Learning what to approach, and what to avoid, involves assigning value to environmental cues that predict positive and negative events. Studies in animals indicate that the lateral habenula encodes the previously learned negative motivational value of stimuli. However, involvement of the habenula in dynamic trialby-trial aversive learning has not been assessed, and the functional role of this structure in humans remains poorly characterized, in part, due to its small size. Using high-resolution functional neuroimaging and computational modeling of reinforcement learning, we demonstrate positive habenula responses to the dynamically changing values of cues signaling painful electric shocks, which predict behavioral suppression of responses to those cues across individuals. By contrast, negative habenula responses to monetary reward cue values predict behavioral invigoration. Our findings show that the habenula plays a key role in an online aversive learning system and in generating associated motivated behavior in humans.high-resolution fMRI | conditioned behavior | pallidum L earning which stimuli predict positive and negative outcomes, and thus should be approached or avoided, respectively, is central to an organism's ability to survive. Midbrain dopamine neurons respond to both unpredicted rewarding stimuli and to cues previously paired with rewards (1), consistent with behavioral approach toward those cues. As a counterpoint to these reward-related signals, neurons in the lateral habenula (LHb) of nonhuman primates respond to previously learned stimuli predicting the delivery of punishments and the omission of rewards, whereas they are inhibited by stimuli that signal upcoming rewards (2). These studies in nonhuman primates have concentrated on well-learned stimuli, and so have forsaken the opportunity to study the details of dynamic adaptation in the habenula. However, in many real-world scenarios, organisms learn about the motivational value of novel cues in their environment gradually, one exposure at a time, which raises the question as to whether the habenula plays a role in encoding the dynamically changing motivational value of cues that predict negative events.Dynamic learning from aversive events permits the rapid experience-dependent updating of behavior, for example, the automatic suppression of approach, which is a characteristic of aversive conditioning (3). The LHb receives inputs from the globus pallidus (4), and its excitation inhibits midbrain dopamine neurons via the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (2). This position as a hub between corticolimbic networks and midbrain monoaminergic nuclei provides a means through which positively or negatively valenced stimuli can modulate motor output, leading to the hypothesis that the habenula plays a critical role in motivated behavior (5).Studies using temporally precise optogenetic stimulation of the LHb in rodents provide convincing evidence that the habenula drives behavioral suppression (6). This structure has been suggested as a novel target for de...
Highlights Participants believe politically like-minded others are better at unrelated tasks. They turn to the politically like-minded even when others are more accurate. Participants are more influenced by politically like-minded others on those issues.
The hippocampus plays a central role in the approach–avoidance conflict that is central to the genesis of anxiety. However, its exact functional contribution has yet to be identified. We designed a novel gambling task that generated approach–avoidance conflict while controlling for spatial processing. We fit subjects’ behavior using a model that quantified the subjective values of choice options, and recorded neural signals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Distinct functional signals were observed in anterior hippocampus, with inferior hippocampus selectively recruited when subjects rejected a gamble, to a degree that covaried with individual differences in anxiety. The superior anterior hippocampus, in contrast, uniquely demonstrated value signals that were potentiated in the context of approach–avoidance conflict. These results implicate the anterior hippocampus in behavioral avoidance and choice monitoring, in a manner relevant to understanding its role in anxiety. Our findings highlight interactions between subregions of the hippocampus as an important focus for future study.
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