The development of drug addiction depends on the ability of drugs to activate the brain's """"""""reward circuit,"""""""" which acts to reinforce the drug-taking behavior. In order to gain insight into this process, it is important to understand the neural processes underlying reinforcement learning in the healthy brain. The striatum and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), two key regions in the brain's reward circuit, are activated not only by drugs of abuse, but also by other rewards, such as food or money. Even rewards with no extrinsic value, such as positive feedback indicating a correct answer on a difficult task, engage this system, promoting learning from the performance-related feedback. It remains unclear, however, how contextual factors such as expectations of success influence processing in these brain regions, and in turn, the amount learned from feedback. Therefore, the proposed research uses feedback-based learning as a model system for understanding how expectations influence the neural processing of behavioral reinforcers. Participants will perform a feedback- based learning task during acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Experiment 1 investigates how the abstract labels, """"""""hard"""""""" and """"""""easy,"""""""" affect expectations of task difficulty and the neural processing of performance-related feedback. Experiment 2 manipulates difficulty expectations through a comparison with peer performance. False results from a pre-test will indicate to the participants that their performance is above or below average. The participants will then perform the feedback-based learning task as their brains are scanned with fMRI, allowing the effect of the ability labels on feedback-related signals in the striatum and OFC to be examined. These experiments will foster the initiation of a brain imaging research program on the neural mechanisms involved in motivated behavior. Such research may yield insights into how behavior could be motivated toward productive incentives, such as achievement, and away from harmful incentives, such as illicit drugs.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed experiments examine contextual influences on the brain mechanisms involved in learning from behavioral reinforcers. These same mechanisms are involved in the development of drug addiction, so the research findings may suggest principles by which the ability of drugs to act as behavioral incentives could be altered through changes in motivational context.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Small Research Grants (R03)
Project #
1R03DA029170-01A1
Application #
8046980
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDA1-GXM-A (04))
Program Officer
Grant, Steven J
Project Start
2011-03-01
Project End
2013-02-28
Budget Start
2011-03-01
Budget End
2013-02-28
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$231,750
Indirect Cost
Name
Rutgers University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
130029205
City
Newark
State
NJ
Country
United States
Zip Code
07102
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DePasque Swanson, Samantha; Tricomi, Elizabeth (2014) Goals and task difficulty expectations modulate striatal responses to feedback. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 14:610-20
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