Browsing by Author "Averbeck, Bruno B."

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    Childhood neglect is associated with alterations in neural prediction error signaling and the response to novelty
    (Cambridge University Press, 2024-10-24) Aloi, Joseph; Crum, Kathleen I.; Blair, Karina S.; Zhang, Ru; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Bajaj, Sahil; Hwang, Soonjo; Averbeck, Bruno B.; Tottenham, Nim; Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, R. James R.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Background: One in eight children experience early life stress (ELS), which increases risk for psychopathology. ELS, particularly neglect, has been associated with reduced responsivity to reward. However, little work has investigated the computational specifics of this disrupted reward response - particularly with respect to the neural response to Reward Prediction Errors (RPE) - a critical signal for successful instrumental learning - and the extent to which they are augmented to novel stimuli. The goal of the current study was to investigate the associations of abuse and neglect, and neural representation of RPE to novel and non-novel stimuli. Methods: One hundred and seventy-eight participants (aged 10-18, M = 14.9, s.d. = 2.38) engaged in the Novelty task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. In this task, participants learn to choose novel or non-novel stimuli to win monetary rewards varying from $0 to $0.30 per trial. Levels of abuse and neglect were measured using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Results: Adolescents exposed to high levels of neglect showed reduced RPE-modulated blood oxygenation level dependent response within medial and lateral frontal cortices particularly when exploring novel stimuli (p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons) relative to adolescents exposed to lower levels of neglect. Conclusions: These data expand on previous work by indicating that neglect, but not abuse, is associated with impairments in neural RPE representation within medial and lateral frontal cortices. However, there was no association between neglect and behavioral impairments on the Novelty task, suggesting that these neural differences do not necessarily translate into behavioral differences within the context of the Novelty task.
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    Individual associations of adolescent alcohol use disorder versus cannabis use disorder symptoms in neural prediction error signaling and the response to novelty
    (Elsevier, 2021-04) Aloi, Joseph; Crum, Kathleen I.; Blair, Karina S.; Zhang, Ru; Bashford-Largo, Johannah; Bajaj, Sahil; Schwartz, Amanda; Carollo, Erin; Hwang, Soonjo; Leiker, Emily; Filbey, Francesca M.; Averbeck, Bruno B.; Dobbertin, Matthew; Blair, R. James R.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Two of the most commonly used illegal substances by adolescents are alcohol and cannabis. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) are associated with poorer decision-making in adolescents. In adolescents, level of AUD symptomatology has been negatively associated with striatal reward responsivity. However, little work has explored the relationship with striatal reward prediction error (RPE) representation and the extent to which any augmentation of RPE by novel stimuli is impacted. One-hundred fifty-one adolescents participated in the Novelty Task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In this task, participants learn to choose novel or non-novel stimuli to gain monetary reward. Level of AUD symptomatology was negatively associated with both optimal decision-making and BOLD response modulation by RPE within striatum and regions of prefrontal cortex. The neural alterations in RPE representation were particularly pronounced when participants were exploring novel stimuli. Level of CUD symptomatology moderated the relationship between novelty propensity and RPE representation within inferior parietal lobule and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. These data expand on an emerging literature investigating individual associations of AUD symptomatology levels versus CUD symptomatology levels and RPE representation during reinforcement processing and provide insight on the role of neuro-computational processes underlying reinforcement learning/decision-making in adolescents.