scholarly journals Neural correlates of effort-based valuation with prospective choices

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadav Aridan ◽  
Nicholas J. Malecek ◽  
Russell A. Poldrack ◽  
Tom Schonberg
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Actual Performance ◽  
Future Performance ◽  
Primary Sensory Cortex ◽  
Subjective Value ◽  
Risk Choice

AbstractHow is effort integrated in value-based decision-making? Animal models and human neuroimaging studies, primarily linked the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and ventral striatum (VS) to the integration of effort in valuation. Other studies demonstrated the role of these regions in invigoration to effort demands, thus it is hard to separate the neural activity linked to anticipation and subjective valuation from actual performance. Here, we studied the neural basis of effort valuation separated from performance. We scanned forty participants with fMRI and they were asked to accept or reject monetary gambles that could be resolved with future performance of a familiar grip force effort challenge or a fixed risk prospect. Participants’ willingness to accept prospective gambles reflected discounting of values by physical effort and risk. Choice-locked neural activation in contralateral primary sensory cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) tracked the magnitude of prospective effort the participants faced, independent of choice time and monetary stakes. Estimates of subjective value discounted by effort were found to be tracked by the activation of a network of regions common to valuation under risk and delay, including vmPFC, VS and sensorimotor cortex. Together, our findings show separate neural mechanisms underlying prospective effort and actual effort performance.

scholarly journals The Neural Basis of Predictive Pursuit

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Bum Michael Yoo ◽  
Jiaxin Cindy Tu ◽  
Steven T. Piantadosi ◽  
Benjamin Yost Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Explicit Representation ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACTIt remains unclear how and to what extent non-human animals make demanding on-the-fly predictions during pursuit. We studied this problem in a novel laboratory pursuit task that incentivizes prediction of future prey positions. We trained three macaques to perform joystick-controlled pursuit of prey that followed intelligent escape algorithms. Subjects reliably aimed towards the prey’s likely future positions, indicating that they generate internal predictions and use those predictions to guide behavior. We then developed a generative model that explains real-time pursuit trajectories and showed that our subjects use prey position, velocity, and acceleration to make predictions. We identified neurons in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) whose responses track these three variables. These neurons multiplexed prediction-related variables with a distinct and explicit representation of the prey’s future position. Our results provide a clear demonstration that the brain can explicitly represent future predictions and highlight the critical role of anterior cingulate cortex for future-oriented cognition.One-sentence summaryIn a dynamic pursuit environment, monkeys actively predict future prey positions and dACC neurons encode these future positions.

scholarly journals Prosocial Effort and the Role of Self-other Overlap

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory John Depow ◽  
Hause Lin ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Physical Effort ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Subjective Value

Effort is aversive and often avoided—even when earning benefits for oneself— yet people sometimes work hard for others. How do people decide who is worth their effort? Prior work has found avoidance of physical effort for strangers. Here, we find people avoid cognitive effort for others relative to themselves, even when the cause is personally meaningful. We suggest that perceived overlap between self and other may underlie prosocial decisions involving effort. In two studies, participants repeatedly decided whether to invest cognitive effort to gain financial rewards for themselves and others. In Study 1, participants were less willing to invest cognitive effort for a charity they elected to support than themselves. In Study 2, participants were more willing to work cognitively for a charity than an intragroup stranger, but again preferred to think to earn rewards for themselves. Computational modeling suggests that, unlike physical effort, cognitive effort discounts the subjective value of rewards linearly. Participants varied in their willingness to invest prosocial effort. Follow-up machine learning analyses indicate that people who represented others more similarly to themselves were more willing to invest effort on their behalf. Our findings suggest that highlighting people’s similarities may be one way to promote prosocial effort.

Microbiota, Immune System and Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Integrative Model towards Novel Treatment Options

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (31) ◽  
pp. 5119-5136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Carpita ◽  
Donatella Marazziti ◽  
Lionella Palego ◽  
Gino Giannaccini ◽  
Laura Betti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Familial Aggregation ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
Intermediate Phenotypes ◽  
Close Relatives

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition strongly associated with genetic predisposition and familial aggregation. Among ASD patients, different levels of symptoms severity are detectable, while the presence of intermediate autism phenotypes in close relatives of ASD probands is also known in literature. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to environmental factors that might play a role in modulating the relationship between genomic risk and development and severity of ASD. Within this framework, an increasing body of evidence has stressed a possible role of both gut microbiota and inflammation in the pathophysiology of neurodevelopment. The aim of this paper is to review findings about the link between microbiota dysbiosis, inflammation and ASD. Methods: Articles ranging from 1990 to 2018 were identified on PUBMED and Google Scholar databases, with keyword combinations as: microbiota, immune system, inflammation, ASD, autism, broad autism phenotype, adult. Results: Recent evidence suggests that microbiota alterations, immune system and neurodevelopment may be deeply intertwined, shaping each other during early life. However, results from both animal models and human samples are still heterogeneous, while few studies focused on adult patients and ASD intermediate phenotypes. Conclusion: A better understanding of these pathways, within an integrative framework between central and peripheral systems, might not only shed more light on neural basis of ASD symptoms, clarifying brain pathophysiology, but it may also allow to develop new therapeutic strategies for these disorders, still poorly responsive to available treatments.

scholarly journals Psychobiological risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in adolescence: a consideration of the role of puberty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany C. Ho ◽  
Anthony J. Gifuni ◽  
Ian H. Gotlib
Keyword(s):  
Pubertal Timing ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Hormonal Changes ◽  
Suicidal Thoughts ◽  
Social Stressors ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Suicidal Thoughts And Behaviors ◽  
Pubertal Transition

AbstractSuicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents. While clinicians and researchers have begun to recognize the importance of considering multidimensional factors in understanding risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) during this developmental period, the role of puberty has been largely ignored. In this review, we contend that the hormonal events that occur during puberty have significant effects on the organization and development of brain systems implicated in the regulation of social stressors, including amygdala, hippocampus, striatum, medial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. Guided by previous experimental work in adults, we also propose that the influence of pubertal hormones and social stressors on neural systems related to risk for STBs is especially critical to consider in adolescents with a neurobiological sensitivity to hormonal changes. Furthermore, facets of the pubertal transition, such as pubertal timing, warrant deeper investigation and may help us gain a more comprehensive understanding of sex differences in the neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms underlying adolescent STBs. Ultimately, advancing our understanding of the pubertal processes that contribute to suicide risk will improve early detection and facilitate the development of more effective, sex-specific, psychiatric interventions for adolescents.

scholarly journals Dispositional empathy predicts primary somatosensory cortex activity while receiving touch by a hand

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Schaefer ◽  
Anja Kühnel ◽  
Franziska Rumpel ◽  
Matti Gärtner
Keyword(s):  
Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Primary Somatosensory Cortex ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Somatosensory Cortices ◽  
Touch Perception ◽  
Trait Empathy ◽  
Human Perceptions ◽  
Dispositional Empathy

AbstractPrevious research revealed an active network of brain areas such as insula and anterior cingulate cortex when witnessing somebody else in pain and feeling empathy. But numerous studies also suggested a role of the somatosensory cortices for state and trait empathy. While recent studies highlight the role of the observer’s primary somatosensory cortex when seeing painful or nonpainful touch, the interaction of somatosensory cortex activity with empathy when receiving touch on the own body is unknown. The current study examines the relationship of touch related somatosensory cortex activity with dispositional empathy by employing an fMRI approach. Participants were touched on the palm of the hand either by the hand of an experimenter or by a rubber hand. We found that the BOLD responses in the primary somatosensory cortex were associated with empathy personality traits personal distress and perspective taking. This relationship was observed when participants were touched both with the experimenter’s real hand or a rubber hand. What is the reason for this link between touch perception and trait empathy? We argue that more empathic individuals may express stronger attention both to other’s human perceptions as well as to the own sensations. In this way, higher dispositional empathy levels might enhance tactile processing by top-down processes. We discuss possible implications of these findings.

scholarly journals Role of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Translational Pain Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-422
Author(s):  
Xiao Xiao ◽  
Ming Ding ◽  
Yu-Qiu Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Pain Research

scholarly journals Brain mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease: a systematic review of symptom-general and –specific lesion patterns

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaojing Chen ◽  
Mingxi Dang ◽  
Zhanjun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Preclinical Ad ◽  
Disease Stages ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment Stage

AbstractNeuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs) are common in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and are associated with accelerated cognitive impairment and earlier deaths. This review aims to explore the neural pathogenesis of NPSs in AD and its association with the progression of AD. We first provide a literature overview on the onset times of NPSs. Different NPSs occur in different disease stages of AD, but most symptoms appear in the preclinical AD or mild cognitive impairment stage and develop progressively. Next, we describe symptom-general and -specific patterns of brain lesions. Generally, the anterior cingulate cortex is a commonly damaged region across all symptoms, and the prefrontal cortex, especially the orbitofrontal cortex, is also a critical region associated with most NPSs. In contrast, the anterior cingulate-subcortical circuit is specifically related to apathy in AD, the frontal-limbic circuit is related to depression, and the amygdala circuit is related to anxiety. Finally, we elucidate the associations between the NPSs and AD by combining the onset time with the neural basis of NPSs.

scholarly journals Corticostriatal Circuits Encode the Subjective Value of Perceived Control

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 5049-5060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kainan S Wang ◽  
Mauricio R Delgado
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Control ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Control Option ◽  
Subjective Value ◽  
Binary Choices ◽  
Mere Presence ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Neural Underpinnings ◽  
Evoked Activity

AbstractThe ability to perceive and exercise control over an outcome is both desirable and beneficial to our well-being. It has been shown that animals and humans alike exhibit behavioral bias towards seeking control and that such bias recruits the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum. Yet, this bias remains to be quantitatively captured and studied neurally. Here, we employed a behavioral task to measure the preference for control and characterize its neural underpinnings. Participants made a series of binary choices between having control and no-control over a game for monetary reward. The mere presence of the control option evoked activity in the ventral striatum. Importantly, we manipulated the expected value (EV) of each choice pair to extract the pairing where participants were equally likely to choose either option. The difference in EV between the options at this point of equivalence was inferred as the subjective value of control. Strikingly, perceiving control inflated the reward value of the associated option by 30% and this value inflation was tracked by the vmPFC. Altogether, these results capture the subjective value of perceived control inherent in decision making and highlight the role of corticostriatal circuitry in the perception of control.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document