scholarly journals Sex differences in the human reward system: convergent behavioral, autonomic and neural evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 789-801
Author(s):  
Katherine G Warthen ◽  
Alita Boyse-Peacor ◽  
Keith G Jones ◽  
Benjamin Sanford ◽  
Tiffany M Love ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Reward System ◽  
Monetary Incentive ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Stimulus Salience ◽  
Subjective Arousal

Abstract Several studies have suggested that females and males differ in reward behaviors and their underlying neural circuitry. Whether human sex differences extend across neural and behavioral levels for both rewards and punishments remains unclear. We studied a community sample of 221 young women and men who performed a monetary incentive task known to engage the mesoaccumbal pathway and salience network. Both stimulus salience (behavioral relevance) and valence (win vs loss) varied during the task. In response to high- vs low-salience stimuli presented during the monetary incentive task, men showed greater subjective arousal ratings, behavioral accuracy and skin conductance responses (P < 0.006, Hedges’ effect size g = 0.38 to 0.46). In a subsample studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (n = 44), men exhibited greater responsiveness to stimulus salience in the nucleus accumbens, midbrain, anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (P < 0.02, g = 0.86 to 1.7). Behavioral, autonomic and neural sensitivity to the valence of stimuli did not differ by sex, indicating that responses to rewards vs punishments were similar in women and men. These results reveal novel and robust sex differences in reward- and punishment-related traits, behavior, autonomic activity and neural responses. These convergent results suggest a neurobehavioral basis for sexual dimorphism observed in the reward system, including reward-related disorders.

Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 931-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Nathan DeWall ◽  
Geoff MacDonald ◽  
Gregory D. Webster ◽  
Carrie L. Masten ◽  
Roy F. Baumeister ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Social Pain ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain—physical and social—may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants’ brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.

scholarly journals Increased anticipatory but decreased consummatory brain responses to food in sisters of anorexia nervosa patients

BJPsych Open ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Horndasch ◽  
Sophie O'Keefe ◽  
Anneka Lamond ◽  
Katie Brown ◽  
Ciara McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Family History ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Food Cues ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Increased Activity

BackgroundWe have previously shown increased anticipatory and consummatory neural responses to rewarding and aversive food stimuli in women recovered from anorexia nervosa (AN).AimsTo determine whether these differences are trait markers for AN, we examined the neural response in those with a familial history but no personal history of AN.MethodThirty-six volunteers were recruited: 15 who had a sister with anorexia nervosa (family history) and 21 control participants. Using fMRI we examined the neural response during an anticipatory phase (food cues, rewarding and aversive), an effort phase and a consummatory phase (rewarding and aversive tastes).ResultsFamily history (FH) volunteers showed increased activity in the caudate during the anticipation of both reward and aversive food and in the thalamus and amygdala during anticipation of aversive only. FH had decreased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the pallidum and the superior frontal gyrus during taste consumption.ConclusionsIncreased neural anticipatory but decreased consummatory responses to food might be a biomarker for AN. Interventions that could normalise these differences may help to prevent disorder onset.

scholarly journals Intelligence moderates reinforcement learning: a mini-review of the neural evidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (10) ◽  
pp. 3459-3461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Neural Signal ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal

Our understanding of the neural basis of reinforcement learning and intelligence, two key factors contributing to human strivings, has progressed significantly recently. However, the overlap of these two lines of research, namely, how intelligence affects neural responses during reinforcement learning, remains uninvestigated. A mini-review of three existing studies suggests that higher IQ (especially fluid IQ) may enhance the neural signal of positive prediction error in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and striatum, several brain substrates of reinforcement learning or intelligence.

scholarly journals Mood and neural responses to social rejection do not seem to be altered in resilient adolescents with a history of adversity

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-423
Author(s):  
Jessica Fritz ◽  
Jason Stretton ◽  
Adrian Dahl Askelund ◽  
Susanne Schweizer ◽  
Nicholas D. Walsh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Childhood Adversity ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
History Of

AbstractChildhood adversity (CA) increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems. Adolescent social support (from family and/or friends) reduces the risk of mental health problems after CA. However, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear, and we speculate that they are manifested on neurodevelopmental levels. Therefore, we investigated whether family and/or friendship support at ages 14 and 17 function as intermediate variables for the relationship between CA before age 11 and affective or neural responses to social rejection feedback at age 18. We studied 55 adolescents with normative mental health at age 18 (26 with CA and therefore considered “resilient”), from a longitudinal cohort. Participants underwent a Social Feedback Task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Social rejection feedback activated the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the left anterior insula. CA did not predict affective or neural responses to social rejection at age 18. Yet, CA predicted better friendships at age 14 and age 18, when adolescents with and without CA had comparable mood levels. Thus, adolescents with CA and normative mood levels have more adolescent friendship support and seem to have normal mood and neural responses to social rejection.

scholarly journals Mood and neural responses to social rejection are not altered in resilient adolescents with a history of adversity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Fritz ◽  
Jason Stretton ◽  
Adrian Dahl Askelund ◽  
Susanne Schweizer ◽  
Nicholas Walsh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intermediate Variables

THIS IS A PRE-PRINT OF AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN “DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY (1–13)”. THE FINAL AUTHENTICATED VERSION IS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419000178Childhood adversity (CA) increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems. Adolescent social support (from family and/or friends) reduces the risk of mental health problems after CA. However, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear and we speculate that they are manifested on neurodevelopmental levels. Therefore, we investigated whether family and/or friendship support at age 14 and 17 function as intermediate variables for the relationship between CA before age 11 and affective or neural responses to social rejection feedback at age 18. We studied 55 adolescents (26 with CA) with normative mental health at age 18 (‘resilient’), from a longitudinal cohort. Participants underwent a Social Feedback Task in the MRI scanner. Social rejection feedback activated the dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dACC) and the left anterior Insula (AI). CA did not predict affective or neural responses to social rejection at age 18. Yet, CA predicted better friendships at age 14 and age 18, when adolescents with and without CA had comparable mood levels. Thus, adolescents with CA and normative mood levels have more adolescent friendship support and seem to have normal mood and neural responses to social rejection.

scholarly journals Community-level racial prejudice potentiates Whites’ neural responses to out-group faces: A spatial meta-analytic approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hatzenbuehler ◽  
Katie A McLaughlin ◽  
David G Weissman ◽  
Mina Cikara
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Group Versus ◽  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Group Members

A persistent question in social neuroscience is whether the amygdala underlies racial prejudice. Despite decades of research, evidence for a stronger amygdala response to racial out-group versus in-group members has been mixed. Here, we consider a potential explanation for these conflicting results: that neural responses to racial out-group members vary systematically based on the level of racial prejudice of the surrounding community. To test this contextual sensitivity hypothesis, we conducted a spatial meta-analysis that included a comprehensive set of studies (n=22) examining neural responses to Black vs. White faces in primarily White participants. We evaluated whether community-level racial prejudice moderated neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces by aggregating individual explicit racial attitudes, obtained from Project Implicit, to the county in which each study was conducted. Multi-level kernel density analysis demonstrated that neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces was significantly higher in the right amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in communities with higher (vs. lower) levels of racial prejudice. This same pattern of neural activation was not observed for income inequality or for the percentage of the population who was Black or college-educated, indicating specificity to community-level prejudice. Our findings highlight the potential utility of spatial meta-analyses for reconciling conflicting results in the social neuroscience literature by identifying features of the broader social context that may moderate neural responses to socially relevant stimuli.

scholarly journals Neural responses for evaluating self and mother traits in adolescence depend on mother–adolescent relationships

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 481-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renske Van der Cruijsen ◽  
Renate Buisman ◽  
Kayla Green ◽  
Sabine Peters ◽  
Eveline A Crone
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Support ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Adolescent Relationships ◽  
Adolescent Relationship ◽  
Negative Relationships

Abstract An important task in adolescence is to achieve autonomy while preserving a positive relationship with parents. Previous fMRI studies showed largely overlapping activation in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) for evaluating self and close-other traits but separable activation for self and non-close other. Possibly, more similar mPFC activation reflects closeness or warmth in relationships. We investigated neural indicators of the mother–adolescent relationship in adolescents between 11 and 21 years (N = 143). Mother–adolescent relationship was measured using (i) mothers’ and adolescents’ trait evaluations about each other, (ii) observations of warmth, negativity and emotional support in mother–adolescent conversation and (iii) similarity in adolescents’ neural activation for evaluating self vs mother traits. Results showed relatively more similar mPFC activation in adolescents who evaluated their mothers’ traits more positively, suggesting that this is possibly a neural indicator of mother–adolescent relationship quality. Furthermore, mid-adolescence was characterized by more negative mother–adolescent interaction compared to early and late adolescence. This effect co-occurred with mid-adolescent peaks in dorsal striatum, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and superior temporal sulcus activation in evaluating traits of self vs mother. These results suggest more negative relationships and stronger self-focus in mid-adolescence.

scholarly journals Alterations in neural circuits underlying emotion regulation following child maltreatment: a mechanism underlying trauma-related psychopathology

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Jenness ◽  
Matthew Peverill ◽  
Adam Bryant Miller ◽  
Charlotte Heleniak ◽  
Madeline M. Robertson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Passive Viewing

Abstract Background Disruptions in neural circuits underlying emotion regulation (ER) may be a mechanism linking child maltreatment with psychopathology. We examined the associations of maltreatment with neural responses during passive viewing of negative emotional stimuli and attempts to modulate emotional responses. We investigated whether the influence of maltreatment on neural activation during ER differed across development and whether alterations in brain function mediated the association between maltreatment and a latent general psychopathology (‘p’) factor. Methods Youth aged 8–16 years with (n = 79) and without (n = 72) exposure to maltreatment completed an ER task assessing neural responses during passive viewing of negative and neutral images and effortful attempts to regulate emotional responses to negative stimuli. P-factor scores were defined by a bi-factor model encompassing internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Results Maltreated youth had greater activation in left amygdala and salience processing regions and reduced activation in multiple regions involved in cognitive control (bilateral superior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) when viewing negative v. neutral images than youth without maltreatment exposure. Reduced neural recruitment in cognitive control regions mediated the association of maltreatment with p-factor in whole-brain analysis. Maltreated youth exhibited increasing recruitment with age in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during reappraisal while control participants exhibited decreasing recruitment with age. Findings were similar after adjusting for co-occurring neglect. Conclusions Child maltreatment influences the development of regions associated with salience processing and cognitive control during ER in ways that contribute to psychopathology.

scholarly journals Enhanced neural response to anticipation, effort and consummation of reward and aversion during bupropion treatment

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (11) ◽  
pp. 2263-2274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Dean ◽  
S. Horndasch ◽  
P. Giannopoulos ◽  
C. McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Reuptake Inhibitor ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Ventral Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Increased Activity

BackgroundWe have previously shown that the selective serotonergic reuptake inhibitor, citalopram, reduces the neural response to reward and aversion in healthy volunteers. We suggest that this inhibitory effect might underlie the emotional blunting reported by patients on these medications. Bupropion is a dopaminergic and noradrenergic reuptake inhibitor and has been suggested to have more therapeutic effects on reward-related deficits. However, how bupropion affects the neural responses to reward and aversion is unclear.MethodSeventeen healthy volunteers (9 female, 8 male) received 7 days bupropion (150 mg/day) and 7 days placebo treatment, in a double-blind crossover design. Our functional magnetic resonance imaging task consisted of three phases; an anticipatory phase (pleasant or unpleasant cue), an effort phase (button presses to achieve a pleasant taste or to avoid an unpleasant taste) and a consummatory phase (pleasant or unpleasant tastes). Volunteers also rated wanting, pleasantness and intensity of the tastes.ResultsRelative to placebo, bupropion increased activity during the anticipation phase in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and caudate. During the effort phase, bupropion increased activity in the vmPFC, striatum, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and primary motor cortex. Bupropion also increased medial orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala and ventral striatum activity during the consummatory phase.ConclusionsOur results are the first to show that bupropion can increase neural responses during the anticipation, effort and consummation of rewarding and aversive stimuli. This supports the notion that bupropion might be beneficial for depressed patients with reward-related deficits and blunted affect.

scholarly journals Feeling left out or just surprised? Neural correlates of social exclusion and over-inclusion in adolescence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa W. Cheng ◽  
Nandita Vijayakumar ◽  
John C. Flournoy ◽  
Zdena Op de Macks ◽  
Shannon J. Peake ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Differential Sensitivity ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Affective Distress ◽  
Social Belonging ◽  
Posterior Insula ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Fmri Adaptation

AbstractSocial belonging is an important human drive that influences mood and behavior. Neural responses to social exclusion are well-characterized, but the specificity of these responses to processing rejection-related affective distress is unknown. The present study compares neural responses to exclusion and over-inclusion, a condition that similarly violates fairness expectations but does not involve rejection, with a focus on implications for models of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and anterior insula (AI) function. In an fMRI adaptation of the Cyberball paradigm with adolescents 11.1-17.7 years of age (N=69), we employed parametric modulators to examine scaling of neural signal with cumulative exclusion and inclusion events, an approach that overcomes arbitrary definitions of condition onsets/offsets imposed on fluid, continuous gameplay. We identified positive scaling of dACC and posterior insula response with cumulative exclusion events, but these same regions exhibited trending signal decreases with cumulative inclusion events. Furthermore, areas within the dACC and insula also responded to context incongruency (throws to the participant in the exclusion run; throws between computer players in the over-inclusion run). Taken together, these findings caution against interpretations that responses in these regions uniquely reflect aspects of affective distress within social rejection paradigms. We further identified that the left ventrolateral PFC, rostromedial PFC, and left intraparietal sulcus responded similarly to cumulative exclusion and inclusion. These findings shed light on which neural regions exhibit patterns of differential sensitivity to exclusion or over-inclusion, as well as those that are more broadly engaged by both types of social interaction.

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