Control over immediate reward: A fMRI study of inhibitory control over monetary reward
-
1
University of Melbourne, School of Psychological Sciences, Australia
Background
Considerable evidence implicates a combination of heightened reward sensitivity and inhibitory control deficit in drug addiction. Investigations into the neural mechanisms underlying reward and control have typically approached these different neural systems in isolation. While this approach has been invaluable, it is the control of the impulse for immediate reward that is fundamental to addiction disorders. The current challenge in research is to investigate how control is exerted over reward.
Method
We administered a novel monetary reward task during fMRI data collection (n = 22) that cued participants to expect a monetary reward. On a small proportion of trials, rather than making a button-press response to receive the monetary reward, participants were presented with a stop-signal that required them to withhold their response. To mimic real-world abstinence, successful response inhibition over a money-related stimulus received no immediate financial reward, whereas failure to withhold resulted in the expected monetary reward.
Results
BOLD activity for the response preparation and response inhibition epochs of successful inhibition over a reward-related stimulus, indicated hyperactivity in inhibitory control related regions (e.g., right inferior frontal gyrus) and hypoactivity in reward anticipation regions (e.g., striatum, nucleus accumbens). Significant differences were evident during the response preparation period when successful control over reward was compared to either failures of control, or successful control over a neutral stimulus.
Discussion
Our results suggest that suppressing impulsiveness for reward in healthy control participants is associated with both the downregulation of reward-related anticipation, and upregulation of cognitive control-related processes. While both of these mechanisms are implicated in clinical conditions such as addiction, application of this paradigm may further clarify their relative contribution.
Keywords:
Reward sensitivity,
Control,
fMRI,
Addiction,
impulsivity
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Oral
Topic:
Executive Processes
Citation:
Chen
L,
Hester
R and
Charles-Walsh
K
(2013). Control over immediate reward: A fMRI study of inhibitory control over monetary reward.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00162
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
15 Oct 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Ms. Li Peng Evelyn Chen, University of Melbourne, School of Psychological Sciences, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, evlu@optusnet.com.au