Inferring affect from fMRI data

Overuse injury and affects in competitive sport: A prospective longitudinal study

Overuse injuries, which have a high prevalence in sport, are suggested to result in different affective responses in comparison to traumatic injuries. Affects may also reciprocally act as risk factors for overuse injury. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between overuse injury and affects within a longitudinal follow-up design. Competitive athletes (N = 149) of various sports and levels of competition completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre Overuse injury questionnaire (OSTRC-O) once a week over 10 consecutive weeks. Bivariate unconditional latent curve model analyses with structured residuals were performed to evaluate the associations within and across weeks between OSTRC-O severity score and affects. Results indicated that OSTRC-O severity score and positive affects (PA) had a statistically significant negative within-week relation (r = -24.51, 95% CI = [-33.9, -15.1], p < 0.001). Higher scores of overuse injury were significantly related to lower levels of PA across weeks (ß = -0.02, 95% CI = [-0.04, -0.001], p = 0.044), while the reciprocal effect of PA on overuse injury was not significant (ß = -0.13, 95% CI = [-0.52, 0.26], p = 0.51). No statistically significant association was observed between OSTRC-O severity score and negative affects, neither within nor across weeks. Our findings suggest that overuse injury may have adverse psychological consequences on the long run through lessened PA and address the need for providing sustainable psychological support focusing upon such PA when working with athletes experiencing overuse injury.

Blunted Neurobehavioral Loss Anticipation Predicts Relapse to Stimulant Drug Use

BACKGROUND

Patients with stimulant use disorder experience high rates of relapse. While neurobehavioral mechanisms involved in initiating drug use have been studied extensively, less research has focused on relapse.

METHODS

To assess motivational processes involved in relapse and diagnosis, we acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging responses to nondrug (monetary) gains and losses in detoxified patients with stimulant use disorder (n = 68) and community control participants (n = 42). In a prospective multimodal design, we combined imaging of brain function, brain structure, and behavior to longitudinally track subsequent risk for relapse.

RESULTS

At the 6-month follow-up assessment, 27 patients remained abstinent, but 33 had relapsed. Patients with blunted anterior insula (AIns) activity during loss anticipation were more likely to relapse, an association that remained robust after controlling for potential confounds (i.e., craving, negative mood, years of use, age, and gender). Lower AIns activity during loss anticipation was associated with lower self-reported negative arousal to loss cues and slower behavioral responses to avoid losses, which also independently predicted relapse. Furthermore, AIns activity during loss anticipation was associated with the structural coherence of a tract connecting the AIns and the nucleus accumbens, as was functional connectivity between the AIns and nucleus accumbens during loss processing. However, these neurobehavioral responses did not differ between patients and control participants.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, the results of the current study show that neurobehavioral markers predicted relapse above and beyond conventional self-report measures, with a cross-validated accuracy of 72.7%. These findings offer convergent multimodal evidence that implicates blunted avoidance motivation in relapse to stimulant use and may therefore guide interventions targeting individuals who are most vulnerable to relapse.

A multi-sample evaluation of the measurement structure and function of the modified monetary incentive delay task in adolescents

Interpreting the neural response elicited during task functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) remains a challenge in neurodevelopmental research. The monetary incentive delay (MID) task is an fMRI reward processing task that is extensively used in the literature. However, modern psychometric tools have not been used to evaluate measurement properties of the MID task fMRI data. The current study uses data for a similar task design across three adolescent samples (N = 346 [Agemean 12.0; 44 % Female]; N = 97 [19.3; 58 %]; N = 112 [20.2; 38 %]) to evaluate multiple measurement properties of fMRI responses on the MID task. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to evaluate an a priori theoretical model for the task and its measurement invariance across three samples. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to identify the data-driven measurement structure across the samples. CFA results suggest that the a priori model is a poor representation of these MID task fMRI data. Across the samples, the data-driven EFA models consistently identify a six-to-seven factor structure with run and bilateral brain region factors. This factor structure is moderately-to-highly congruent across the samples. Altogether, these findings demonstrate a need to evaluate theoretical frameworks for popular fMRI task designs to improve our understanding and interpretation of brain-behavior associations.

The influence of insight on risky decision making and nucleus accumbens activation

During insightful problem solving, the solution appears unexpectedly and is accompanied by the feeling of an AHA!. Research suggests that this affective component of insight can have consequences beyond the solution itself by motivating future behavior, such as risky (high reward and high uncertainty) decision making. Here, we investigate the behavioral and neural support for the motivational role of AHA in decision making involving monetary choices. The positive affect of the AHA! experience has been linked to internal reward. Reward in turn has been linked to dopaminergic signal transmission in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) and risky decision making. Therefore, we hypothesized that insight activates reward-related brain areas, modulating risky decision making. We tested this hypothesis in two studies. First, in a pre-registered online study (Study 1), we demonstrated the behavioral effect of insight-related increase in risky decision making using a visual Mooney identification paradigm. Participants were more likely to choose the riskier monetary payout when they had previously solved the Mooney image with high compared to low accompanied AHA!. Second, in an fMRI study (Study 2), we measured the effects of insight on NAcc activity using a similar Mooney identification paradigm to the one of Study 1. Greater NAcc activity was found when participants solved the Mooney image with high vs low AHA!. Taken together, our results link insight to enhanced NAcc activity and a preference for high but uncertain rewards, suggesting that insight enhances reward-related brain areas possibly via dopaminergic signal transmission, promoting risky decision making.

Appetitive and aversive cue reactivities differentiate neural subtypes of alcohol drinkers

Craving reflects the subjective urge to use drugs and can be triggered by both positive and negative emotional states. No studies have systematically investigated the relative roles of these mechanisms in the pathophysiology of substance misuse. Here, we performed meta-analyses of drug cue-elicited reactivity and win and loss processing in the monetary incentive delay task to identify distinct neural correlates of appetitive and aversive responses to drug cues. We then characterized the appetitive and aversive cue responses in seventy-six alcohol drinkers performing a cue craving task during fMRI. Imaging data were processed according to published routines. The appetitive circuit involved medial cortical regions and the ventral striatum, and the aversive circuit involved the insula, caudate and mid-cingulate cortex. We observed a significant correlation of cue-elicited activity (β estimates) of the appetitive and aversive circuit. However, individuals varied in appetitive and aversive cue responses. From the regression of appetitive (y) vs. aversive (x) β, we identified participants in the top 1/3 each of those with positive and negative residuals as "approach" (n = 15) and "avoidance" (n = 11) and the others as the "mixed" (n = 50) subtype. In clinical characteristics, the avoidance subtype showed higher sensitivity to punishment and, in contrast, the approach subtype showed higher levels of sensation seeking and alcohol expectancy for social and physical pressure. The findings highlighted distinct neural underpinnings of appetitive and aversive components of cue-elicited reactivity and provided evidence for potential subtypes of alcohol drinkers.

The prediction of market-level food choices by the neural valuation signal

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the ability to use the brain activity of a group of individuals to forecast the behavior of an independent group. In the current study, we attempted to forecast aggregate choices in a popular restaurant chain. During our functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 22 participants were exposed to 78 photos of dishes from a new menu of a popular restaurant chain. In addition to self-reported preferences, fMRI data was extracted from an a priori domain-general and task-specific region of interest-the ventral striatum. We investigated the relationship between the neural activity and real one-year sales provided by the restaurant chain. Activity in the ventral striatum, which was defined using the task-specific region of interest, significantly correlated (r = 0.28, p = 0.01) with one-year sales. A regression analysis, which included ventral striatum activity together with the objective characteristics of the products (price and weight), behavioral, and survey data, showed R2 values of 0.33. Overall, our results confirm prior studies, which have suggested, that brain activity in the reward system of a relatively small number of individuals can forecast the aggregate choice of a larger independent group of people.

Exposure to negative socio-emotional events induces sustained alteration of resting-state brain networks in older adults

Basic emotional functions seem well preserved in older adults. However, their reactivity to and recovery from socially negative events remain poorly characterized. To address this, we designed a 'task-rest' paradigm in which 182 participants from two independent experiments underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while exposed to socio-emotional videos. Experiment 1 (N = 55) validated the task in young and older participants and unveiled age-dependent effects on brain activity and connectivity that predominated in resting periods after (rather than during) negative social scenes. Crucially, emotional elicitation potentiated subsequent resting-state connectivity between default mode network and amygdala exclusively in older adults. Experiment 2 replicated these results in a large older adult cohort (N = 127) and additionally showed that emotion-driven changes in posterior default mode network-amygdala connectivity were associated with anxiety, rumination and negative thoughts. These findings uncover the neural dynamics of empathy-related functions in older adults and help understand its relationship to poor social stress recovery.

Transcranial Electrical Neurostimulation as a Potential Addiction Treatment

Addiction remains difficult to treat, but non-invasive transcranial electrical and magnetic neurostimulation methods may provide promising and cost-effective treatment approaches. We provide a narrative review of recent developments and evidence of effectiveness and consider newer technology that may yield improved treatment approaches. In particular, we review temporal interference electrical neurostimulation, which allows non-invasive and focal stimulation of deep brain regions. This provides a promising new potential approach to treat addiction, because many of the brain regions that seem most important for addiction are deeper in the brain, out of reach of existing technologies such as transcranial direct current stimulation.

Replication of neural responses to monetary incentives and exploration of reward-influenced network connectivity in fibromyalgia

Neuroimaging research has begun to implicate alterations of brain reward systems in chronic pain. Previously, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a monetary incentive delay (MID) task, Martucci et al. (2018) showed that neural responses to reward anticipation and outcome are altered in fibromyalgia. In the present study, we aimed to test the replicability of these altered neural responses to reward in a separate fibromyalgia cohort. In addition, the present study was conducted at a distinct U.S. location but involved a similar study design. For the present study, 20 patients with fibromyalgia and 20 healthy controls participated in MID task fMRI scan procedures and completed clinical/psychological questionnaires. fMRI analyses comparing patient and control groups revealed a consistent trend of main results which were largely similar to the prior reported results. Specifically, in the replication fibromyalgia cohort, medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) response was reduced during gain anticipation and was increased during no-loss (non-punishment) outcome compared to controls. Also consistent with previous findings, the nucleus accumbens response to gain anticipation did not differ in patients vs. controls. Further, results from similarly-designed behavioral, correlational, and exploratory analyses were complementary to previous findings. Finally, a novel network-based functional connectivity analysis of the MID task fMRI data across patients vs. controls implied enhanced connectivity within the default mode network in participants with fibromyalgia. Together, based on replicating prior univariate results and new network-based functional connectivity analyses of MID task fMRI data, we provide further evidence of altered brain reward responses, particularly in the MPFC response to reward outcomes, in patients with fibromyalgia.

Disentangling the Skeins of Brain

Some have argued that the brain is so complex that it cannot be understood using current reductive approaches. Drawing on examples from decision neuroscience, we instead contend that combining new neuroscientific techniques with reductive approaches that consider central brain components in time and space has generated significant progress over the past 2 decades. This progress has allowed researchers to advance from the scientific goals of description and explanation to prediction and control. Resulting knowledge promises to improve human health and well-being. As an alternative to the extremes of reductive versus emergent approaches, however, we propose a middle way of "expansion." This expansionist approach promises to leverage the specific spatial localization, temporal precision, and directed connectivity of central neural components to ultimately link levels of analysis.

Neural heterogeneity underlying late adolescent motivational processing is linked to individual differences in behavioral sensation seeking

Adolescent risk-taking, including sensation seeking (SS), is often attributed to developmental changes in connectivity among brain regions implicated in cognitive control and reward processing. Despite considerable scientific and popular interest in this neurodevelopmental framework, there are few empirical investigations of adolescent functional connectivity, let alone examinations of its links to SS behavior. The studies that have been done focus on mean-based approaches and leave unanswered questions about individual differences in neurodevelopment and behavior. The goal of this paper is to take a person-specific approach to the study of adolescent functional connectivity during a continuous motivational state, and to examine links between connectivity and self-reported SS behavior in 104 adolescents (M_Age  = 19.3; SD_Age  = 1.3). Using Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation (GIMME), person-specific connectivity during two neuroimaging runs of a monetary incentive delay task was estimated among 12 a priori brain regions of interest representing reward, cognitive, and salience networks. Two data-driven subgroups were detected, a finding that was consistent between both neuroimaging runs, but associations with SS were only found in the first run, potentially reflecting neural habituation in the second run. Specifically, the subgroup that had unique connections between reward-related regions had greater SS and showed a distinctive relation between connectivity strength in the reward regions and SS. These findings provide novel evidence for heterogeneity in adolescent brain-behavior relations by showing that subsets of adolescents have unique associations between neural motivational processing and SS. Findings have broader implications for future work on reward processing, as they demonstrate that brain-behavior relations may attenuate across runs.

Mood disorders disrupt the functional dynamics, not spatial organization of brain resting state networks

Spontaneous fluctuations in the blood oxygenation level dependent signal measured through resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging have been corroborated to aggregate into multiple functional networks. Abnormal resting brain activity is observed in mood disorder patients, however with inconsistent results. How do such alterations relate to clinical symptoms; e.g., level of depression and rumination tendencies? Here we recovered spatially and temporally overlapping functional networks from 31 mood disorder patients and healthy controls during rest, by applying novel methods that identify transient changes in spontaneous brain activity. Our unique approach disentangles the dynamic engagement of resting-state networks unconstrained by the slow hemodynamic response. This time-varying characterization provides moment-to-moment information about functional networks in terms of their durations and dynamic coupling, and offers novel evidence for selective contributionsto particular clinical symptoms. Patients showed increased duration of default-mode network (DMN), increased duration and occurrence of posterior DMN as well as insula- and amygdala-centered networks, but decreased occurrence of visual and anterior salience networks. Coupling between limbic (insula and amygdala) networks was also reduced. Depression level modulated DMN duration, whereas intrusive thoughts correlated with occurrence of insula and posterior DMN. Anatomical network organization was similar to controls. In sum, altered brain dynamics in mood disorder patients appear to mediate distinct clinical dimensions including increased self-processing, and decreased attention to external world.

Striatal and septo-hypothalamic responses to anticipation and outcome of affiliative rewards

Humans are intrinsically motivated to bond with others. The ability to experience affiliative emotions (such as affection/tenderness, sexual attraction, and admiration/awe) may incentivize and promote these affiliative bonds. Here, we interrogate the role of the critical reward circuitry, especially the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) and the septo-hypothalamic region, in the anticipation of and response to affiliative rewards using a novel incentive delay task. During Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI), participants (n = 23 healthy humans; 14 female) anticipated and watched videos involving affiliative (tenderness, erotic desire, and awe) and nonaffiliative (i.e., food) rewards, as well as neutral scenes. On the one hand, anticipation of both affiliative and nonaffiliative rewards increased activity in the NAcc, anterior insula, and supplementary motor cortex, but activity in the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) increased in response to reward outcomes. On the other hand, affiliative rewards more specifically increased activity in the septo-hypothalamic area. Moreover, NAcc activity during anticipation correlated with positive arousal for all rewards, whereas septo-hypothalamic activity during the outcome correlated with positive arousal and motivation for subsequent re-exposure only for affiliative rewards. Together, these findings implicate a general appetitive response in the NAcc to different types of rewards but suggests a more specific response in the septo-hypothalamic region in response to affiliative rewards outcomes. This work also presents a new task for distinguishing between neural responses to affiliative and non-affiliative rewards.

Dynamic functional brain networks underlying the temporal inertia of negative emotions

Affective inertia represents the lasting impact of transient emotions at one time point on affective state at a subsequent time point. Here we describe the neural underpinnings of inertia following negative emotions elicited by sad events in movies. Using a co-activation pattern analysis of dynamic functional connectivity, we examined the temporal expression and reciprocal interactions among brain-wide networks during movies and subsequent resting periods in twenty healthy subjects. Our findings revealed distinctive spatiotemporal expression of visual (VIS), default mode (DMN), central executive (CEN), and frontoparietal control (FPCN) networks both in negative movies and in rest periods following these movies. We also identified different reciprocal relationships among these networks, in transitions from movie to rest. While FPCN and DMN expression increased during and after negative movies, respectively, FPCN occurrences during the movie predicted lower DMN and higher CEN expression during subsequent rest after neutral movies, but this relationship was reversed after the elicitation of negative emotions. Changes in FPCN and DMN activity correlated with more negative subjective affect. These findings provide new insights into the transient interactions of intrinsic brain networks underpinning the inertia of negative emotions. More specifically, they describe a major role of FPCN in emotion elicitation processes, with prolonged impact on DMN activity in subsequent rest, presumably involved in emotion regulation and restoration of homeostatic balance after negative events.

Age and intranasal oxytocin effects on trust-related decisions after breach of trust: Behavioral and brain evidence

Age-related differences in cognition and socioemotional functions, and in associated brain regions, may reduce sensitivity to cues of untrustworthiness, with effects on trust-related decision making and trusting behavior. This study examined age-group differences in brain activity and behavior during a trust game. In this game, participants received "breach-of-trust" feedback after half of the trials. The feedback indicated that only 50% of the monetary investment into their fellow players had resulted in returns. The study also explored the effects of intranasal oxytocin on trust-related decisions in aging, based on suggestions of a modulatory role of oxytocin in response to negative social stimuli and perceptions of trust. Forty-seven younger and 46 older participants self-administered intranasal oxytocin or placebo, in a randomized, double-blind, between-subjects procedure, before they engaged in the trust game while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Younger participants invested less into their game partners after breach-of-trust feedback, while older participants showed no significant difference in their investment after breach-of-trust feedback. Oxytocin did not modulate the behavioral effects. However, after breach-of-trust feedback, older participants in the oxytocin group showed less activity in the left superior temporal gyrus. In contrast, older participants in the placebo group showed more activity in left superior temporal gyrus after breach of trust. The findings may reflect reduced responsiveness to cues of untrustworthiness in older adults. Furthermore, the modulatory effect of oxytocin on left superior temporal gyrus activity among older adults supports the neuropeptide's age-differential role in neural processes in aging, including in the context of trust-related decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Anxiety during abstinence from alcohol: A systematic review of rodent and human evidence for the anterior insula's role in the abstinence network

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a chronic, relapsing disease that impacts almost a third of Americans. Despite effective treatments for attaining sobriety, the majority of patients relapse within a year, making relapse a substantial barrier to long-term treatment success. A major factor contributing to relapse is heightened negative affect that results from the combination of abstinence-related increases in stress-reactivity and decreases in reward sensitivity. Substantial research has contributed to the understanding of reward-related changes in AUD. However, less is known about anxiety during abstinence, a critical component of understanding addiction as anxiety during abstinence can trigger relapse. Most of what we know about abstinence-related negative affect comes from rodent studies which have identified key brain regions responsible for abstinence-related behaviors. This abstinence network is composed of brain regions that make up the extended amygdala: the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA), and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). More recently, emerging evidence from rodent and human studies suggests a fourth brain region, the anterior insula, might be part of the abstinence network. Here, we review current rodent and human literature on the extended amygdala's role in alcohol abstinence and anxiety, present evidence for the anterior insula's role in the abstinence network, and provide future directions for research to further elucidate the neural underpinnings of abstinence in humans. A better understanding of the abstinence network is critical toward understanding and possibly preventing relapse in AUD.

White-matter tract connecting anterior insula to nucleus accumbens predicts greater future motivation in adolescents

The motivation to approach or avoid incentives can change during adolescence. Advances in neuroimaging allow researchers to characterize specific brain circuits that underlie these developmental changes. Whereas activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) can predict approach toward incentive gain, activity in anterior insula (AIns) is associated with avoidance of incentive loss. Recent research characterized the structural white-matter tract connecting the two brain regions, but the tract has neither been characterized in adolescence nor linked to functional activity during incentive anticipation. In this study, we collected diffusion MRI and characterized the tract connecting the AIns to the NAcc for the first time in early adolescents. We then measured NAcc functional activity during a monetary incentive delay task and found that structural coherence of the AIns-NAcc tract is correlated with decreased functional activity at the NAcc terminal of the tract during anticipation of no incentives. In adolescents who completed an assessment 2 years later, we found that AIns-NAcc tract coherence could predict greater future self-reported motivation, and that NAcc functional activity could statistically mediate this association. Together, the findings establish links from brain structure to function to future motivation and provide targets to study the reciprocal development of brain structure and function.

Repetition of Computer Security Warnings Results in Differential Repetition Suppression Effects as Revealed With Functional MRI

Computer users are often the last line of defense in computer security. However, with repeated exposures to system messages and computer security warnings, neural and behavioral responses show evidence of habituation. Habituation has been demonstrated at a neural level as repetition suppression where responses are attenuated with subsequent repetitions. In the brain, repetition suppression to visual stimuli has been demonstrated in multiple cortical areas, including the occipital lobe and medial temporal lobe. Prior research into the repetition suppression effect has generally focused on a single repetition and has not examined the pattern of signal suppression with repeated exposures. We used complex, everyday stimuli, in the form of images of computer programs or security warning messages, to examine the repetition suppression effect across repeated exposures. The use of computer warnings as stimuli also allowed us to examine the activation of learned fearful stimuli. We observed widespread linear decreases in activation with repeated exposures, suggesting that repetition suppression continues after the first repetition. Further, we found greater activation for warning messages compared to neutral images in the anterior insula, pre-supplemental motor area, and inferior frontal gyrus, suggesting differential processing of security warning messages. However, the repetition suppression effect was similar in these regions for both warning messages and neutral images. Additionally, we observed an increase of activation in the default mode network with repeated exposures, suggestive of increased mind wandering with continuing habituation.

Neural evidence of dysfunction of reward processing in women with premenstrual syndrome

BACKGROUND

Most studies on the mechanism behind premenstrual syndrome (PMS) have focused on negative emotional overreaction, but little evidence exists regarding the weakening of positive emotions. Given the close relationship between positive emotions and reward processing, the aim of this study is to investigate the dysfunction of reward processing in women with PMS.

METHOD

Seventeen women with PMS and seventeen healthy women were scanned during a card guessing task in the late luteal phase. By selecting bilateral caudate and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) as seed regions, region-of-interest (ROI) analysis and functional connectivity (psycho-physiological interaction [PPI]) analysis were conducted to compare the difference between two groups. Exploratory whole brain analysis was also conducted to examine the group differences in other reward-related brain regions.

RESULTS

ROI analysis revealed that healthy women showed stronger activation at the bilateral caudate and OFC when gains were contrasted to losses feedback, whereas women with PMS showed no significant difference between these two conditions. Whole brain analysis indicated that healthy women showed stronger activation at the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) when gains were contrasted to losses feedback, whereas women with PMS showed no significant difference between these two conditions. Furthermore, separate analysis on healthy women revealed significant clusters of greater activation to gains minus losses that included the bilateral caudate, right middle temporal gyrus, and left inferior occipital gyrus; conversely, no significant clusters of activations to gains minus losses were observed in women with PMS. PPI analysis results revealed that women with PMS exhibited lower functional connectivity between the right caudate and the right cerebellum than healthy women when experiencing gains versus losses.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings provide one of the first evidence that PMS is related to dysfunction in reward processing, which could be associated with the weakening of positive emotions.

Amygdalostriatal coupling underpins positive but not negative coloring of ambiguous affect

Humans routinely integrate affective information from multiple sources. For example, we rarely interpret an emotional facial expression devoid of context. In this paper, we describe the neural correlates of an affective computation that involves integrating multiple sources, by leveraging the ambiguity and subtle feature-based valence signals found in surprised faces. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants reported the valence of surprised faces modulated by positive or negative sentences. Amygdala activity corresponded to the valence value assigned to each contextually modulated face, with greater activity reflecting more negative ratings. Amygdala activity did not track the valence of the faces or sentences per se. Moreover, the amygdala was functionally coupled with the nucleus accumbens only during face trials preceded by positive contextual cues. These data suggest 1) valence-related amygdala activity reflects the integrated valence values rather than the valence values of each individual component, and 2) amygdalostriatal coupling underpins positive but not negative coloring of ambiguous affect.

The Effectiveness of Online Messages for Promoting Smoking Cessation Resources: Predicting Nationwide Campaign Effects From Neural Responses in the EX Campaign

What are the key ingredients that make some persuasive messages resonate with audiences and elicit action, while others fail? Billions of dollars per year are put towards changing human behavior, but it is difficult to know which messages will be the most persuasive in the field. By combining novel neuroimaging techniques and large-scale online data, we examine the role of key health communication variables relevant to motivating action at scale. We exposed a sample of smokers to anti-smoking web-banner messages from a real-world campaign while measuring message-evoked brain response patterns via fMRI, and we also obtained subjective evaluations of each banner. Neural indices were derived based on: (i) message-evoked activity in specific brain regions; and (ii) spatially distributed response patterns, both selected based on prior research and theoretical considerations. Next, we connected the neural and subjective data with an independent, objective outcome of message success, which is the per-banner click-through rate in the real-world campaign. Results show that messages evoking brain responses more similar to signatures of negative emotion and vividness had lower online click-through-rates. This strategy helps to connect and integrate the rapidly growing body of knowledge about brain function with formative research and outcome evaluation of health campaigns, and could ultimately further disease prevention efforts.

Identifying the representational structure of affect using fMRI

The events we experience day to day can be described in terms of their affective quality: some are rewarding, others are upsetting, and still others are inconsequential. These natural distinctions reflect an underlying representational structure used to classify affective quality. In affective psychology, many experiments model this representational structure with two dimensions, using either the dimensions of valence and arousal, or alternatively, the dimensions of positivity and negativity. Using fMRI, we show that it is optimal to use all four dimensions to examine the data. Our findings include (1) a gradient representation of valence that is anatomically organized along the fusiform gyrus and (2) distinct sub-regions within bilateral amygdala that track arousal versus negativity. Importantly, these results would have remained concealed had either of the commonly used 2-dimensional approaches been adopted a priori, demonstrating the utility of our approach.

Associations between physical activity and core affects within and across days: a daily diary study

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the present study was to investigate (a) if daily physical activity at the within-person level is related to four different core affects the same evening, (b) if core affects in the evening predict physical activity the following day, and (c) if physical activity predicts core affects the following day.

DESIGN

A total of 166 university students were asked to complete the affect and physical activity measures once a day (in the evening), for seven days. Bivariate unconditional latent curve model analyses with structured residuals were performed to investigate the relations within days and across days between the core affects and physical activity.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Core affects and physical activity.

RESULTS

Physical activity had positive within-day associations with pleasant-activated and pleasant-deactivated core affects and a negative within-day association with unpleasant-deactivated affective responses. There were, however, no statistically significant relations between core affects and physical activity across days.

CONCLUSION

These results highlight that the measurement interval might be an important factor that influences the association between core affects and physical activity behaviors.

Brain activity forecasts video engagement in an internet attention market

People currently spend over a billion of hours a day watching internet video content. To understand why, we combined neuroimaging with a behavioral video viewing task that simulated an internet attention market (i.e., youtube.com). While brain activity at video onset (increased nucleus accumbens [NAcc] and medial prefrontal cortex but decreased anterior insula [AIns]) predicted individuals’ choices to start and stop viewing, only activity in a subset of these regions implicated in anticipatory affect (increased NAcc and decreased AIns) at video onset forecasts aggregate video view frequency and duration on the internet. These findings suggest that brain activity can reveal “hidden” information capable of forecasting video engagement in attention markets.

The growth of the internet has spawned new “attention markets,” in which people devote increasing amounts of time to consuming online content, but the neurobehavioral mechanisms that drive engagement in these markets have yet to be elucidated. We used functional MRI (FMRI) to examine whether individuals’ neural responses to videos could predict their choices to start and stop watching videos as well as whether group brain activity could forecast aggregate video view frequency and duration out of sample on the internet (i.e., on youtube.com). Brain activity during video onset predicted individual choice in several regions (i.e., increased activity in the nucleus accumbens [NAcc] and medial prefrontal cortex [MPFC] as well as decreased activity in the anterior insula [AIns]). Group activity during video onset in only a subset of these regions, however, forecasted both aggregate view frequency and duration (i.e., increased NAcc and decreased AIns)—and did so above and beyond conventional measures. These findings extend neuroforecasting theory and tools by revealing that activity in brain regions implicated in anticipatory affect at the onset of video viewing (but not initial choice) can forecast time allocation out of sample in an internet attention market.

Decoding dynamic affective responses to naturalistic videos with shared neural patterns

This study explored the feasibility of using shared neural patterns from brief affective episodes (viewing affective pictures) to decode extended, dynamic affective sequences in a naturalistic experience (watching movie-trailers). Twenty-eight participants viewed pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) and, in a separate session, watched various movie-trailers. We first located voxels at bilateral occipital cortex (LOC) responsive to affective picture categories by GLM analysis, then performed between-subject hyperalignment on the LOC voxels based on their responses during movie-trailer watching. After hyperalignment, we trained between-subject machine learning classifiers on the affective pictures, and used the classifiers to decode affective states of an out-of-sample participant both during picture viewing and during movie-trailer watching. Within participants, neural classifiers identified valence and arousal categories of pictures, and tracked self-reported valence and arousal during video watching. In aggregate, neural classifiers produced valence and arousal time series that tracked the dynamic ratings of the movie-trailers obtained from a separate sample. Our findings provide further support for the possibility of using pre-trained neural representations to decode dynamic affective responses during a naturalistic experience.

Neural responses to monetary incentives in bipolar disorder

Although behavioral sensitivity to reward predicts the onset and course of mania in bipolar disorder, the evidence for neural abnormalities in reward processing in bipolar disorder is mixed. To probe neural responsiveness to anticipated and received rewards in the context of bipolar disorder, we scanned individuals with remitted bipolar I disorder (n = 24) and well-matched controls (n = 24; matched for age and gender) using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) during a Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task. Relative to controls, the bipolar group showed reduced NAcc activity during anticipation of gains. Across groups, this blunting correlated with individual differences in impulsive responses to positive emotions (Positive Urgency), which statistically accounted for the association of blunted NAcc activity with bipolar diagnosis. These results suggest that blunted NAcc responses during gain anticipation in the context of bipolar disorder may reflect individual differences in Positive Urgency. These findings may help resolve discrepancies in the literature on neural responses to reward in bipolar disorder, and clarify the relationship between brain activity and the propensity to experience manic episodes.

Does goal congruence dilate the pupil over and above goal relevance?

To better understand the mechanisms underlying preferential processing of affective stimuli (i.e., affective attention), it is useful to ask which appraisal dimensions characterize stimuli that capture affective attention. Viewed from such appraisal perspective, most accounts of affective attention predict that the appraisal of goal relevance (i.e. the overall relevance of a stimulus/event to one's current goals) should attract attention whereas some accounts also implicate the appraisal of goal congruence (i.e. the value of the stimulus with respect to these goals). We compared these accounts by investigating independent effects of goal relevance and goal congruence on attention capture operationalized through pupil dilation. Forty-seven participants completed a modified Monetary Incentive Delay task (MID) where they sought to maximize the amount of chocolate received at the end of the experiment, pupil data from forty-two participants were used in the final analysis. Implicating attention capture by goal relevance, we found that pupil size was increased by all win- and loss-related compared to neutral stimuli and by materialized wins and losses compared to non-materialized ones. By contrast, we did not find pupil dilation effects of goal congruence across three different operationalizations of this appraisal dimension. These findings suggest that goal congruence appraisal may not contribute to the aspects of affective attention reflected in pupil dilation over and above goal relevance appraisal.

How the Brain Converts Negative Evaluation into Performance Facilitation

Surpassing negative evaluation is a recurrent theme of success stories. Yet, there is little evidence supporting the counterintuitive idea that negative evaluation might not only motivate people, but also enhance performance. To address this question, we designed a task that required participants to decide whether taking up a risky challenge after receiving positive or negative evaluations from independent judges. Participants believed that these evaluations were based on their prior performance on a related task. Results showed that negative evaluation caused a facilitation in performance. Concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that the motivating effect of negative evaluation was represented in the insula and striatum, while the performance boost was associated with functional positive connectivity between the insula and a set of brain regions involved in goal-directed behavior and the orienting of attention. These findings provide new insight into the neural representation of negative evaluation-induced facilitation.

Circadian modulation of human reward function: Is there an evidentiary signal in existing neuroimaging studies?

Reward functioning in animals is modulated by the circadian system, but such effects are poorly understood in the human case. The aim of this study was to address this deficit via a systematic review of human fMRI studies measuring one or more proxies for circadian function and a neural reward outcome. A narrative synthesis of 15 studies meeting inclusion criteria identified 13 studies that show a circadian impact on the human reward system, with four types of proxy (circadian system biology, downstream circadian rhythms, circadian challenge, and time of day) associated with neural reward activation. Specific reward-related regions/networks subserving this effect included the medial prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum, putamen and default mode network. The circadian effect was observed in measures of both reward anticipation and reward receipt, with more consistent evidence for the latter. Findings are limited by marked heterogeneity across study designs. We encourage a systematic program of research investigating circadian-reward interactions as an adapted biobehavioural feature and as an aetiological mechanism in reward-related pathologies.

Rumination related activity in brain networks mediating attentional switching in euthymic bipolar patients

Introduction

Mood disorder patients have a tendency to be more internally oriented, with difficulties in switching attentional focus, which might result in the generation of negative thoughts, such as rumination. The present study explored self-referential neural activity correlating with rumination tendency and attentional switching capacity in bipolar disorder.

Methods

Twenty euthymic bipolar patients and twenty matched healthy controls underwent a novel introspection task of switching between internally and externally focused attention during a word processing task, while their brain activity was assessed using functional MRI.

Results

During internal focus, higher activity in self-related regions (mPFC, PCC) was found in euthymic bipolar patients as compared to controls, verifying the hypothesis of exaggerated recruitment of self-referential processes in bipolar subjects. Switching from internal to external focus revealed higher parahippocampal activity in patients as compared to controls, additionally more pronounced when switching away from negative as compared to positive self-referential information. Furthermore, rumination traits correlated with activity in PCC, subgenual and pregenual ACC, and bilateral anterior insula during repetition of internal focus, specifically when evaluating negative words. Finally, we used ACC subregions that correlated with tendency to ruminate as seeds for a whole brain connectivity analysis. Patients showed stronger connectivity between sgACC (seed), pgACC, dPFC, and anterior insula during internal focus, whereas pgACC (seed) was more strongly connected to parahippocampal gyrus when switching from internal to external focus.

Conclusions

These findings reveal an overactive rumination-related network whose activity is enhanced by negative information in euthymic bipolar patients, which could possibly contribute to impaired switching of thoughts away from internal attention.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s40345-018-0137-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

CISDA: Changes in Integration for Social Decisions in Aging

The aging of our population has been accompanied by increasing concerns about older adults' vulnerability to violations of trust and a growing interest in normative age-related changes to decision making involving social partners. This intersection has spurred research on age-related neurocognitive and affective changes underlying social decision making. Based on our review and synthesis of this literature, we propose a specification that targets social decision making in aging to the recently proposed Affect-Integration-Motivation (AIM) framework. Our framework specification, Changes in Integration for Social Decisions in Aging (CISDA), emphasizes three key components of value integration with particular relevance for social decisions in aging: theory of mind, emotion regulation, and memory for past experience. CISDA builds on converging research from economic decision making, cognitive neuroscience, and lifespan development to outline how age-related changes to neurocognition and behavior impact social decision making. We conclude with recommendations for future research based on CISDA's predictions, including implications for the development of interventions to enhance social decision outcomes in older adults. This article is categorized under: Economics > Individual Decision Making Psychology > Reasoning and Decision Making Psychology > Development and Aging Neuroscience > Cognition.

Association of Neural Responses to Drug Cues With Subsequent Relapse to Stimulant Use

IMPORTANCE

Although chronic relapse is a characteristic of addiction to stimulants, conventional measures (eg, clinical, demographic, and self-report) do not robustly identify which individuals are most vulnerable to relapse.

OBJECTIVES

To test whether drug cues are associated with increased mesolimbic neural activity in patients undergoing treatment for stimulant use disorder and whether this activity is associated with risk for subsequent relapse.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This prospective cohort study of 76 participants included a control group for baseline group comparisons. Veteran patients (n = 36) with stimulant use disorders were recruited from a 28-day residential treatment program at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Healthy controls (n = 40) were recruited from the surrounding community. Baseline data were collected between September 21, 2015, and January 26, 2018, from patients and healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a performance of a reward cue task. Patients' stimulant use was subsequently assessed after treatment discharge (at approximately 1, 3, and 6 months) to assess relapse outcomes.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Primary measures included neural responses to drug and food cues in estimated mesolimbic volumes of interest, including the medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens (NAcc), and ventral tegmental area. The primary outcome variable was relapse (defined as any stimulant use), assessed both dichotomously (3 months after discharge) and continuously (days to relapse). Brain activity measures were contrasted between groups to validate neural measures of drug cue reactivity, which were then used to estimate relapse outcomes of patients.

RESULTS

Relative to controls (n = 40; 16 women and 24 men; mean [SD] age, 32.0 [11.6] years), patients (n = 36; 2 women and 34 men; mean [SD] age, 43.4 [13.3] years) showed increased mesolimbic activity in response to drug cues (medial prefrontal cortex, t74 = 2.90, P = .005, Cohen d = 0.66; NAcc, t74 = 2.39, P = .02, Cohen d = 0.54; and ventral tegmental area, t74 = 4.04, P < .001, Cohen d = 0.92). In patients, increased drug cue response in the NAcc (but not other volumes of interest) was associated with time to relapse months later (Cox proportional hazards regression hazard ratio, 2.30; 95% CI, 1.40-3.79). After controlling for age, NAcc response to drug cues classified relapsers (12 patients; 1 woman and 11 men; mean [SD] age, 49.3 [14.1] years) and abstainers (21 patients; 1 woman and 20 men; mean [SD] age, 39.3 [12.3] years) at 3 months with 75.8% classification accuracy. Model comparison further indicated that NAcc responses to drug cues were associated with relapse above and beyond estimations of relapse according to conventional measures.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Responses in the NAcc to stimulant cues appear to be associated with relapse in humans. Identification of neural markers may eventually help target interventions to the most vulnerable individuals.

Reference-point centering and range-adaptation enhance human reinforcement learning at the cost of irrational preferences

In economics and perceptual decision-making contextual effects are well documented, where decision weights are adjusted as a function of the distribution of stimuli. Yet, in reinforcement learning literature whether and how contextual information pertaining to decision states is integrated in learning algorithms has received comparably little attention. Here, we investigate reinforcement learning behavior and its computational substrates in a task where we orthogonally manipulate outcome valence and magnitude, resulting in systematic variations in state-values. Model comparison indicates that subjects' behavior is best accounted for by an algorithm which includes both reference point-dependence and range-adaptation-two crucial features of state-dependent valuation. In addition, we find that state-dependent outcome valuation progressively emerges, is favored by increasing outcome information and correlated with explicit understanding of the task structure. Finally, our data clearly show that, while being locally adaptive (for instance in negative valence and small magnitude contexts), state-dependent valuation comes at the cost of seemingly irrational choices, when options are extrapolated out from their original contexts.

Asymmetric neural tracking of gain and loss magnitude during adolescence

Adolescence has been characterized as a developmental period of heightened reward seeking and attenuated aversive processing. However, it remains unclear how the neural bases of distinct outcome valuation processes shift during this stage of the lifespan. A total of 74 participants ranging in age from 13 to 20 years completed a value-modulated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task in which participants earn low and high magnitude monetary outcomes to test whether gain and loss magnitude tracking-the neural representation of relative value in context-change differentially over this age span. Results revealed that gain and loss magnitude tracking follow asymmetric developmental trajectories. Gain magnitude tracking is elevated in the striatum during early adolescence and then decreases with age. By contrast, loss magnitude tracking in the anterior insula follows a quadratic pattern, undergoing a temporary attenuation during mid-late adolescence. A typical comparison of gain vs loss outcomes (collapsing over magnitude effects) showed robust activity across a suite of brain regions sensitive to value based on prior work including the ventral striatum, but they exhibited no changes with age. These findings suggest that value coding subprocesses follow divergent developmental paths across adolescence, which may contribute to normative shifts in adolescent motivated behavior.

A Mathematical Model Captures the Structure of Subjective Affect

Although it is possible to observe when another person is having an emotional moment, we also derive information about the affective states of others from what they tell us they are feeling. In an effort to distill the complexity of affective experience, psychologists routinely focus on a simplified subset of subjective rating scales (i.e., dimensions) that capture considerable variability in reported affect: reported valence (i.e., how good or bad?) and reported arousal (e.g., how strong is the emotion you are feeling?). Still, existing theoretical approaches address the basic organization and measurement of these affective dimensions differently. Some approaches organize affect around the dimensions of bipolar valence and arousal (e.g., the circumplex model), whereas alternative approaches organize affect around the dimensions of unipolar positivity and unipolar negativity (e.g., the bivariate evaluative model). In this report, we (a) replicate the data structure observed when collected according to the two approaches described above, and reinterpret these data to suggest that the relationship between each pair of affective dimensions is conditional on valence ambiguity, and (b) formalize this structure with a mathematical model depicting a valence ambiguity dimension that decreases in range as arousal decreases (a triangle). This model captures variability in affective ratings better than alternative approaches, increasing variance explained from ~60% to over 90% without adding parameters.

Neuroforecasting Aggregate Choice

Advances in brain-imaging design and analysis have allowed investigators to use neural activity to predict individual choice, while emerging Internet markets have opened up new opportunities for forecasting aggregate choice. Here, we review emerging research that bridges these levels of analysis by attempting to use group neural activity to forecast aggregate choice. A survey of initial findings suggests that components of group neural activity might forecast aggregate choice, in some cases even beyond traditional behavioral measures. In addition to demonstrating the plausibility of neuroforecasting, these findings raise the possibility that not all neural processes that predict individual choice forecast aggregate choice to the same degree. We propose that although integrative choice components may confer more consistency within individuals, affective choice components may generalize more broadly across individuals to forecast aggregate choice.

Closing the loop on impulsivity via nucleus accumbens delta-band activity in mice and man

We reveal prominent delta oscillations in the nucleus accumbens preceding food reward in mice and use them to guide responsive neurostimulation to suppress binge-like behavior. Similar electrographic signatures are observed in human nucleus accumbens during reward anticipation as well, suggesting their translational potential in the development of a treatment for loss of impulse control in obesity and perhaps additional brain disorders.

Reward hypersensitization is a common feature of neuropsychiatric disorders, manifesting as impulsivity for anticipated incentives. Temporally specific changes in activity within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which occur during anticipatory periods preceding consummatory behavior, represent a critical opportunity for intervention. However, no available therapy is capable of automatically sensing and therapeutically responding to this vulnerable moment in time when anticipation-related neural signals may be present. To identify translatable biomarkers for an off-the-shelf responsive neurostimulation system, we record local field potentials from the NAc of mice and a human anticipating conventional rewards. We find increased power in 1- to 4-Hz oscillations predominate during reward anticipation, which can effectively trigger neurostimulation that reduces consummatory behavior in mice sensitized to highly palatable food. Similar oscillations are present in human NAc during reward anticipation, highlighting the translational potential of our findings in the development of a treatment for a major unmet need.

Individual differences in skewed financial risk-taking across the adult life span

Older adults are disproportionately targeted by fraud schemes that advertise unlikely but large returns (positively skewed risks). We examined adult age differences in choice and neural activity as individuals considered risky gambles. Gambles were symmetric (50% chance of modest win or loss), positively skewed (25% chance of large gain), or negatively skewed (25% chance of large loss). The willingness to accept positively skewed relative to symmetric gambles increased with age, and this effect replicated in an independent behavioral study. Whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses comparing positively (vs. negatively) skewed trials revealed that relative to younger adults, older adults showed increased anticipatory activity for negatively skewed gambles but reduced activity for positively skewed gambles in the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal regions. Individuals who were more biased toward positively skewed gambles showed increased activity in a network of regions including the nucleus accumbens. These results reveal age biases toward positively skewed gambles and age differences in corticostriatal regions during skewed risk-taking, and have implications for identifying financial decision biases across adulthood.

When Brain Beats Behavior: Neuroforecasting Crowdfunding Outcomes

Although traditional economic and psychological theories imply that individual choice best scales to aggregate choice, primary components of choice reflected in neural activity may support even more generalizable forecasts. Crowdfunding represents a significant and growing platform for funding new and unique projects, causes, and products. To test whether neural activity could forecast market-level crowdfunding outcomes weeks later, 30 human subjects (14 female) decided whether to fund proposed projects described on an Internet crowdfunding website while undergoing scanning with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Although activity in both the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and medial prefrontal cortex predicted individual choices to fund on a trial-to-trial basis in the neuroimaging sample, only NAcc activity generalized to forecast market funding outcomes weeks later on the Internet. Behavioral measures from the neuroimaging sample, however, did not forecast market funding outcomes. This pattern of associations was replicated in a second study. These findings demonstrate that a subset of the neural predictors of individual choice can generalize to forecast market-level crowdfunding outcomes—even better than choice itself.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Forecasting aggregate behavior with individual neural data has proven elusive; even when successful, neural forecasts have not historically supplanted behavioral forecasts. In the current research, we find that neural responses can forecast market-level choice and outperform behavioral measures in a novel Internet crowdfunding context. Targeted as well as model-free analyses convergently indicated that nucleus accumbens activity can support aggregate forecasts. Beyond providing initial evidence for neuropsychological processes implicated in crowdfunding choices, these findings highlight the ability of neural features to forecast aggregate choice, which could inform applications relevant to business and policy.

Post-conventional moral reasoning is associated with increased ventral striatal activity at rest and during task

People vary considerably in moral reasoning. According to Kohlberg’s theory, individuals who reach the highest level of post-conventional moral reasoning judge moral issues based on deeper principles and shared ideals rather than self-interest or adherence to laws and rules. Recent research has suggested the involvement of the brain’s frontostriatal reward system in moral judgments and prosocial behaviors. However, it remains unknown whether moral reasoning level is associated with differences in reward system function. Here, we combined arterial spin labeling perfusion and blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and measured frontostriatal reward system activity both at rest and during a sequential risky decision making task in a sample of 64 participants at different levels of moral reasoning. Compared to individuals at the pre-conventional and conventional level of moral reasoning, post-conventional individuals showed increased resting cerebral blood flow in the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Cerebral blood flow in these brain regions correlated with the degree of post-conventional thinking across groups. Post-conventional individuals also showed greater task-induced activation in the ventral striatum during risky decision making. These findings suggest that high-level post-conventional moral reasoning is associated with increased activity in the brain’s frontostriatal system, regardless of task-dependent or task-independent states.

Diurnal rhythms in psychological reward functioning in healthy young men: 'Wanting', liking, and learning

A range of evidence suggests that human reward functioning is partly driven by the endogenous circadian system, generating 24-hour rhythms in behavioural measures of reward activation. Reward functioning is multifaceted but literature to date is largely limited to measures of self-reported positive mood states. The aim of this study was to advance the field by testing for hypothesised diurnal variation in previously unexplored components of psychological reward: 'wanting', liking, and learning using subjective and behavioural measures. Risky decision making (automatic Balloon Analogue Risk Task), affective responsivity to positive images (International Affective Pictures System), uncued self-reported discrete emotions, and learning-contingent reward (Iowa Gambling Task) were measured at 10.00 hours, 14.00 hours, and 19.00 hours in a counterbalanced repeated measures design with 50 healthy male participants (aged 18-30). As hypothesised, risky decision making (unconscious 'wanting') and ratings of arousal towards positive images (conscious wanting) exhibited a diurnal waveform with indices highest at 14.00 hours. No diurnal rhythm was observed for liking (pleasure ratings to positive images, discrete uncued positive emotions) or in a learning-contingent reward task. Findings reaffirm that diurnal variation in human reward functioning is most pronounced in the motivational 'wanting' components of reward.

Spatiotemporal dissociation of brain activity underlying threat and reward in social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) involves abnormalities in social motivation, which may be independent of well-documented differences in fear and arousal systems. Yet, the neurobiology underlying motivational difficulties in SAD is not well understood. The aim of the current study was to spatiotemporally dissociate reward circuitry dysfunction from alterations in fear and arousal-related neural activity during anticipation and notification of social and non-social reward and punishment. During fMRI acquisition, non-depressed adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD; N = 21) and age-, sex- and IQ-matched control subjects (N = 22) completed eight runs of an incentive delay task, alternating between social and monetary outcomes and interleaved in alternating order between gain and loss outcomes. Adults with SAD demonstrated significantly reduced neural activity in ventral striatum during the anticipation of positive but not negative social outcomes. No differences between the SAD and control groups were observed during anticipation of monetary gain or loss outcomes or during anticipation of negative social images. However, consistent with previous work, the SAD group demonstrated amygdala hyper-activity upon notification of negative social outcomes. Degraded anticipatory processing in bilateral ventral striatum in SAD was constrained exclusively to anticipation of positive social information and dissociable from the effects of negative social outcomes previously observed in the amygdala. Alterations in anticipation-related neural signals may represent a promising target for treatment that is not addressed by available evidence-based interventions, which focus primarily on fear extinction and habituation processes.

Winning is not enough: ventral striatum connectivity during physical aggression

Social neuroscience studies have shown that the ventral striatum (VS), a highly reward-sensitive brain area, is activated when participants win competitive tasks. However, in these settings winning often entails both avoiding punishment and punishing the opponent. It is thus unclear whether the rewarding properties of winning are mainly associated to punishment avoidance, or if punishing the opponent can be additionally gratifying. In the present paper we explored the neurophysiological correlates of each outcome, aiming to better understand the development of aggression episodes. We previously introduced a competitive reaction time task that separates both effects: in half of the won trials, participants can physically punish their opponent (active trials), whereas in the other half they can only avoid a punishment (passive trials). We performed functional connectivity analysis seeded in the VS to test for differential network interactions in active compared to passive trials. The VS showed greater connectivity with areas involved in reward valuation (orbitofrontal cortex), arousal (dorsal thalamus and posterior insula), attention (inferior occipital gyrus), and motor control (supplementary motor area) in active compared to passive trials, whereas connectivity between the VS and the inferior frontal gyrus decreased. Interindividual variability in connectivity strength between VS and posterior insula was related to aggressive behavior, whereas connectivity between VS and supplementary motor area was related to faster reaction times in active trials. Our results suggest that punishing a provoking opponent when winning might adaptively favor a "competitive state" in the course of an aggressive interaction.

Trading experience modulates anterior insula to reduce the endowment effect

People often demand a greater price when selling goods that they own than they would pay to purchase the same goods-a well-known economic bias called the endowment effect. The endowment effect has been found to be muted among experienced traders, but little is known about how trading experience reduces the endowment effect. We show that when selling, experienced traders exhibit lower right anterior insula activity, but no differences in nucleus accumbens or orbitofrontal activation, compared with inexperienced traders. Furthermore, insula activation mediates the effect of experience on the endowment effect. Similar results are obtained for inexperienced traders who are incentivized to gain trading experience. This finding indicates that frequent trading likely mitigates the endowment effect indirectly by modifying negative affective responses in the context of selling.