CiteULike: awooga's reward

Food Reward in the Absence of Taste Receptor Signaling

Ivan de Araujo — 2008-03-31T11:10:48-00:00

Neuron, Vol. 57, No. 6. (27 March 2008), pp. 930-941.

Summary Food palatability and hedonic value play central roles in nutrient intake. However, postingestive effects can influence food preferences independently of palatability, although the neurobiological bases of such mechanisms remain poorly understood. Of central interest is whether the same brain reward circuitry that is responsive to palatable rewards also encodes metabolic value independently of taste signaling. Here we show that trpm5-/- mice, which lack the cellular machinery required for sweet taste transduction, can develop a robust preference for sucrose solutions based solely on caloric content. Sucrose intake induced dopamine release in the ventral striatum of these sweet-blind mice, a pattern usually associated with receipt of palatable rewards. Furthermore, single neurons in this same ventral striatal region showed increased sensitivity to caloric intake even in the absence of gustatory inputs. Our findings suggest that calorie-rich nutrients can directly influence brain reward circuits that control food intake independently of palatability or functional taste transduction.

A common neurobiology for pain and pleasure

Siri Leknes — 2008-03-21T04:33:30-00:00

Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Vol. 9, No. 4., pp. 314-320.

Acetylcholine Release in Ventral Tegmental Area by Hypothalamic Self-Stimulation, Eating, and Drinking

Pedro Rada — 2007-08-27T20:23:32-00:00

Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, Vol. 65, No. 3. (March 2000), pp. 375-379.

Evidence is presented for an acetylcholine (ACh) input to the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) as part of a system for self-stimulation and ingestive behavior. Male rats were prepared with an electrode in the perifornical lateral hypothalamus and an ipsilateral guideshaft for microdialysis in the VTA. Extracellular ACh increased in the VTA during self-stimulation, auto-stimulation, eating, or drinking. Infusion of atropine into the VTA via the microdialysis probe was sufficient to stop self-stimulation and reduce intake of food. It is concluded that ACh acts at muscarinic receptors in the VTA as part of a circuit that modulates hypothalamic self-stimulation and ingestive behavior.

Reward-related cortical inputs define a large striatal region in primates that interface with associative cortical connections, providing a substrate for incentive-based learning.

SN Haber — 2006-08-16T21:52:20-00:00

J Neurosci, Vol. 26, No. 32. (9 August 2006), pp. 8368-8376.

The anterior cingulate and orbital cortices and the ventral striatum process different aspects of reward evaluation, whereas the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the dorsal striatum are involved in cognitive function. Collectively, these areas are critical to decision making. We mapped the striatal area that receives information about reward evaluation. We also explored the extent to which terminals from reward-related cortical areas converge in the striatum with those from cognitive regions. Using three-dimensional-rendered reconstructions of corticostriatal projection fields along with two-dimensional chartings, we demonstrate the reward and cognitive territories in the primate striatum and show the convergence between these cortical inputs. The results show two labeling patterns: a focal projection field that consists of densely distributed terminal patches, and a diffuse projection consisting of clusters of fibers, extending throughout a wide area of the striatum. Together, these projection fields demonstrate a remarkably large, rostral, reward-related striatal territory that reaches into the dorsal striatum. Fibers from different reward-processing and cognitive cortical areas occupy both separate and converging territories. Furthermore, the diffuse projection may serve a separate integrative function by broadly disseminating general cortical activity. These findings show that the rostral striatum is in a unique position to mediate different aspects of incentive learning. Furthermore, areas of convergence may be particularly sensitive to dopamine modulation during decision making and habit formation.

Reward value coding distinct from risk attitude-related uncertainty coding in human reward systems.

PN Tobler — 2007-02-27T12:49:44-00:00

J Neurophysiol, Vol. 97, No. 2. (February 2007), pp. 1621-1632.

When deciding between different options, individuals are guided by the expected (mean) value of the different outcomes and by the associated degrees of uncertainty. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify brain activations coding the key decision parameters of expected value (magnitude and probability) separately from uncertainty (statistical variance) of monetary rewards. Participants discriminated behaviorally between stimuli associated with different expected values and uncertainty. Stimuli associated with higher expected values elicited monotonically increasing activations in distinct regions of the striatum, irrespective of different combinations of magnitude and probability. Stimuli associated with higher uncertainty (variance) elicited increasing activations in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex. Uncertainty-related activations covaried with individual risk aversion in lateral orbitofrontal regions and risk-seeking in more medial areas. Furthermore, activations in expected value-coding regions in prefrontal cortex covaried differentially with uncertainty depending on risk attitudes of individual participants, suggesting that separate prefrontal regions are involved in risk aversion and seeking. These data demonstrate the distinct coding in key reward structures of the two basic and crucial decision parameters, expected value, and uncertainty.

The rewards of music listening: response and physiological connectivity of the mesolimbic system.

V Menon — 2007-02-22T17:06:39-00:00

Neuroimage, Vol. 28, No. 1. (15 October 2005), pp. 175-184.

Although the neural underpinnings of music cognition have been widely studied in the last 5 years, relatively little is known about the neuroscience underlying emotional reactions that music induces in listeners. Many people spend a significant amount of time listening to music, and its emotional power is assumed but not well understood. Here, we use functional and effective connectivity analyses to show for the first time that listening to music strongly modulates activity in a network of mesolimbic structures involved in reward processing including the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), as well as the hypothalamus and insula, which are thought to be involved in regulating autonomic and physiological responses to rewarding and emotional stimuli. Responses in the NAc and the VTA were strongly correlated pointing to an association between dopamine release and NAc response to music. Responses in the NAc and the hypothalamus were also strongly correlated across subjects, suggesting a mechanism by which listening to pleasant music evokes physiological reactions. Effective connectivity confirmed these findings, and showed significant VTA-mediated interaction of the NAc with the hypothalamus, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex. The enhanced functional and effective connectivity between brain regions mediating reward, autonomic, and cognitive processing provides insight into understanding why listening to music is one of the most rewarding and pleasurable human experiences.

Predictive reward signal of dopamine neurons.

W Schultz — 2005-03-11T16:15:59-00:00

J Neurophysiol, Vol. 80, No. 1. (July 1998), pp. 1-27.

The effects of lesions, receptor blocking, electrical self-stimulation, and drugs of abuse suggest that midbrain dopamine systems are involved in processing reward information and learning approach behavior. Most dopamine neurons show phasic activations after primary liquid and food rewards and conditioned, reward-predicting visual and auditory stimuli. They show biphasic, activation-depression responses after stimuli that resemble reward-predicting stimuli or are novel or particularly salient. However, only few phasic activations follow aversive stimuli. Thus dopamine neurons label environmental stimuli with appetitive value, predict and detect rewards and signal alerting and motivating events. By failing to discriminate between different rewards, dopamine neurons appear to emit an alerting message about the surprising presence or absence of rewards. All responses to rewards and reward-predicting stimuli depend on event predictability. Dopamine neurons are activated by rewarding events that are better than predicted, remain uninfluenced by events that are as good as predicted, and are depressed by events that are worse than predicted. By signaling rewards according to a prediction error, dopamine responses have the formal characteristics of a teaching signal postulated by reinforcement learning theories. Dopamine responses transfer during learning from primary rewards to reward-predicting stimuli. This may contribute to neuronal mechanisms underlying the retrograde action of rewards, one of the main puzzles in reinforcement learning. The impulse response releases a short pulse of dopamine onto many dendrites, thus broadcasting a rather global reinforcement signal to postsynaptic neurons. This signal may improve approach behavior by providing advance reward information before the behavior occurs, and may contribute to learning by modifying synaptic transmission. The dopamine reward signal is supplemented by activity in neurons in striatum, frontal cortex, and amygdala, which process specific reward information but do not emit a global reward prediction error signal. A cooperation between the different reward signals may assure the use of specific rewards for selectively reinforcing behaviors. Among the other projection systems, noradrenaline neurons predominantly serve attentional mechanisms and nucleus basalis neurons code rewards heterogeneously. Cerebellar climbing fibers signal errors in motor performance or errors in the prediction of aversive events to cerebellar Purkinje cells. Most deficits following dopamine-depleting lesions are not easily explained by a defective reward signal but may reflect the absence of a general enabling function of tonic levels of extracellular dopamine. Thus dopamine systems may have two functions, the phasic transmission of reward information and the tonic enabling of postsynaptic neurons.

Cannabinoids and prefrontal cortical function: insights from preclinical studies.

A Egerton — 2006-12-22T21:53:44-00:00

Neurosci Biobehav Rev, Vol. 30, No. 5. (2006), pp. 680-695.

Marijuana use has been associated with disordered cognition across several domains influenced by the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Here, we review the contribution of preclinical research to understanding the effects of cannabinoids on cognitive ability, and the mechanisms by which cannabinoids may affect the neurochemical processes in the PFC that are associated with these impairments. In rodents, acute administration of cannabinoid agonists produces deficits in working memory, attentional function and reversal learning. These effects appear to be largely dependent on CB1 cannabinoid receptor activation. Preclinical studies also indicate that the endogenous cannabinoid system may tonically regulate some mnemonic processes. Effects of cannabinoids on cognition may be mediated via interaction with neurochemical processes in the PFC and hippocampus. In the PFC, cannabinoids may alter dopaminergic, cholinergic and serotonergic transmission. These mechanisms may underlie cognitive impairments observed following marijuana intake in humans, and may also be relevant to other disorders of cognition. Preclinical research will further enhance our understanding of the interactions between the cannabinoid system and cognitive functioning.

Adaptive Coding of Reward Value by Dopamine Neurons

Philippe Tobler — 2005-03-11T14:47:13-00:00

Science, Vol. 307, No. 5715. (11 March 2005), pp. 1642-1645.

It is important for animals to estimate the value of rewards as accurately as possible. Because the number of potential reward values is very large, it is necessary that the brain's limited resources be allocated so as to discriminate better among more likely reward outcomes at the expense of less likely outcomes. We found that midbrain dopamine neurons rapidly adapted to the information provided by reward-predicting stimuli. Responses shifted relative to the expected reward value, and the gain adjusted to the variance of reward value. In this way, dopamine neurons maintained their reward sensitivity over a large range of reward values.