The GABAergic Septohippocampal Pathway Is Directly Involved in Internal Processes Related to Operant Reward Learning

This chapter provides a critical review of recent behavioral and neuroimaging evidence of reward processing abnormalities in mood disorders. The primary focus is on the neural mechanisms underlying disruption in approach motivation, reward learning, and reward-based decision-making in major depression and bipolar disorder. Efforts focused on understanding how reward-related impairments contribute to psychiatric symptomatology have grown substantially in recent years. This has been driven by significant advances in the understanding of the neurobiology of reward processing and a growing recognition that disturbances in motivation and hedonic capacity are poorly targeted by current pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions. As a result, numerous studies have sought to test the presence of reward circuit dysfunction in psychiatric disorders that are marked by anhedonia, amotivation, mania, and impulsivity. Moreover, as the field has increasingly eschewed categorical diagnostic boundaries in favor of symptom dimensions, there has been a parallel rise in studies seeking to identify transdiagnostic neural markers of reward processing dysfunction that may transcend disorders. The thesis of this chapter is twofold: First, evidence indicates that specific subcomponents of reward processing map onto partially distinct neurobiological pathways. Second, specific subcomponents of reward processing, including reward learning and effort-based decision-making, are impaired across different mood disorder diagnoses and may point to dimensions in symptom presentation that possess more reliable behavioral and neural correlates. The potential for these findings to inform the development of prevention and treatment strategies is discussed.

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A computational reward learning account of social media engagement

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-020-19607-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Björn Lindström ◽

Martin Bellander ◽

David T. Schultner ◽

Allen Chang ◽

Philippe N. Tobler ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Human Behavior ◽

Computational Models ◽

Average Rate ◽

Human Life ◽

Modern Human ◽

Reward Learning ◽

Learning Mechanisms ◽

Social Media Engagement ◽

Social Rewards

AbstractSocial media has become a modern arena for human life, with billions of daily users worldwide. The intense popularity of social media is often attributed to a psychological need for social rewards (likes), portraying the online world as a Skinner Box for the modern human. Yet despite such portrayals, empirical evidence for social media engagement as reward-based behavior remains scant. Here, we apply a computational approach to directly test whether reward learning mechanisms contribute to social media behavior. We analyze over one million posts from over 4000 individuals on multiple social media platforms, using computational models based on reinforcement learning theory. Our results consistently show that human behavior on social media conforms qualitatively and quantitatively to the principles of reward learning. Specifically, social media users spaced their posts to maximize the average rate of accrued social rewards, in a manner subject to both the effort cost of posting and the opportunity cost of inaction. Results further reveal meaningful individual difference profiles in social reward learning on social media. Finally, an online experiment (n = 176), mimicking key aspects of social media, verifies that social rewards causally influence behavior as posited by our computational account. Together, these findings support a reward learning account of social media engagement and offer new insights into this emergent mode of modern human behavior.

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The influence of associative reward learning on motor inhibition

Psychological Research ◽

10.1007/s00426-021-01485-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Janina Rebecca Marchner ◽

Claudia Preuschhof

Keyword(s):

Experimental Design ◽

Action Control ◽

Reward Learning ◽

Behavioural Activation ◽

Motor Inhibition ◽

A Value ◽

Directed Action ◽

History Of ◽

Pavlovian Learning ◽

Subsequent Task

AbstractStimuli that predict a rewarding outcome can cause difficulties to inhibit unfavourable behaviour. Research suggests that this is also the case for stimuli with a history of reward extending these effects on action control to situations, where reward is no longer accessible. We expand this line of research by investigating if previously reward-predictive stimuli promote behavioural activation and impair motor inhibition in a second unrelated task. In two experiments participants were trained to associate colours with a monetary reward or neutral feedback. Afterwards participants performed a cued go/no-go task, where cues appeared in the colours previously associated with feedback during training. In both experiments training resulted in faster responses in rewarded trials providing evidence of a value-driven response bias as long as reward was accessible. However, stimuli with a history of reward did not interfere with goal-directed action and inhibition in a subsequent task after removal of the reward incentives. While the first experiment was not conclusive regarding an impact of reward-associated cues on response inhibition, the second experiment, validated by Bayesian statistics, clearly questioned an effect of reward history on inhibitory control. This stands in contrast to earlier findings suggesting that the effect of reward history on subsequent action control is not as consistent as previously assumed. Our results show that participants are able to overcome influences from Pavlovian learning in a simple inhibition task. We discuss our findings with respect to features of the experimental design which may help or complicate overcoming behavioural biases induced by reward history.

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Reward Learning Through the Lens of RDoC: a Review of Theory, Assessment, and Empirical Findings in the Eating Disorders

Current Psychiatry Reports ◽

10.1007/s11920-020-01213-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Lauren M. Schaefer ◽

Joanna E. Steinglass

Keyword(s):

Eating Disorders ◽

Reward Learning

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