Eder Andreas B, Mitschke Vanessa, Leibold Finja, Dignath David, Gamer Matthias
Institute for Psychology, JMU Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2025 Aug 7;3. doi: 10.1162/IMAG.a.100. eCollection 2025.
Habitual action is typically distinguished from goal-directed action by its insensitivity to changes in reward value. There is an ongoing discussion whether this insensitivity is an intrinsic design feature of habits or, rather, a function of the cognitive system that controls these action tendencies. Our preregistered study investigated this issue using functional magnetic resonance imaging of brain activity before and after a reward devaluation in an outcome-selective Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) paradigm. Based on the expected-value-of-control theory, it was hypothesized that neural activity of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) would increase during the presentations of Pavlovian cues associated with a devalued outcome, reflecting increased control allocation in situations predictive of a devalued reward. The behavioral results confirmed an outcome-selective PIT effect that was abolished by devaluing the associated outcome. Contrary to our hypothesis, neuroimaging data revealed that dACC activity decreased during presentations of the associated cue. A comparable reduction was also observed in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the putamen. These findings suggest that the current reward value was accessed during the transfer tests and that devaluation of the action outcome did not enhance cognitive control over associated response tendencies. The study plan and data analyses were peer-reviewed prior to data collection by Peer Community In: Registered Reports (PCI:RR). The Preregistered Stage 1 protocol is available at https://osf.io/k8ygb (date of in-principle acceptance: February 8, 2022; https://rr.peercommunityin.org/articles/rec?id=140). The Stage 2 report was recommended after peer review by PCI:RR at https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.rr.101079 (date of recommendation: July 8, 2025).
习惯性动作通常与目标导向性动作的区别在于，它对奖励价值的变化不敏感。关于这种不敏感性是习惯的内在设计特征，还是控制这些动作倾向的认知系统的一种功能，目前仍在讨论中。我们预先注册的研究在结果选择性巴甫洛夫到工具性转移（PIT）范式中，通过对奖励贬值前后的大脑活动进行功能磁共振成像来研究这个问题。基于控制预期价值理论，我们假设在与贬值结果相关的巴甫洛夫线索呈现期间，背侧前扣带回皮质（dACC）的神经活动会增加，这反映了在预测贬值奖励的情况下控制分配的增加。行为结果证实了一种结果选择性PIT效应，该效应在对相关结果进行贬值后被消除。与我们的假设相反，神经影像学数据显示，在呈现相关线索期间，dACC活动减少。在腹内侧前额叶皮质和壳核中也观察到了类似的减少。这些发现表明，在转移测试期间获取了当前奖励价值，并且动作结果的贬值并没有增强对相关反应倾向的认知控制。在数据收集之前，研究计划和数据分析由同行社区In：注册报告（PCI：RR）进行了同行评审。预先注册的第一阶段方案可在https://osf.io/k8ygb上获取（原则上接受日期：2022年2月8日；https://rr.peercommunityin.org/articles/rec?id=140）。第二阶段报告在PCI：RR的同行评审后于https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.rr.101079被推荐（推荐日期：2025年7月8日）。
