Nucleus accumbens activation is linked to salience in social decision making

Abstract

Aberrant salience may explain hasty decision making and psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia. In healthy individuals, final decisions in probabilistic reasoning tasks are related to Nucleus accumbens (Nacc) activation. However, research investigating the Nacc in social decision making is missing. Our study aimed at investigating the role of the Nacc for social decision making and its link to (aberrant) salience attribution. 47 healthy individuals completed a novel social jumping-to-conclusion (JTC) fMRI-paradigm, showing morphed faces simultaneously expressing fear and happiness. Participants decided on the 'current' emotion after each picture, and on the 'general' emotion of series of faces. Nacc activation was stronger during final decisions than in previous trials without a decision, particularly in fear rather than happiness series. A JTC-bias was associated with higher Nacc activation for last fearful, but not last happy faces. Apparently, mechanisms underlying probabilistic reasoning are also relevant for social decision making. The pattern of Nacc activation suggests salience, not reward, drives the final decision. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that aberrant salience might also explain social-cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.

Facilitating mGluR4 activity reverses the long-term deleterious consequences of chronic morphine exposure in male mice

“…The NAc is a hub region for the integration of reward processes (98-100), a key brain substrate in drug addiction (101,102) and finally a key substrate for social behavior. Consistent with their pleasurable properties, social stimuli activate the NAc in humans (103,104) and this activation is blunted in patients with ASD (27), depression (105), schizophrenia (106) or OUD (107) who display impaired social abilities. In rodents, activating neuromodulator or neuropeptide receptors in the NAc stimulates or drives social behavior (108)(109)(110)(111) and models of ASD, schizophrenia or depression show abnormal volume, connectivity and/or function of the NAc (112)(113)(114)(115)(116)(117).…”

Sex and age differences in cognitive bias and neural activation in response to cognitive bias testing

“…S1 ). The retrieval of fear memories activates the hippocampus, frontal cortex, amygdala and nucleus accumbens ( Blume et al, 2017 ; Gresack et al, 2009 ; Jin and Maren, 2015 ; Keiser et al, 2017 ; Maren et al, 1994 ; Piantadosi et al, 2020 ; Pothuizen et al, 2005 ; Quirk et al, 2003 ; Santarelli et al, 2018 ; Schmidt et al, 2019 ; Sotres-Bayon et al, 2012 ). Thus, digital images of regions of interest included the frontal cortex (anterior cingulate cortex = ACC, prelimbic cortex = PRL, infralimbic cortex = IL) within bregma 3.72 mm and 2.52 mm, the nucleus accumbens (nucleus accumbenc core = NAC, nucleus accumbens shell = NAS) within bregma 1.92 mm and 0.96 mm, the amygdala (basolateral amygdala = BLA, lateral amygdala = LA, central amygdala = CeA) within −2.16 mm and −2.92 mm, the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC; dentate gyrus (DG), CA3, CA1) within −2.64 mm and −4.56 mm, and the ventral hippocampus (vHPC; DG, CA3, CA1) within −5.76 mm and −6.36 mm, identified according to Paxinos and Watson (2004) , were taken using 4× and 10× objectives.…”

Sex and age differences in cognitive bias and neural activation in response to cognitive bias

“…c-Fos protein immunostained brain sections were analyzed using a Nikon Eclipse 80i microscope. The retrieval of fear memories activates the hippocampus, frontal cortex, amygdala and nucleus accumbens (Blume et al, 2017; Gresack et al, 2009; Jin and Maren, 2015; Keiser et al, 2017; Maren et al, 1994; Piantadosi et al, 2020; Pothuizen et al, 2005; Quirk et al, 2003; Santarelli et al, 2018; Schmidt et al, 2019; Sotres-Bayon et al, 2012). Thus, digital images of regions of interest included the frontal cortex (anterior cingulate cortex = ACC, prelimbic cortex = PRL, infralimbic cortex = IL) within bregma 3.72 mm and 2.52 mm, the nucleus accumbens (nucleus accumbenc core = NAC, nucleus accumbens shell = NAS) within bregma 1.92 mm and 0.96 mm, the amygdala (basolateral amygdala = BLA, lateral amygdala = LA, central amygdala = CeA) within −2.16 mm and −2.92 mm, the dorsal hippocampus (dHPC; dentate gyrus (DG), CA3, CA1) within −2.64 mm and −4.56 mm, and the ventral hippocampus (vHPC; DG, CA3, CA1) within −5.76 mm and −6.36 mm were taken using 4x and 10x objectives.…”