Curiosity as the impulse to know: common behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying curiosity and impulsivity

Marvin, Caroline B; Tedeschi, Ellen; Shohamy, Daphna

doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.08.003

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…An emerging field in neuroscience on curiosity has started to elucidate the neural underpinnings underlying states of curiosity in hon-human primates as well as humans (for reviews, see Refs. [ 13 , 21 •• , 23 •• , 24 , 25 ]. Across different experimental manipulations of curiosity (e.g.…”

Section: The Prediction Appraisal Curiosity and Exploration (Pace) Framework And Its Relationship To Child And Adolescent Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consistent with the idea of prefrontal appraisal processes, several neuroimaging studies in young adults have shown lateral PFC activity along with activity in dopaminergic mesolimbic regions when curiosity is elicited [ 14 , 15 , 27 , 28 •• ] (for reviews, see Refs. [ 21 •• , 23 •• ]). These findings suggest that PFC-based appraisal may be needed to stimulate dopaminergic functions to modulate hippocampus-dependent learning.…”

Section: The Prediction Appraisal Curiosity and Exploration (Pace) Framework And Its Relationship To Child And Adolescent Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Curiosity in childhood and adolescence — what can we learn from the brain

Gruber

Fandakova

2021

Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

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Highlights Curiosity enhances memory via the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and ventral striatum. Development of curiosity and its effect on memory in childhood/adolescence not well understood. Maturation of curiosity-promoting brain functions might contribute to increasing benefits of curiosity for learning. Harnessing curiosity in education might need differential approaches across child development.

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Section: The Prediction Appraisal Curiosity and Exploration (Pace) Framework And Its Relationship To Child And Adolescent Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Prediction Appraisal Curiosity and Exploration (Pace) Framework And Its Relationship To Child And Adolescent Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curiosity in childhood and adolescence — what can we learn from the brain

Gruber

Fandakova

2021

Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

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“…Perhaps surprisingly, we did not find that any subcortical-cortical interactions during curiosity elicitation supported curiosity-enhanced memory. Based on the Prediction, Appraisal, Curiosity, and Exploration (PACE) framework (Gruber & Ranganath, 2019) and other findings on anticipatory reward states (Marvin et al, 2020; Murty & Adcock, 2014; Murty, Ballard & Adcock, 2017), we would have expected that lateral PFC (a key region of the FPN) and perhaps more widely the FPN would couple with the SN/VTA in support of curiosity-enhanced memory. However, in the present study, we passively presented participants with high- and low-curiosity trivia questions without the need to make any decisions regarding the information they were encoding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connectivity between the hippocampus and default mode network during the relief – but not elicitation – of curiosity supports curiosity-enhanced memory enhancements

Murphy

Ranganath

Gruber

2021

Preprint

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Consistent with the idea that curiosity enhances information seeking, it has been shown that activity within both the dopaminergic circuit and hippocampus supports curiosity-enhanced learning. However, the role of whole-brain mechanisms involved in cognitive control (fronto-parietal network; FPN) and memory integration (default mode network; DMN) that might underpin curiosity states and their effects on memory remain elusive. We hypothesised that the FPN and DMN should distinguish between high- and low-curiosity conditions and be recruited more heavily for later remembered information associated with high-curiosity. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging whilst participants completed a trivia paradigm, in which we presented trivia questions associated with high- and low-curiosity, followed by the associated answer. After a short delay, we tested memory for trivia answers. We adopted a network-based parcellation of the brain into subnetworks of the FPN and DMN to examine how neural activity within, and functional connectivity between, each subnetwork predicts curiosity-enhanced memory. Across elicitation and relief of curiosity, we found focal recruitment of FPNA and widespread recruitment of DMN subnetworks in support of curiosity and curiosity-enhanced memory. Most importantly, during the elicitation of curiosity, functional subcortical connectivity and across cortical networks, but not subcortical-cortical coupling, correlated with curiosity-enhanced memory. However, during the relief of curiosity, coupling between subcortical regions and DMNA emerged in support of curiosity-enhanced memory. Taken together, our results provide the first evidence about how neuromodulatory mechanisms via the hippocampal-dopaminergic circuit trigger states of curiosity and thereby communicate to higher-order cortical regions to facilitate curiosity-enhanced memory.

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“…This behavior could be related to curiosity. Curiosity is conceptualized as a trait or state of a person, leading to a general desire to learn about the world (see, e.g., Marvin et al, 2020 ). This desire has two sides: (1) a desire to learn to “know now” and (2) the patience to “wait for later.” One might speculate that the OP, a property of a part of the world, fits the desire to “know now,” and therefore our participants were more eager to learn about the predictable outcome first because they assume that doing so will allow them to acquire information about the new cue–outcome relationships faster.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outcome unpredictability affects outcome-specific motivation to learn

et al. 2021

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Outcome predictability effects in associative learning paradigms describe better learning about outcomes with a history of greater predictability in a similar but unrelated task compared with outcomes with a history of unpredictability. Inspired by the similarities between this phenomenon and the effect of uncontrollability in learned helplessness paradigms, here, we investigate whether learning about unpredictability decreases outcome-specific motivation to learn. We used a modified version of the allergy task, in which participants first observe the foods eaten by a fictitious patient, followed by allergic reactions that he subsequently suffers, some of which are perfectly predictable and others unpredictable. We then implemented an active learning method in a second task in which participants could only learn about either the previously predictable or unpredictable outcomes on each trial. At the beginning of each trial, participants had to decide whether they wanted to learn about one outcome category or the other. Participants at the beginning of the second task chose to learn about the previously predictable outcomes first and to learn about the previously unpredictable outcomes in later trials. This showed that unpredictability affects future motivation to learn in other circumstances. Interestingly, we did not find any sign of outcome predictability effect at the end of the second phase, suggesting that participants compensate for biased outcome sampling when making overt choices in ways that they may not when learning about both outcome categories simultaneously.

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Curiosity as the impulse to know: common behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying curiosity and impulsivity

Cited by 33 publications

References 76 publications

Curiosity in childhood and adolescence — what can we learn from the brain

Curiosity in childhood and adolescence — what can we learn from the brain

Connectivity between the hippocampus and default mode network during the relief – but not elicitation – of curiosity supports curiosity-enhanced memory enhancements

Outcome unpredictability affects outcome-specific motivation to learn

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