Regulating the expectation of reward via cognitive strategies

Abstract

Previous emotion regulation research has been successful in altering aversive emotional reactions. It is unclear, however, whether such strategies can also efficiently regulate expectations of reward arising from conditioned stimuli, which can at times be maladaptive (for example, drug cravings). Using a monetary reward-conditioning procedure with cognitive strategies, we observed attenuation in both the physiological (skin conductance) and neural correlates (striatum) of reward expectation as participants engaged in emotion regulation.The expectation of a potential reward elicits positive feelings and aids in the learning of environmental cues that predict future rewards. Central to this process is the role of the striatum, a multifaceted structure that is involved in affective learning and general reward processing across species 1-3 , which is particularly engaged when potential rewards are predicted or anticipated 4-6 . However, this striatum signal can also be maladaptive and correlates with drug specific cravings 7 , potentially increasing urges to partake in riskseeking behavior 8 . Given this, it is important to understand how to regulate or control the positive feelings associated with reward expectation. One promising method for examining this is the utilization of cognitive strategies commonly used in both social 9 and clinical 8 disciplines. Emotion regulation strategies, for example, have been successful in attenuating aversive emotional reactions that are elicited by various types of negative stimuli 10 , a pattern that is also reflected in neural regions involved in emotion, such as the amygdala, with both behavioral and subcortical neural modulations possibly mediated by prefrontal cortical regions 11,12 . Less is known, however, about the efficacy of such strategies with positive, anticipatory feelings that are elicited by a conditioned appetitive stimulus. The goal of our study was to investigate the influence of emotion regulation strategies on the physiological and neural correlates underlying expectations of reward. We hypothesized that cognitive strategies should successfully decrease arousal elicited by reward-conditioned cues while attenuating reward-related activity in the striatum.Fifteen participants who gave written consent were presented with an adapted version of a classical conditioning procedure that has been previously used to study aversive learning 13 . Specifically, participants were presented for 4 s with two conditioned stimuli, a blue and a Fig. 1a). Prior to each trial, participants were also given a written cue for 2 s that instructed them to either attend to the stimulus (that is, "think of the meaning of the blue square, such as a potential reward") or regulate their emotional response to the stimulus (that is, "think of something blue in nature that calms you down, such as the ocean"). These antecedent-focused emotion regulation strategies are postulated to work early in the emotional process to influence the final emotional output 9 . Notably, there are a var...

Prefrontal–striatal pathway underlies cognitive regulation of craving

“…This is important, because it suggests that the vlPFC and dmPFC regions (that were engaged during regulation of craving for both cue types), as well as the dlPFC-striatal pathway (which mediated successful regulation), play general roles in the regulation of different kinds of appetitive desires. This fits with prior studies on the regulation of negative emotion (26) and positive emotion (30,32) showing activation of these prefrontal systems, and suggests that common prefrontalsubcortical dynamics support the use of cognition to regulate responses to various kinds of affective cues, including drug cues.…”

“…In turn, the deployment of these strategies is associated with activity in a network of prefrontal regions implicated in cognitive control (28,29), including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and ventral lateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) (26). A few studies have focused on the regulation of responses to positive images, food, or monetary reward and have reported similar findings (30)(31)(32)(33).…”

“…Third, are individual differences in the ability to regulate craving related to increased activity in control-related systems and decreased activity in craving-related systems? If the answers to the first and third questions are yes, then a fourth question naturally arises: Is the hypothesized inverse relationship between PFC control-related regions and self-reported craving mediated by changes in activity in craving-related regions (30,36)? Or, put another way, does the PFC act on the striatum to modulate craving?…”

Fat brains, greedy genes, and parent power: A biobehavioural risk model of child and adult obesity

“…The personal desire to change behaviour might be awakened by individualized genetic feedback (Meisel et al, 2011), and personalized neurological feedback could have the same effect. Indeed, evidence that individuals can be trained to engage the dlPFC (Delgado et al, 2008) -a key control area associated with successful dieting in a number of studies in adults (see Carnell et al, 2012) -provides hope that fMRI-aided interventions, perhaps even incorporating real-time fMRI feedback (Hinds et al, 2011), could help individuals develop self-control over their reward responses to food. The identifi cation of neural networks involved in specifi c obesogenic feeding phenotypes could also aid the development of novel pharmacological interventions to weight loss -although the enmeshment of appetite networks with motivation circuits involved in many essential human behaviours makes this goal a challenging one.…”

Prefrontal cortex mediation of cognitive enhancement in rewarding motivational contexts

“…When motivational salience is high, the increased value of the behavioral goal to be achieved needs to be translated into an optimal cognitive strategy (1)(2)(3). Previous experimental evidence suggests that such a translation does occur, because both cognitive performance and brain activity are enhanced in behavioral situations paired with motivational incentives (e.g., monetary rewards) (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). Importantly, these behavioral and neural enhancements have been found to be associated with the potential reward value available on specific trials.…”