Lateral Habenula Inactivation Alters Willingness to Exert Physical Effort Using a Maze Task in Rats

An impairment in willingness to exert physical effort in daily activities is a noted aspect of several psychiatric conditions. Previous studies have supported an important role for the lateral habenula (LHb) in dynamic decision-making, including decisions associated with discounting costly high value rewards. It is unknown whether a willingness to exert physical effort to obtain higher rewards is also mediated by the LHb. It also remains unclear whether the LHb is critical to monitoring the task contingencies generally as they change, or whether it also mediates choices in otherwise static reward environments. The present study indicates that the LHb might have an integrative role in effort-based decision-making even when no alterations in choice contingencies occur. Specifically, pharmacological inactivation of the LHb showed differences in motivational behavior by reducing choices for the high effort (30cm barrier) high reward (2 pellets) choice versus the low effort (0 cm) low reward (1 pellet) choice. In sessions where the barrier was removed, rats demonstrated a similar preference for the high reward arm under both control and LHb inactivation. Further, no differences were observed when accounting for sex as a biological variable. These results support that effort to receive a high-value reward is considered on a trial-by-trial basis and the LHb is part of the circuit responsible for integrating this information during decision-making. Therefore, it is likely that previously observed changes in the LHb may be a key contributor to changes in a willingness to exert effort in psychiatric conditions.

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Strive to Win or Not to Lose? Age-Related Differences in Framing Effects on Effort-Based Decision-Making

The Journals of Gerontology Series B ◽

10.1093/geronb/gbz136 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 75 (10) ◽

pp. 2095-2105 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kaileigh A Byrne ◽

Reza Ghaiumy Anaraky

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Decision Making ◽

Framing Effects ◽

Loss Prevention ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Age Related ◽

Trial Basis ◽

High Effort

Abstract Objectives This study sought to assess how framing effects modulate age-related differences in effort-based decision-making. Consistent with the selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) model’s loss prevention account of aging, we predicted that older adults would be more willing to select high-effort options in loss contexts than gain contexts. Method Older and younger adults completed the effort expenditure for rewards task (EEfRT) in either a gain or loss context. The EEfRT is an effort-based decision-making paradigm in which participants choose between a low-effort, “easy” option and a high-effort, “hard” option for several trials. The probability and value of an outcome varies on a trial-by-trial basis. Results The results supported our prediction and the SOC model. Older adults chose more high-effort, difficult options in loss frames than gain frames. Older adults also chose more low-effort, easy options than younger adults in gain contexts, but did not differ from younger adults in loss contexts. Discussion These findings demonstrate that framing effects impact older adults’ effort-based decisions. Older adults appear willing to incur a greater “cost” in the form of effort to prevent a loss than to attain a reward.

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Effort Allocation in Children With ADHD: Abnormal Decision-Making or Poor Execution?

Journal of Attention Disorders ◽

10.1177/1087054716654569 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 23 (11) ◽

pp. 1240-1250 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yael Winter ◽

Hilla Ben-Pazi ◽

Yehuda Pollak

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Trade Off ◽

Children With Adhd ◽

Effort Allocation ◽

Decision Method ◽

High Reward ◽

High Effort

Objective: Effort allocation is a multi-faceted process driving both the decision to choose a high effort–high reward alternative over a low effort–low reward alternative, and the execution of this decision by recruiting sufficient effort. The objectives of our study were to examine whether children with ADHD would (a) show different reward–effort cost trade-off, and (b) have difficulty executing their decision. Method: 50 children, aged 9 to 15, with and without ADHD, had to choose between high effort–high reward and low effort–low reward alternatives using a handheld dynamometer and to execute their choice. Results: Children with ADHD and controls made similar number of high-effort choices ( p = .806). However, children with ADHD executed their high-effort choices less frequently compared with controls ( p = .029). Conclusion: These findings suggest that children with ADHD are not characterized by different effort–reward trade-off but rather by difficulties in recruiting effort for their preferences implementation.

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Effort Expenditure and Cannabis Use: Testing the Amotivational Hypothesis

10.26828/cannabis.2021.01.000.32 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Samuel Acuff ◽

Nicholas Simon ◽

James Murphy

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Decision Making ◽

Estimating Equation ◽

Reward Processing ◽

Cannabis Use ◽

Generalized Estimating Equation ◽

High Reward ◽

The Us ◽

Goal Directed Behavior ◽

High Effort

Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in the US and appears to have an indirect effect on dopamine (DA) output in the mesolimbic projection, a circuit implicated in reward processing and effort expenditure. Thus, some have suggested that cannabis use might be associated with aberrant effort-based decision making. The most popular theory positing changes in motivation due to cannabis use is the amotivation syndrome hypothesis, which suggests that chronic cannabis use results in impaired executive functioning, arousal, and affective reactivity leading to reduced capacity for goal-directed behavior other than drug seeking. However, only one study has examined this among cannabis users, and the results suggested no difference between cannabis and non-cannabis users. Further, other studies suggest greater effort expenditure among the substance using groups compared to controls. The current study extends these findings by examining the relation between cannabis use and effort-related decision making in a sample of college students. Cannabis using (n = 25) and non-cannabis using (n = 22) students completed the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT), in which participants choose between a ‘hard’ task that requires pressing a button 100 times with the nondominant little finger for a large sum of money (high effort/high reward) or an ‘easy’ task that requires pressing a button 30 times with the dominant index finger for a smaller sum of money (low effort/low reward). Results were then compared between the cannabis and non-cannabis using groups. On average, participants selected the hard trials 46% of the time (SD = 19%). Participants successfully completed the hard trials 74% of the time (SD 29%), while they completed the easy trials 97% of the time (SD = 6%). No participant selected only hard or easy trials during the duration of the task. Cannabis users (M=41.40, SD=3.55) completed significantly fewer trials compared to nonusers (M=43.64, SD=3.74). Further, Nonusers (M=26.82, SD=10.01) selected easy trials significantly more often compared to cannabis users (M=21.40, SD=8.34), and nonusers (M=99%, SD=2%) also successfully completed easy trials more often compared to cannabis users (M=95%, SD=7%). However, cannabis users and nonusers did not differ in the number of hard trials selected (Cannabis users M=16.82, SD=5.67; Nonusers M=16.82, SD=7.68) or the percentage of successfully completed hard trials out of the total number of hard trials (Cannabis users M=72%, SD=27%; Nonusers M=76%, SD =32%). Both the reward magnitude and probability of reward receipt predicted greater likelihood of selecting a hard trial. In generalized estimating equation models, past month cannabis days and cannabis use disorder symptoms predicted the likelihood of selecting a hard trial, such that greater levels of both cannabis use days and symptoms were associated with an increased likelihood after controlling for reward value, probability, and expected value. The results suggest that college students who use cannabis are more likely to expend effort, even after controlling for the magnitude of the reward and the probability of reward receipt, suggesting the possibility for aberrant reward processing, albeit in the opposite direction of the amotivational syndrome hypothesis.

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