Separate brain regions code for salience vs. valence during reward prediction in humans.

Full Abstract

Predicting rewards and avoiding aversive conditions is essential for survival. Recent studies using computational models of reward prediction implicate the ventral striatum in appetitive rewards. Whether the same system mediates an organism's response to aversive conditions is unclear. We examined the question using fMRI blood oxygen level-dependent measurements while healthy volunteers were conditioned using appetitive and aversive stimuli. The temporal difference learning algorithm was used to estimate reward prediction error. Activations in the ventral striatum were robustly correlated with prediction error, regardless of the valence of the stimuli, suggesting that the ventral striatum processes salience prediction error. In contrast, the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula coded for the differential valence of appetitive/aversive stimuli. Given its location at the interface of limbic and motor regions, the ventral striatum may be critical in learning about motivationally salient stimuli, regardless of valence, and using that information to bias selection of actions.(c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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Author information

Author/s: Jensen, Jimmy (J); Smith, Andrew J (AJ); Willeit, Matthäus (M); Crawley, Adrian P (AP); Mikulis, David J (DJ); Vitcu, Irina (I); Kapur, Shitij (S);

Affiliation: Schizophrenia Program and the PET Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Human brain mapping (Hum Brain Mapp), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Apr; vol 28 (issue 4) : pp 294-302

Dates: Created 2007/03/20; Completed 2007/05/16;

PMID: 16779798, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Avoidance Learning - physiology
Basal Ganglia - physiology
Brain Mapping
Choice Behavior - physiology
Conditioning, Classical - physiology

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