Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, and JARA-Translational Brain Medicine, Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2010 Feb 15;49(4):3276-85. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.089. Epub 2009 Nov 12.
Human behaviour is generally guided by the anticipation of potential outcomes that are considered to be rewarding. Reward processing can thus be dissected into a phase of reward anticipation and a phase of reward consumption. A number of brain structures have been suggested to be involved in reward processing. However, it is unclear whether anticipation and consumption are mediated by the same or different neural networks. We examined the neural basis of these processes using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in an incentive delay task offering either money or social approval. In both conditions participants (N=28) were given a cue indicating potential reward. In order to receive reward a target button had to be pushed within a certain time window (adapted for individual reaction time). Cues triggering either monetary or social reward anticipation were presented sessionwise. Imaging was performed on a 1.5-Tesla Philips scanner in an event-related design. Anticipation of both reward types activated brain structures constituting the brain reward system including the ventral striatum. In contrast to the task independent activity in the anticipation phase, reward consumption evoked different patterns of activation for money and social approval, respectively. While social stimuli were mainly associated with amygdala activation, the thalamus was more strongly activated by the presentation of monetary rewards. Our results identify dissociable neural networks for the anticipation and consumption of reward. The findings implicate that the neural mechanisms underlying reward consumption are more modality-specific than those for reward anticipation, and that they are mediated by subjective reward value.
人类行为通常受到对被认为有回报的潜在结果的预期的指导。因此，奖励处理可以分为奖励预期阶段和奖励消费阶段。有许多脑结构被认为参与了奖励处理。然而，尚不清楚预期和消费是由相同的还是不同的神经网络介导的。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）在提供金钱或社会认可的激励延迟任务中检查了这些过程的神经基础。在两种情况下，参与者（N=28）都收到了一个表示潜在奖励的提示。为了获得奖励，必须在一定的时间窗口内按下目标按钮（针对个体反应时间进行了调整）。触发金钱或社会奖励预期的提示会在会话中呈现。成像在 1.5 特斯拉飞利浦扫描仪上以事件相关设计进行。两种奖励类型的预期都激活了构成大脑奖励系统的脑结构，包括腹侧纹状体。与预期阶段的任务无关的活动相反，奖励消费分别引发了金钱和社会认可的不同激活模式。虽然社会刺激主要与杏仁核激活相关，但丘脑在呈现金钱奖励时被更强烈地激活。我们的研究结果确定了奖励预期和消费的分离神经网络。研究结果表明，奖励消费的神经机制比奖励预期的神经机制更具模态特异性，并且由主观奖励价值介导。
