Translational studies of goal-directed action as a framework for classifying deficits across psychiatric disorders

Abstract

The ability to learn contingencies between actions and outcomes in a dynamic environment is critical for flexible, adaptive behavior. Goal-directed actions adapt to changes in action-outcome contingencies as well as to changes in the reward-value of the outcome. When networks involved in reward processing and contingency learning are maladaptive, this fundamental ability can be lost, with detrimental consequences for decision-making. Impaired decision-making is a core feature in a number of psychiatric disorders, ranging from depression to schizophrenia. The argument can be developed, therefore, that seemingly disparate symptoms across psychiatric disorders can be explained by dysfunction within common decision-making circuitry. From this perspective, gaining a better understanding of the neural processes involved in goal-directed action, will allow a comparison of deficits observed across traditional diagnostic boundaries within a unified theoretical framework. This review describes the key processes and neural circuits involved in goal-directed decision-making using evidence from animal studies and human neuroimaging. Select studies are discussed to outline what we currently know about causal judgments regarding actions and their consequences, action-related reward evaluation, and, most importantly, how these processes are integrated in goal-directed learning and performance. Finally, we look at how adaptive decision-making is impaired across a range of psychiatric disorders and how deepening our understanding of this circuitry may offer insights into phenotypes and more targeted interventions.

Endocannabinoid Modulation of Orbitostriatal Circuits Gates Habit Formation

“…With an impaired habit-breaking phenotype present in numerous psychiatric disorders (Griffiths et al, 2014), and wide-spread use of the abused drugs in the general populace, our findings suggest that therapeutic targeting of the endocannabinoid system is a viable option for restoration of goal-directed control.…”

“…However, the transition between habitual and goal-directed control provides the capacity to perform the same action based on updated consequences. Difficulties with stopping habits and shifting to goal-directed control underlie numerous neuropsychiatric disorders that display impaired decision-making (Dias-Ferreira et al, 2009; Graybiel, 2008; Griffiths et al, 2014) including obsessive-compulsive disorder (Burguière et al, 2015; Gillan et al, 2011) and addiction (Belin et al, 2013; Goldstein and Volkow, 2011). However, our understanding of specific molecular mechanisms and circuitry involved in controlling action shifting remains limited.…”

Instrumental Divergence and the Value of Control

“…Indeed, an aberrant experience of voluntary control, or “sense of agency”, appears to be a common characteristic of psychiatric illness: Schizophrenic individuals differ from healthy controls both in the degree of intentional binding – a perceived compression of the time interval between voluntary actions and their consequences – and in reported self- vs. external attributions of decision outcomes2930313233. Although operational definitions of agency and volition differ substantially across these reports, and while related research suggests that schizophrenic and depressed individuals may be more fundamentally impaired with respect to goal-directed learning and performance3435, the apparent role of instrumental choice in psychopathology suggests that a better understanding of the perceived value of flexible instrumental control in healthy individuals may be of significant clinical interest.…”

Prefrontal dopamine in associative learning and memory

“…The basolateral amygdala (BLA), in particular, form strong reciprocal connections with the medial and orbital PFC both directly and indirectly, through the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (which communicates with the PFC; Price et al, 1996). A series of studies in humans, monkeys, and rodents have indicated that the network between medial PFC, orbital PFC, and BLA is critical for the evaluation of the stimulus that would follow a chosen action (Baxter and Murray, 2002; Griffiths et al, 2014). Activation of human BLA neurons in response to food items scales with their monetary value (Jenison et al, 2011).…”