Developing effective preference modification paradigms is crucial to improve the quality of life in a wide range of behaviors. The cue-approach training (CAT) paradigm has been introduced as an effective tool to modify preferences lasting months, without external reinforcements, using the mere association of images with a cue and a speeded button response. In the current work for the first time, we used fMRI with faces as stimuli in the CAT paradigm, focusing on face-selective brain regions. We found a behavioral change effect of CAT with faces immediately and 1-month after training, however face-selective regions were not indicative of behavioral change and thus preference change is less likely to rely on face processing brain regions.Nevertheless, we found that during training, fMRI activations in the ventral striatum were correlated with individual preference change. We also found a correlation between preference change and activations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the binary choice phase. Functional connectivity among striatum, prefrontal regions, and high-level visual regions was also related to individual preference change. Our work sheds new light on the involvement of neural mechanisms in the process of valuation. This could lead to development of novel real-world interventions.

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The COVID-19 outbreak introduced unprecedented health-risks, as well as pressure on the financial, social, and psychological well-being due to the response to the outbreak1–4. Here, we examined the manifestations of the COVID-19 outbreak on the brain structure in the healthy population, following the initial phase of the pandemic in Israel. We pre-registered our hypothesis that the intense experience of the outbreak potentially induced stress-related brain modifications5–8. Volumetric changes in n = 50 participants scanned before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown, were compared with n = 50 control participants that were scanned twice prior to the pandemic. The pandemic provided a rare opportunity to examine brain plasticity in a natural experiment. We found volumetric increases in bilateral amygdalae, putamen, and the anterior temporal cortices. Changes in the amygdalae diminished as time elapsed from lockdown relief, suggesting that the intense experience associated with the pandemic outbreak induced volumetric changes in brain regions commonly associated with stress and anxiety9–11.

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