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Neville V, Mendl M, Paul ES, Seriès P, Dayan P. A primer on the use of computational modelling to investigate affective states, affective disorders and animal welfare in non-human animals. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2024; 24:370-383. [PMID: 38036937 PMCID: PMC11039423 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-023-01137-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Abstract
Objective measures of animal emotion-like and mood-like states are essential for preclinical studies of affective disorders and for assessing the welfare of laboratory and other animals. However, the development and validation of measures of these affective states poses a challenge partly because the relationships between affect and its behavioural, physiological and cognitive signatures are complex. Here, we suggest that the crisp characterisations offered by computational modelling of the underlying, but unobservable, processes that mediate these signatures should provide better insights. Although this computational psychiatry approach has been widely used in human research in both health and disease, translational computational psychiatry studies remain few and far between. We explain how building computational models with data from animal studies could play a pivotal role in furthering our understanding of the aetiology of affective disorders, associated affective states and the likely underlying cognitive processes involved. We end by outlining the basic steps involved in a simple computational analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vikki Neville
- Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Langford, UK.
| | - Michael Mendl
- Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Langford, UK
| | | | - Peggy Seriès
- Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Peter Dayan
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics & University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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2
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Ullsperger M. Beyond peaks and troughs: Multiplexed performance monitoring signals in the EEG. Psychophysiology 2024:e14553. [PMID: 38415791 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2023] [Revised: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 02/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
With the discovery of event-related potentials elicited by errors more than 30 years ago, a new avenue of research on performance monitoring, cognitive control, and decision making emerged. Since then, the field has developed and expanded fulminantly. After a brief overview on the EEG correlates of performance monitoring, this article reviews recent advancements based on single-trial analyses using independent component analysis, multiple regression, and multivariate pattern classification. Given the close interconnection between performance monitoring and reinforcement learning, computational modeling and model-based EEG analyses have made a particularly strong impact. The reviewed findings demonstrate that error- and feedback-related EEG dynamics represent variables reflecting how performance-monitoring signals are weighted and transformed into an adaptation signal that guides future decisions and actions. The model-based single-trial analysis approach goes far beyond conventional peak-and-trough analyses of event-related potentials and enables testing mechanistic theories of performance monitoring, cognitive control, and decision making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus Ullsperger
- Department of Neuropsychology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
- Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Halle-Jena-Magdeburg, Germany
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3
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Kirschner H, Nassar MR, Fischer AG, Frodl T, Meyer-Lotz G, Froböse S, Seidenbecher S, Klein TA, Ullsperger M. Transdiagnostic inflexible learning dynamics explain deficits in depression and schizophrenia. Brain 2024; 147:201-214. [PMID: 38058203 PMCID: PMC10766268 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awad362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2023] [Revised: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Deficits in reward learning are core symptoms across many mental disorders. Recent work suggests that such learning impairments arise by a diminished ability to use reward history to guide behaviour, but the neuro-computational mechanisms through which these impairments emerge remain unclear. Moreover, limited work has taken a transdiagnostic approach to investigate whether the psychological and neural mechanisms that give rise to learning deficits are shared across forms of psychopathology. To provide insight into this issue, we explored probabilistic reward learning in patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (n = 33) or schizophrenia (n = 24) and 33 matched healthy controls by combining computational modelling and single-trial EEG regression. In our task, participants had to integrate the reward history of a stimulus to decide whether it is worthwhile to gamble on it. Adaptive learning in this task is achieved through dynamic learning rates that are maximal on the first encounters with a given stimulus and decay with increasing stimulus repetitions. Hence, over the course of learning, choice preferences would ideally stabilize and be less susceptible to misleading information. We show evidence of reduced learning dynamics, whereby both patient groups demonstrated hypersensitive learning (i.e. less decaying learning rates), rendering their choices more susceptible to misleading feedback. Moreover, there was a schizophrenia-specific approach bias and a depression-specific heightened sensitivity to disconfirmational feedback (factual losses and counterfactual wins). The inflexible learning in both patient groups was accompanied by altered neural processing, including no tracking of expected values in either patient group. Taken together, our results thus provide evidence that reduced trial-by-trial learning dynamics reflect a convergent deficit across depression and schizophrenia. Moreover, we identified disorder distinct learning deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hans Kirschner
- Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Matthew R Nassar
- Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912-1821, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912-1821, USA
| | - Adrian G Fischer
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Thomas Frodl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen 52074, Germany
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
- Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Jena-Magdeburg-Halle, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Gabriela Meyer-Lotz
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Sören Froböse
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Stephanie Seidenbecher
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Tilmann A Klein
- Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Markus Ullsperger
- Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
- Center for Intervention and Research on adaptive and maladaptive brain Circuits underlying mental health (C-I-R-C), Jena-Magdeburg-Halle, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
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Ben-Artzi I, Kessler Y, Nicenboim B, Shahar N. Computational mechanisms underlying latent value updating of unchosen actions. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadi2704. [PMID: 37862419 PMCID: PMC10588947 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi2704] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2023] [Accepted: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 10/22/2023]
Abstract
Current studies suggest that individuals estimate the value of their choices based on observed feedback. Here, we ask whether individuals also update the value of their unchosen actions, even when the associated feedback remains unknown. One hundred seventy-eight individuals completed a multi-armed bandit task, making choices to gain rewards. We found robust evidence suggesting latent value updating of unchosen actions based on the chosen action's outcome. Computational modeling results suggested that this effect is mainly explained by a value updating mechanism whereby individuals integrate the outcome history for choosing an option with that of rejecting the alternative. Properties of the deliberation (i.e., duration/difficulty) did not moderate the latent value updating of unchosen actions, suggesting that memory traces generated during deliberation might take a smaller role in this specific phenomenon than previously thought. We discuss the mechanisms facilitating credit assignment to unchosen actions and their implications for human decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ido Ben-Artzi
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Minducate Science of Learning Research and Innovation Center of the Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Yoav Kessler
- Department of Psychology and School of Brain Sciences and Cognition, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel
| | - Bruno Nicenboim
- Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
| | - Nitzan Shahar
- School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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Pupillo F, Bruckner R. Signed and unsigned effects of prediction error on memory: Is it a matter of choice? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 153:105371. [PMID: 37633626 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105371] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 08/18/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 08/28/2023]
Abstract
Adaptive decision-making is governed by at least two types of memory processes. On the one hand, learned predictions through integrating multiple experiences, and on the other hand, one-shot episodic memories. These two processes interact, and predictions - particularly prediction errors - influence how episodic memories are encoded. However, studies using computational models disagree on the exact shape of this relationship, with some findings showing an effect of signed prediction errors and others showing an effect of unsigned prediction errors on episodic memory. We argue that the choice-confirmation bias, which reflects stronger learning from choice-confirming compared to disconfirming outcomes, could explain these seemingly diverging results. Our perspective implies that the influence of prediction errors on episodic encoding critically depends on whether people can freely choose between options (i.e., instrumental learning tasks) or not (Pavlovian learning tasks). The choice-confirmation bias on memory encoding might have evolved to prioritize memory representations that optimize reward-guided decision-making. We conclude by discussing open issues and implications for future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Pupillo
- Department of Psychology, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany; Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Netherlands.
| | - Rasmus Bruckner
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Max Planck Research Group NeuroCode, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
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Kirschner H, Fischer AG, Ullsperger M. Feedback-related EEG dynamics separately reflect decision parameters, biases, and future choices. Neuroimage 2022; 259:119437. [PMID: 35788041 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2022] [Revised: 06/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Optimal decision making in complex environments requires dynamic learning from unexpected events. To speed up learning, we should heavily weight information that indicates state-action-outcome contingency changes and ignore uninformative fluctuations in the environment. Often, however, unrelated information is hard to ignore and can potentially bias our learning. Here we used computational modelling and EEG to investigate learning behaviour in a modified probabilistic choice task that introduced two task-irrelevant factors that were uninformative for optimal task performance, but nevertheless could potentially bias learning: pay-out magnitudes were varied randomly and, occasionally, feedback presentation was enhanced by visual surprise. We found that participants' overall good learning performance was biased by distinct effects of these non-normative factors. On the neural level, these parameters are represented in a dynamic and spatiotemporally dissociable sequence of EEG activity. Later in feedback processing the different streams converged on a central to centroparietal positivity reflecting a signal that is interpreted by downstream learning processes that adjust future behaviour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hans Kirschner
- Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany.
| | - Adrian G Fischer
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Markus Ullsperger
- Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany
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Palminteri S, Lebreton M. The computational roots of positivity and confirmation biases in reinforcement learning. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:607-621. [PMID: 35662490 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.04.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 04/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Humans do not integrate new information objectively: outcomes carrying a positive affective value and evidence confirming one's own prior belief are overweighed. Until recently, theoretical and empirical accounts of the positivity and confirmation biases assumed them to be specific to 'high-level' belief updates. We present evidence against this account. Learning rates in reinforcement learning (RL) tasks, estimated across different contexts and species, generally present the same characteristic asymmetry, suggesting that belief and value updating processes share key computational principles and distortions. This bias generates over-optimistic expectations about the probability of making the right choices and, consequently, generates over-optimistic reward expectations. We discuss the normative and neurobiological roots of these RL biases and their position within the greater picture of behavioral decision-making theories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Palminteri
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Computationnelles, Institut National de la Santé et Recherche Médicale, Paris, France; Département d'Études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France; Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, Paris, France.
| | - Maël Lebreton
- Paris School of Economics, Paris, France; LabNIC, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Science, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Hartmann A, Atkinson-Clement C, Depienne C, Black K. Tourette syndrome research highlights from 2020. F1000Res 2022; 11:45. [PMID: 35464046 PMCID: PMC9021667 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.75628.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
We present here research from 2020 relevant to Tourette syndrome (TS). The authors briefly summarize a few reports they consider most important or interesting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas Hartmann
- Department of Neurology, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, 75013, France
| | | | - Christel Depienne
- Institute of Human Genetics,, University Hospital Essen, Essen, 45122, Germany
| | - Kevin Black
- Department of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, 63110, USA
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Lefebvre G, Summerfield C, Bogacz R. A Normative Account of Confirmation Bias During Reinforcement Learning. Neural Comput 2021; 34:307-337. [PMID: 34758486 DOI: 10.1162/neco_a_01455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Reinforcement learning involves updating estimates of the value of states and actions on the basis of experience. Previous work has shown that in humans, reinforcement learning exhibits a confirmatory bias: when the value of a chosen option is being updated, estimates are revised more radically following positive than negative reward prediction errors, but the converse is observed when updating the unchosen option value estimate. Here, we simulate performance on a multi-arm bandit task to examine the consequences of a confirmatory bias for reward harvesting. We report a paradoxical finding: that confirmatory biases allow the agent to maximize reward relative to an unbiased updating rule. This principle holds over a wide range of experimental settings and is most influential when decisions are corrupted by noise. We show that this occurs because on average, confirmatory biases lead to overestimating the value of more valuable bandits and underestimating the value of less valuable bandits, rendering decisions overall more robust in the face of noise. Our results show how apparently suboptimal learning rules can in fact be reward maximizing if decisions are made with finite computational precision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Germain Lefebvre
- MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, U.K.
| | | | - Rafal Bogacz
- MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, U.K.
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