Dataset Information

Distinct Reward Properties are Encoded via Corticostriatal Interactions.

ABSTRACT: The striatum serves as a critical brain region for reward processing. Yet, understanding the link between striatum and reward presents a challenge because rewards are composed of multiple properties. Notably, affective properties modulate emotion while informative properties help obtain future rewards. We approached this problem by emphasizing affective and informative reward properties within two independent guessing games. We found that both reward properties evoked activation within the nucleus accumbens, a subregion of the striatum. Striatal responses to informative, but not affective, reward properties predicted subsequent utilization of information for obtaining monetary reward. We hypothesized that activation of the striatum may be necessary but not sufficient to encode distinct reward properties. To investigate this possibility, we examined whether affective and informative reward properties were differentially encoded in corticostriatal interactions. Strikingly, we found that the striatum exhibited dissociable connectivity patterns with the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, with increasing connectivity for affective reward properties and decreasing connectivity for informative reward properties. Our results demonstrate that affective and informative reward properties are encoded via corticostriatal interactions. These findings highlight how corticostriatal systems contribute to reward processing, potentially advancing models linking striatal activation to behavior.

SUBMITTER: Smith DV

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4735713 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Distinct Reward Properties are Encoded via Corticostriatal Interactions.

Smith David V DV Rigney Anastasia E AE Delgado Mauricio R MR

Scientific reports 20160202

The striatum serves as a critical brain region for reward processing. Yet, understanding the link between striatum and reward presents a challenge because rewards are composed of multiple properties. Notably, affective properties modulate emotion while informative properties help obtain future rewards. We approached this problem by emphasizing affective and informative reward properties within two independent guessing games. We found that both reward properties evoked activation within the nucle ...[more]

PMID: 26831208

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Project description:Depression is associated with alterations in corticostriatal reward circuitry. One pathophysiological pathway that may drive these changes is inflammation. Biomarkers of inflammation (for example, cytokines and C-reactive protein (CRP)) are reliably elevated in depressed patients. Moreover, administration of inflammatory stimuli reduces neural activity and dopamine release in reward-related brain regions in association with reduced motivation and anhedonia. Accordingly, we examined whether increased inflammation in depression affects corticostriatal reward circuitry to lead to deficits in motivation and goal-directed motor behavior. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on 48 medically stable, unmedicated outpatients with major depression. Whole-brain, voxel-wise functional connectivity was examined as a function of CRP using seeds for subdivisions of the ventral and dorsal striatum associated with motivation and motor control. Increased CRP was associated with decreased connectivity between ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) (corrected P<0.05), which in turn correlated with increased anhedonia (R=-0.47, P=0.001). Increased CRP similarly predicted decreased dorsal striatal to vmPFC and presupplementary motor area connectivity, which correlated with decreased motor speed (R=0.31 to 0.45, P<0.05) and increased psychomotor slowing (R=-0.35, P=0.015). Of note, mediation analyses revealed that these effects of CRP on connectivity mediated significant relationships between CRP and anhedonia and motor slowing. Finally, connectivity between striatum and vmPFC was associated with increased plasma interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1beta and IL-1 receptor antagonist (R=-0.33 to -0.36, P<0.05). These findings suggest that decreased corticostriatal connectivity may serve as a target for anti-inflammatory or pro-dopaminergic treatment strategies to improve motivational and motor deficits in patients with increased inflammation, including depression.

Project description:Compulsive behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may be related to deficits in reward processing mediated by corticostriatal circuitry, a brain network implicated in the pathophysiology of OCD. Performing compulsive actions can be perceived as a reward to OCD patients because it temporarily reduces the anxiety provoked by obsessions. Although most OCD literature provides evidence of altered regional activity in these corticostriatal circuits, very little is known about the connectivity between individual regions of the corticostriatal-limbic circuits, including the cognitive and affective neural circuitry associated with OCD. Thus, this study investigated the differences in functional connectivity (FC) patterns in this network during resting-state and incentive processing. Nineteen patients with OCD and 18 well-matched healthy controls were scanned during resting-state and a monetary incentive delay task (task state). FC was assessed using both voxel-wise and region-of-interest (ROI)-wise analyses. Voxel-wise FC analysis with the nucleus accumbens seed revealed that patients with OCD exhibited increased FC between the nucleus accumbens and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex during resting-state. Additionally, these patients showed decreased FC between the nucleus accumbens and limbic areas such as the amygdala during incentive processing. Exploratory ROI-wise FC analysis revealed that OCD patients demonstrated enhanced FC between the nucleus accumbens and the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and increased total connectivity of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex during resting-state. Additionally, patients showed alterations in FC between resting and task state. This study provides evidence that patients with OCD have altered FC in the corticostriatal-limbic network, particularly in striatal-amygdala and striatal-orbitofrontal circuitry, during incentive processing and resting-state. These findings also emphasize that functional connections in the network are modulated by affective/motivational states and further suggest that OCD patients may have abnormalities of such modulation in this network.

Dataset Information

Distinct Reward Properties are Encoded via Corticostriatal Interactions.

Publications

Distinct Reward Properties are Encoded via Corticostriatal Interactions.

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