Predictability modulates human brain response to reward

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Gregory Berns, Emory University; Samuel M. McClure, Baylor College of Medicine; Giuseppe Pagnoni, Emory University; P. Read Montague, Baylor College of Medicine
• Language: English
• Date: 2001-04-15
• Publisher: Society for Neuroscience
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2001 Society for Neuroscience.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.21-08-02793.2001
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Neuroscience
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 8
• Start Page: 2793
• End Page: 2798
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grants K08 DA00367 (to G.S.B.) and RO1 DA11723 (to P.R.M.), the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (G.S.B.), and the Kane Family Foundation (P.R.M.).
• Keywords: Neurosciences; neural network; Expectation; Cocaine; reinforcement; nucleus accumbens; Orbitofrontal cortex; Dopamine neurons; Science & Technology; Neurosciences & Neurology; reward; FMRI; striatum; Activation; Striatum; fMRI; Sensory stimulation; Nucleus accumbens; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Systems; dopamine
• Research Categories: Engineering, Biomedical; Biology, Neuroscience; Psychology, Behavioral

Abstract

Certain classes of stimuli, such as food and drugs, are highly effective in activating reward regions. We show in humans that activity in these regions can be modulated by the predictability of the sequenced delivery of two mildly pleasurable stimuli, orally delivered fruit juice and water. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the activity for rewarding stimuli in both the nucleus accumbens and medial orbitofrontal cortex was greatest when the stimuli were unpredictable. Moreover, the subjects' stated preference for either juice or water was not directly correlated with activity in reward regions but instead was correlated with activity in sensorimotor cortex. For pleasurable stimuli, these findings suggest that predictability modulates the response of human reward regions, and subjective preference can be dissociated from this response.