Prediction of immediate and future rewards differentially recruits cortico-basal ganglia loops

Abstract

Evaluation of both immediate and future outcomes of one's actions is a critical requirement for intelligent behavior. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated brain mechanisms for reward prediction at different time scales in a Markov decision task. When human subjects learned actions on the basis of immediate rewards, significant activity was seen in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the striatum. When subjects learned to act in order to obtain large future rewards while incurring small immediate losses, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal cortex, dorsal raphe nucleus and cerebellum were also activated. Computational model-based regression analysis using the predicted future rewards and prediction errors estimated from subjects' performance data revealed graded maps of time scale within the insula and the striatum: ventroanterior regions were involved in predicting immediate rewards and dorsoposterior regions were involved in predicting future rewards. These results suggest differential involvement of the cortico-basal ganglia loops in reward prediction at different time scales.

Human fronto–mesolimbic networks guide decisions about charitable donation

“…Previous work implicated anterior regions of the medial prefrontal cortex in goal representation (13)(14)(15)25), altruistic punishment (5), prediction of future rewards (14,18,26), and implicit or explicit moral appraisals (11,16,27,28). Our results indeed showed that costly decisions (choosing to costly donate or to costly oppose), which are altruistic in essence, were associated with activation of the anterior prefrontal cortex, including the frontopolar cortex and the medial frontal gyrus (BA 10͞11͞32; Fig.…”

“…The mesolimbic system regulates overall reward reinforcement and prediction and is activated by a host of stimuli, including food, sex, drugs, and money (11,14,18). The subgenual area, which specifically was recruited by donations, comprises a primitive paralimbic, four-layered archicortex densely interconnected with the mesolimbic dopaminergic and dorsal raphe serotonergic pathways (31).…”

“…We also expected that medial and lateral sectors of the orbitofrontal cortex, respectively, would mediate decisions to donate or to oppose causes, in line with the involvement of these regions in reward and punishment (13). Finally, we predicted that anterior prefrontal regions that have been implicated in moral judgments and prospective assessment of outcomes (11,(14)(15)(16) would be engaged by altruistic decisions that involved sacrificing material interests for societal causes.…”

Personality predicts activity in reward and emotional regions associated with humor

“…Notably, a similar pattern of mesocorticalmesolimbic activation has been observed during immediate monetary and aesthetic rewards (50)(51)(52)(53), self-reported happiness (54), and the subjective funniness of cartoons (26,27). Electrical stimulation of the NAcc also results in laughter and giddiness (55).…”

Aging and the neuroeconomics of decision making: A review

“…This suggests that serotonin mediates decision making in healthy volunteers by modulating the processing of reward cues (Rogers et al, 2003), perhaps by facilitating the evaluation of future rewards (Schweighofer, Tanaka, & Doya, 2007), which in turn suggests that serotonin functionality corresponds to the value parameter of the subjective expected utility model. Serotonergic neurons project into the basal ganglia, controlling phasic dopamine release into the striatum, and thereby the time scale of reward prediction, modulating the adequate computation of reward prediction errors (Schweighofer et al, 2007;Tanaka et al, 2004). It therefore seems plausible that serotonin functionality corresponds not only to the value parameter but also to the probability parameter.…”