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Separable Influences of Reward on Visual Processing and Choice.

ABSTRACT: Primate vision is characterized by constant, sequential processing and selection of visual targets to fixate. Although expected reward is known to influence both processing and selection of visual targets, similarities and differences between these effects remain unclear mainly because they have been measured in separate tasks. Using a novel paradigm, we simultaneously measured the effects of reward outcomes and expected reward on target selection and sensitivity to visual motion in monkeys. Monkeys freely chose between two visual targets and received a juice reward with varying probability for eye movements made to either of them. Targets were stationary apertures of drifting gratings, causing the end points of eye movements to these targets to be systematically biased in the direction of motion. We used this motion-induced bias as a measure of sensitivity to visual motion on each trial. We then performed different analyses to explore effects of objective and subjective reward values on choice and sensitivity to visual motion to find similarities and differences between reward effects on these two processes. Specifically, we used different reinforcement learning models to fit choice behavior and estimate subjective reward values based on the integration of reward outcomes over multiple trials. Moreover, to compare the effects of subjective reward value on choice and sensitivity to motion directly, we considered correlations between each of these variables and integrated reward outcomes on a wide range of timescales. We found that, in addition to choice, sensitivity to visual motion was also influenced by subjective reward value, although the motion was irrelevant for receiving reward. Unlike choice, however, sensitivity to visual motion was not affected by objective measures of reward value. Moreover, choice was determined by the difference in subjective reward values of the two options, whereas sensitivity to motion was influenced by the sum of values. Finally, models that best predicted visual processing and choice used sets of estimated reward values based on different types of reward integration and timescales. Together, our results demonstrate separable influences of reward on visual processing and choice, and point to the presence of multiple brain circuits for the integration of reward outcomes.

SUBMITTER: Soltani A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8240750 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:We recently investigated the effects of the noradrenergic antidepressant reboxetine and the antipsychotic amisulpride compared to placebo on neural correlates of primary reinforcers by visual erotic stimulation in healthy subjects. Whereas, amisulpride left subjective sexual functions and corresponding neural activations unimpaired, attenuated neural activations were observed under reboxetine within the nucleus accumbens (Nacc) along with diminished behavioral sexual functioning. However, a global dampening of the reward system under reboxetine seemed not intuitive considering the complementary role of the noradrenergic to the dopamine system in reward-related learning mediated by prediction error processing. We therefore investigated the sample of 17 healthy males in a mean age of 23.8 years again by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to explore the noradrenergic effects on neural reward prediction error signaling. Participants took reboxetine (4 mg/d), amisulpride (200 mg/d), and placebo each for 7 days within a randomized, double-blind, within-subject cross-over design. During fMRI, we used an established monetary incentive task to assess neural reward expectation and prediction error signals within the bilateral Nacc using an independent anatomical mask for a region of interest (ROI) analysis. Activations within the same ROI were also assessed for the erotic picture paradigm. We confirmed our previous results from the whole brain analysis for the selected ROI by significant (p < 0.05 FWE-corrected) attenuated activations within the Nacc during visual sexual stimulation under reboxetine compared to placebo. However, activations in the Nacc concerning prediction error processing and monetary reward expectation were unimpaired under reboxetine compared to placebo, along with unimpaired reaction times in the reward task. For both tasks, neural activations and behavioral processing were not altered by amisulpride compared to placebo. The observed attenuated neural activations within the Nacc during visual erotic stimulation along with unimpaired neural prediction error and monetary reward expectation processing provide evidence for a differential modulation of the neural reward system by the noradrenergic agent reboxetine depending on the presence of primary reinforcers such as erotic stimuli in contrast to secondary such as monetary rewards.

Project description:BackgroundSingle-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has quickly become one of the most dominant techniques in modern transcriptome assessment. In particular, 10X Genomics' Chromium system, with its high throughput approach, turn key and thorough user guide made this cutting-edge technique accessible to many laboratories using diverse animal models. However, standard pre-processing, including the alignment and cell filtering pipelines might not be ideal for every organism or tissue. Here we applied an alternative strategy, based on the pseudoaligner kallisto, on twenty-two publicly available single cell sequencing datasets from a wide range of tissues of eight organisms and compared the results with the standard 10X Genomics' Cell Ranger pipeline.ResultsIn most of the tested samples, kallisto produced higher sequencing read alignment rates and total gene detection rates in comparison to Cell Ranger. Although datasets processed with Cell Ranger had higher cell counts, outside of human and mouse datasets, these additional cells were routinely of low quality, containing low gene detection rates. Thorough downstream analysis of one kallisto processed dataset, obtained from the zebrafish pineal gland, revealed clearer clustering, allowing the identification of an additional photoreceptor cell type that previously went undetected. The finding of the new cluster suggests that the photoreceptive pineal gland is essentially a bi-chromatic tissue containing both green and red cone-like photoreceptors and implies that the alignment and pre-processing pipeline can affect the discovery of biologically-relevant cell types.ConclusionWhile Cell Ranger favors higher cell numbers, using kallisto results in datasets with higher median gene detection per cell. We could demonstrate that cell type identification was not hampered by the lower cell count, but in fact improved as a result of the high gene detection rate and the more stringent filtering. Depending on the acquired dataset, it can be beneficial to favor high quality cells and accept a lower cell count, leading to an improved classification of cell types.

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Separable Influences of Reward on Visual Processing and Choice.

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