Dataset Information

Vascular Risk Factors and Diseases Modulate Deficits of Reward-Based Reversal Learning in Acute Basal Ganglia Stroke.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Besides motor function, the basal ganglia have been implicated in feedback learning. In patients with chronic basal ganglia infarcts, deficits in reward-based reversal learning have previously been described.

Methods

We re-examined the acquisition and reversal of stimulus-stimulus-reward associations and acquired equivalence in eleven patients with acute basal ganglia stroke (8 men, 3 women; 57.8±13.3 years), whose performance was compared eleven healthy subjects of comparable age, sex distribution and education, who were recruited outside the hospital. Eleven hospitalized patients with a similar vascular risk profile as the stroke patients but without stroke history served as clinical control group.

Results

In a neuropsychological assessment 7±3 days post-stroke, verbal and spatial short-term and working memory and inhibition control did not differ between groups. Compared with healthy subjects, control patients with vascular risk factors exhibited significantly reduced performance in the reversal phase (F[2,30] = 3.47; p = 0.044; post-hoc comparison between risk factor controls and healthy controls: p = 0.030), but not the acquisition phase (F[2,30] = 1.01; p = 0.376) and the acquired equivalence (F[2,30] = 1.04; p = 0.367) tasks. In all tasks, the performance of vascular risk factor patients closely resembled that of basal ganglia stroke patients. Correlation studies revealed a significant association of the number of vascular risk factors with reversal learning (r = -0.33, p = 0.012), but not acquisition learning (r = -0.20, p = 0.121) or acquired equivalence (r = -0.22, p = 0.096).

Conclusions

The previously reported impairment of reward-based learning may be attributed to vascular risk factors and associated diseases, which are enriched in stroke patients. This study emphasizes the necessity of appropriate control subjects in cognition studies.

SUBMITTER: Seidel UK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4862682 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Vascular Risk Factors and Diseases Modulate Deficits of Reward-Based Reversal Learning in Acute Basal Ganglia Stroke.

Seidel Ulla K UK Gronewold Janine J Wicking Manon M Bellebaum Christian C Hermann Dirk M DM

PloS one 20160510 5

<h4>Background</h4>Besides motor function, the basal ganglia have been implicated in feedback learning. In patients with chronic basal ganglia infarcts, deficits in reward-based reversal learning have previously been described.<h4>Methods</h4>We re-examined the acquisition and reversal of stimulus-stimulus-reward associations and acquired equivalence in eleven patients with acute basal ganglia stroke (8 men, 3 women; 57.8±13.3 years), whose performance was compared eleven healthy subjects of com ...[more]

PMID: 27163585

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Project description:We learn complex skills such as speech and dance through a gradual process of trial and error. Cortical-basal ganglia circuits have an important yet unresolved function in this trial-and-error skill learning; influential 'actor-critic' models propose that basal ganglia circuits generate a variety of behaviours during training and learn to implement the successful behaviours in their repertoire. Here we show that the anterior forebrain pathway (AFP), a cortical-basal ganglia circuit, contributes to skill learning even when it does not contribute to such 'exploratory' variation in behavioural performance during training. Blocking the output of the AFP while training Bengalese finches to modify their songs prevented the gradual improvement that normally occurs in this complex skill during training. However, unblocking the output of the AFP after training caused an immediate transition from naive performance to excellent performance, indicating that the AFP covertly gained the ability to implement learned skill performance without contributing to skill practice. In contrast, inactivating the output nucleus of the AFP during training completely prevented learning, indicating that learning requires activity within the AFP during training. Our results suggest a revised model of skill learning: basal ganglia circuits can monitor the consequences of behavioural variation produced by other brain regions and then direct those brain regions to implement more successful behaviours. The ability of the AFP to identify successful performances generated by other brain regions indicates that basal ganglia circuits receive a detailed efference copy of premotor activity in those regions. The capacity of the AFP to implement successful performances that were initially produced by other brain regions indicates precise functional connections between basal ganglia circuits and the motor regions that directly control performance.

Dataset Information

Vascular Risk Factors and Diseases Modulate Deficits of Reward-Based Reversal Learning in Acute Basal Ganglia Stroke.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Vascular Risk Factors and Diseases Modulate Deficits of Reward-Based Reversal Learning in Acute Basal Ganglia Stroke.

Similar Datasets

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