Individuals differ greatly in their level of sensitivity to rewards. For example, some people will excitedly anticipate the arrival of a payday or deeply enjoy a glass of wine. Others will not experience this anticipation or pleasure, even for typically rewarding stimuli such as food or sex. On a trait level, the extent to which individuals are sensitive to rewards influences how they behave to obtain those rewards. In the extreme, differences in reward sensitivity are implicated in a broad range of psychiatric disorders and problematic behaviors (e.g. addiction and schizophrenia). Yet, the cognitive mechanisms through which these traits influence behavior are not well understood. Understanding these mechanisms is important because it will allow us to better characterize the basic relationship between reward and behavior, as well as to develop more targeted interventions for deficits in reward sensitivity. To this end, the primary research goal of this proposal is to use the event-related potential (ERP) technique to determine the influence of trait level individual differences in reward sensitivity on the recruitment of cognitive mechanisms in conditions of reward. On one hand, reward has been shown to induce widespread activity across the brain. Rewards also increase early sensory and attentional processing, as well as influence behavior across a variety of tasks. This suggests that reward may influence the recruitment of multiple cognitive mechanisms. Alternatively, recent evidence suggests that reward may selectively influence the recruitment of working memory as a central mechanism through which reward influences behavior.
Aim I will test these two competing hypotheses to determine the specificity with which reward influences the recruitment of cognitive mechanisms. Additionally, although there is limited research in this area, high trait level desire for reward has been shown to increase attention to reward cues. However, the specific cognitive mechanisms though which this attention is increased are not known. Therefore, Aim II will determine the influence of trait level individual differences in reward sensitivity on the recruitment of these cognitive mechanisms in conditions of reward. Self-report measures of reward sensitivity, ERPs, and a versatile rewarded visual search task will be combined in an innovative way to complete these aims. This integration of affective and cognitive neuroscience to study individual differences in reward sensitivity is the ultimate training goal of this proposal. Specific training goals include gainingan in-depth knowledge of the reward, working memory, and attention literatures as well as advanced training in the ERP technique. Using the integrative knowledge and technical skill gained through the proposed research to answer questions about individual differences in personality, behavior and psychopathology will provide the foundation for a successful research career in the field of clinical cognitive neuroscience.
The research goal of the proposed project is to improve our understanding of how individual differences in reward sensitivity influence reward seeking behavior by determining how these traits change the way we use cognitive processes like memory and attention when rewards are at stake. Understanding these processes will allow us to better understand the basic relationship between reward and behavior as well as reward related deficits in disorders such as addiction, depression, and schizophrenia. The training goal of this proposal is to develop the ability to integrate cutting edge affective and cognitive neuroscience to answer questions about individual differences in personality, behavior, and psychopathology.
| Heritage, Allan J; Long, Laura J; Woodman, Geoffrey F et al. (2018) Personality correlates of individual differences in the recruitment of cognitive mechanisms when rewards are at stake. Psychophysiology 55: |
