on brain and appetitive responses to food cues and decisions for food rewards

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