Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA,
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2013 Sep;13(3):437-51. doi: 10.3758/s13415-013-0156-8.
Incentive processing is a critical component of a host of cognitive processes, including attention, motivation, and learning. Neuroimaging studies have clarified the neural systems underlying processing of primary and secondary rewards in adults. However, current reward paradigms have hindered comparisons across these reward types as well as between age groups. To address methodological issues regarding the timing of incentive delivery (during scan vs. postscan) and the age-appropriateness of the incentive type, we utilized fMRI and a modified version of a card-guessing game (CGG), in which candy pieces delivered postscan served as the reinforcer, to investigate neural responses to incentives. Healthy young adults 22-26 years of age won and lost large and small amounts of candy on the basis of their ability to guess the number on a mystery card. BOLD activity was compared following candy gain (large/small), loss (large/small), and neutral feedback. During candy gains, adults recruited regions typically involved in response to monetary and other rewards, such as the caudate, putamen, and orbitofrontal cortex. During losses, they displayed greater deactivation in the hippocampus than in response to neutral and gain feedback. Additionally, individual-difference analyses suggested a negative relationship between reward sensitivity (assessed by the Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation Scales) and the difference between high- and low-magnitude losses in the caudate and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. Also within the striatum, greater punishment sensitivity was positively related to the difference in activity following high as compared to low gains. Overall, these results show strong overlap with those from previous monetary versions of the CGG and provide a baseline for future work with developmental populations.
激励加工是许多认知过程的关键组成部分，包括注意力、动机和学习。神经影像学研究阐明了成人初级和次级奖励加工的神经系统。然而，目前的奖励范式阻碍了对这些奖励类型以及不同年龄组之间的比较。为了解决关于激励传递时机（扫描期间与扫描后）和激励类型的年龄适宜性的方法学问题，我们利用 fMRI 和卡片猜测游戏（CGG）的修改版本，其中扫描后提供的糖果作为强化物，研究了对激励的神经反应。健康的年轻成年人（22-26 岁）根据猜测神秘卡片上数字的能力赢得和失去大、小数量的糖果。在糖果获得（大/小）、损失（大/小）和中性反馈后，比较了 BOLD 活动。在糖果获得期间，成年人招募了通常涉及货币和其他奖励反应的区域，如尾状核、壳核和眶额皮层。在损失期间，他们在海马体中的失活程度大于对中性和获得反馈的失活程度。此外，个体差异分析表明，奖励敏感性（通过行为抑制/行为激活量表评估）与尾状核和外侧眶额皮层中高低幅度损失之间的差异之间存在负相关。此外，在纹状体中，与低增益相比，较高的惩罚敏感性与高增益后活动的差异呈正相关。总的来说，这些结果与以前的 CGG 货币版本的结果有很强的重叠，并为未来的发展人群工作提供了基线。
