Focal basal ganglia lesions are associated with impairments in reward-based reversal learning.

Full Abstract

The basal ganglia (BG) are thought to play a key role in learning from feedback, with mesencephalic dopamine neurons coding errors in reward prediction, thereby mediating information processing in the BG and the prefrontal cortex. In the present study, reward-based learning was assessed in patients with focal BG lesions, by studying outcome-based acquisition and reversal of stimulus-stimulus associations with different reward magnitudes in two probabilistic learning tasks. Eleven patients with selective BG lesions (three females) and 18 healthy control subjects (six females) participated in this study. Two cognitive transfer tasks provided a measure of declarative learning strategy application. On the group level, BG patients showed deficits in reversal learning, with dorsal striatum lesion patients being most severely affected. While basic mechanisms of learning from feedback such as the processing of different reward magnitudes appeared to be intact, patients needed more trials than controls to learn a second reward-based task, suggesting reduced carry-over effects in learning. A patient with a bilateral BG lesion showed better performance than controls on most learning tasks, applying a compensatory declarative learning strategy. The results are discussed in terms of the implication of different BG subregions in different aspects of learning from feedback.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Bellebaum, Christian (C); Koch, Benno (B); Schwarz, Michael (M); Daum, Irene (I);

Affiliation: Department of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany. christian.bellebaum(-atsign-)rub.de

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Brain : a journal of neurology (Brain), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Mar; vol 131 (issue Pt 3) : pp 829-41

Dates: Created 2008/02/22; Completed 2008/05/01;

PMID: 18263624, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged
Basal Ganglia - pathology; physiopathology
Brain Ischemia - pathology; physiopathology; psychology
Brain Mapping - methods
Corpus Striatum - pathology; physiopathology
Feedback, Psychological
Female
Humans

Learning Disorders - etiology; pathology; physiopathology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Memory, Short-Term
Middle Aged
Reversal Learning
Reward
Transfer (Psychology)

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.