Disentangling the neuronal mechanisms of motivational biases of decision making
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2017-08-01
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en
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Motivations can influence people’s behavior. For example, reward often leads to action invigoration and punishment to action inhibition. This coupling between action and valence is a motivational bias. Recent work has shown that this bias may arise in two separate ways: as a Pavlovian bias, where the valence of a cue elicits preprogrammed responses, and as an instrumental learning bias, in which action-valence associations in line with the motivational bias are better learned than those that are not. In this work, we aim to disentangle the neuronal mechanisms that drive each of these biases, by looking at processing of cues (Pavlovian bias) and outcomes (instrumental learning bias). We will focus particularly on the striatum, which has been related to both cue-driven action-valence coupling and processing of motivational outcomes. We scanned 20 subjects using fMRI while they performed a motivational Go/NoGo task, in which they had to learn which action in response to a cue was necessary in order to gain a reward or avoid a punishment. There was clear behavioral evidence that a motivational bias was present, valence influenced the behavior of subjects. However, the expected striatal mechanisms for the Pavlovian and instrumental learning bias were not present. Future research is necessary to investigate these neuronal mechanisms further. For example, more subjects could be analyzed and region specific analyses could be performed.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen