The nucleus accumbens is involved in both the pursuit of social reward and the avoidance of social punishment

Kohls, Gregor; Perino, Michael T.; Taylor, James M.; Madva, Elizabeth N.; Cayless, Sarah J.; Troiani, Vanessa; Price, Elinora; Faja, Susan; Herrington, John D.; Schultz, Robert T.

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.07.020

Cited by 135 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…On the other hand, females had increased connectivity with subcortical regions, attention (both dorsal and ventral) systems and sensory (both visual and auditory) systems (table 2). The subcortical regions including amygdala, hypothalamus, hippocampus, dorsal striatum (caudate and putamen), ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens), thalamus and pallidum have been mainly associated with emotion processing, social cognition and motivation [41][42][43]. In agreement with our findings, improved socially relevant skills have been reported in females [9,10].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Establishing a link between sex-related differences in the structural connectome and behaviour

Tunç

Solmaz

Parker

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

138

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One contribution of 16 to a theme issue 'Multifaceted origins of sex differences in the brain'. Recent years have witnessed an increased attention to studies of sex differences, partly because such differences offer important considerations for personalized medicine. While the presence of sex differences in human behaviour is well documented, our knowledge of their anatomical foundations in the brain is still relatively limited. As a natural gateway to fathom the human mind and behaviour, studies concentrating on the human brain network constitute an important segment of the research effort to investigate sex differences. Using a large sample of healthy young individuals, each assessed with diffusion MRI and a computerized neurocognitive battery, we conducted a comprehensive set of experiments examining sex-related differences in the meso-scale structures of the human connectome and elucidated how these differences may relate to sex differences at the level of behaviour. Our results suggest that behavioural sex differences, which indicate complementarity of males and females, are accompanied by related differences in brain structure across development. When using subnetworks that are defined over functional and behavioural domains, we observed increased structural connectivity related to the motor, sensory and executive function subnetworks in males. In females, subnetworks associated with social motivation, attention and memory tasks had higher connectivity. Males showed higher modularity compared to females, with females having higher inter-modular connectivity. Applying multivariate analysis, we showed an increasing separation between males and females in the course of development, not only in behavioural patterns but also in brain structure. We also showed that these behavioural and structural patterns correlate with each other, establishing a reliable link between brain and behaviour. BackgroundWhile the presence of sex differences in human behaviour and cognition is well documented [1,2], our knowledge of anatomical foundations for such sex differences, specifically in the brain, is still relatively limited. The enigmatic interplay between brain and behaviour, and its modulation by sex, has intrigued scientists, philosophers and the general public for decades. Behavioural differences include, but are not limited to, enhanced motor [3,4] and spatial skills [5,6] in males and improved memory [7,8] and social cognition [9,10] skills in females [11]. These differences may be attributed to the complementary roles that the sexes play in procreation and social structure; however, increasing evidence suggests the presence of corresponding sex differences in brain structure and function [12][13][14][15][16][17], as well as the presence of a strong connection between behaviour and brain structure [12,18]. Thus, relying merely on social and cultural effects to explain sex-induced variance in behaviour seems insufficient. Notably, although sex differences in the brain are present even in childhood [16,17], the

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Establishing a link between sex-related differences in the structural connectome and behaviour

Tunç

Solmaz

Parker

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

138

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…For example, Spreckelmeyer et al (2009) reported that monetary gain in a decision task and smiling faces representing social reward lead to activations in the striatum, especially in the NAcc. Kohls et al (2013) found activations in the NAcc, caudate nucleus and putamen when social approval was anticipated, whereas Mitterschiffthaler et al (2007) reported increased activation in the ventral and dorsal striatum when listening to cheering music like Strauß's 'Radetzky March'. More recently, Lacey et al (2011) even showed that artistic photographs activate the ventral striatum, and also imagining eating chocolate increases brain activation in the aforementioned areas (Small et al 2001).…”

Section: Neurophysiological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…According to Liu et al (2011), the activated brain areas are common parts of the neural network underlying reward processing. Kohls et al (2013), for instance, found activations in the putamen and thalamus when social approval was anticipated, whereas Smith et al (2010) reported activations in these two brain areas when research participants felt rewarded after looking at attractive faces. Parallel to our findings, Hu et al (2015) recently showed that activations in both the putamen and the thalamus occurred when individuals were rewarded by a smile from another person.…”

Section: Management-related Rewards and Their Neurophysiological Actimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, neural findings show that different rewards, such as food, money or erotic pictures, activate reward modality-independent brain areas, yet they also depict reward modality-dependent activations. Combining behavioural and neural findings and further building on Sescousse et al (2013b) and Kohls et al (2013), we assume that there is a substantial overlap in the ventral and dorsal striatum, which represent the modalityindependent reward areas, when experiencing high income, respectful leadership and prestigious company cars. However, also in line with behavioural results and also building upon Sescousse et al (2013b) and Kohls et al (2013) we further argue that these three rewards too depict modality-dependent activation patterns that are not shared with other rewards.…”

Section: Aim and Hypotheses Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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How individual needs influence motivation effects: a neuroscientific study on McClelland’s need theory

2017

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Among frequently used motivation theories some are built on the premise of work happening in the 60s and 70s. Since work life has changed dramatically the question arises whether these theories are still valid. This study validates the longstanding need theory of McClelland (Am Psychol 40 (7): [812][813][814][815][816][817][818][819][820][821][822][823][824][825] 1985. doi:10.1037/ 0003-066X.40.7.812) using neuroscientific methods as a new lens of analysis. It neurally tests the assumptions that (1) heterogeneous rewards may result in similarly rewarding effects and (2) that these effects are enhanced if a reward closely matches an employee's need. Therefore, we conducted an fMRI-study (n = 44; 29$; M age = 25.00, SD age = 2.26) in which participants completed decision tasks before receiving the heterogeneous rewards high income, respectful leadership and a company car. Additionally, participants provided information on their need for achievement, affiliation and power. Results show that the heterogeneous types of rewards lead to overlapping neural activations in parts of the brain's reward circuitry, such as the putamen or caudate. Additionally, each of these rewards uniquely activates brain areas not stimulated by other reward types. A closer matching between the type of reward and the participants' individual needs results in stronger neural activations in the reward circuitry. These findings support and enhance key assumptions of need theory on a neural level and further promote a personality-based approach to work motivation. From a practical standpoint they suggest need-tailored reward systems for organizations and an increased use of rewards other than money.

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“…For example, value-related activity can already be observed in the ventral striatum and vmPFC during the mere anticipation of social gestures or face stimuli with rewarding 20,21,28,29,39 or punishing 40 properties. Interestingly, studies have shown that the presence of observers during decision making -and thus the possibility of future approval and reputation gainschanged value-related responses in the ventral striatum during risky choices 41 and altruistic choices 39 .…”

Section: Neural Valuation Of Other Peoplementioning

confidence: 99%

The neurobiology of rewards and values in social decision making

2014

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Of all the decisions in your life, which were the most important? Chances are high that many of them had a social component, be it when deciding about others (for example, whether to marry someone), for others (for example, which school to send your child to) or jointly with others (for example, whether to buy a house with your partner). Pathological changes specifically in the social aspects of decision making are pervasive in many psychiatric 1 and neurological 2 disorders and can have devastating consequences for individual and collective welfare. A good understanding of the neural basis of social decision making is thus an important aim of scientists in many disciplines, from basic neuroscience to medicine, psychology and economics.The neural mechanisms underlying social and nonsocial types of choices have traditionally been examined from different theoretical angles. In studies of non-social choices (for example, purchasing decisions), researchers have often focused on neural value computations associated with the rewarding properties of the choice options 3,4 . On the basis of this research, several brain structures have been proposed as elements of a brain valuation system (BOX 1). The neural value signals in these structures are thought to represent a 'common currency' for assessing the motivational relevance of all possible stimuli or actions, which is essential for guiding decision making across varying contexts 5,6 . By contrast, researchers studying social decisions have traditionally paid less attention to motivational processes, such as reward and value coding; instead, they have focused on identifying neurocognitive processes that may have uniquely evolved to guide social behaviour 7 . This emphasis on 'social-specific cognition' has identified, for example, that different visual areas seem to be functionally specialized for the perception of faces or bodies 8 and that the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) may be specifically involved in representing the intentions, emotions or actions of other people [9][10][11] . The idea of 'social-specific cognition' thus implies that the control of social and non-social behaviour should fundamentally differ in terms of neural architecture and information processing demands 12 . However, this view is challenged by recent findings that social decisions may also draw on value-related brain processes that strongly resemble those seen during non-social decisions. This apparent overlap in neural representations of motivational relevance for social and non-social choices is often taken to implicitly extend the 'common currency' idea to decisions based on social factors. This proposalthat choices in both social and non-social situations are steered by identical neural value computations -therefore questions whether the motivational control of social behaviour requires dedicated neural processes.In this Review, we propose a framework for studying the possible neurobiological links in the motivational control of social...

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The nucleus accumbens is involved in both the pursuit of social reward and the avoidance of social punishment

Cited by 135 publications

References 79 publications

Establishing a link between sex-related differences in the structural connectome and behaviour

Establishing a link between sex-related differences in the structural connectome and behaviour

How individual needs influence motivation effects: a neuroscientific study on McClelland’s need theory

The neurobiology of rewards and values in social decision making

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