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Serotonin is a fundamental neuromodulator in both vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems, with a suspected role in many human mental disorders. Yet, because of the complexity of serotonergic function, researchers have been unable to agree on a general theory. One function suggested for serotonin systems is the avoidance of threat. We propose and review evidence for an alternative hypothesis, that a phylogenetically primitive of function of serotonin is to oppose the activating neuromodulators (particularly noradrenalin and dopamine). The functional effect of this opposition can be seen as applying a drive to withdraw from dangerous, aversive or high stimulation environments. Proposing that serotonin is involved in a drive to withdraw and seek contentment, instead of a drive to avoid, may be compatible with several lines of evidence on serotonin function and may facilitate a better understanding of serotonergic neuromodulation in human psychopathology. (Contains 1 figure.)

Although much progress has been made in relating brain activations to choice behavior, evidence that neural measures could actually be useful for predicting the success of marketing actions remains limited. To be of added value, neural measures should significantly increase predictive power, beyond conventional measures. In the present study, the authors obtain both stated preference measures and neural measures (electroencephalography; EEG) in response to advertisements for commercially released movies (i.e., movie trailers) to probe their potential to provide insight into participants' individual preferences as well as movie sales in the general population. The results show that EEG measures (beta and gamma oscillations), beyond stated preference measures, provide unique information regarding individual and population-wide preference and can thus, in principle, be used as a neural marker for commercial success. As such, these results provide the first evidence that EEG measures are related to real-world outcomes and that these neural measures can significantly add to models predicting choice behavior relative to models that include only stated preference measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infant laughter is a rewarding experience. It activates neural reward circuits and promotes parental proximity and care, thus facilitating parent-infant attachment. The neuropeptide oxytocin might enhance the incentive salience of infant laughter by modulating neural circuits related to the perception of infant cues. In a randomized controlled trial with functional magnetic resonance imaging we investigated the influence of intranasally administered oxytocin on functional brain connectivity in response to infant laughter. Blood oxygenation level-dependent responses to infant laughter were measured in 22 nulliparous women who were administered oxytocin and 20 nulliparous women who were administered a placebo. Elevated oxytocin levels reduced activation in the amygdala during infant laughter and enhanced functional connectivity between the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate, the hippocampus, the precuneus, the supramarginal gyri, and the middle temporal gyrus. Increased functional connectivity between the amygdala and regions involved in emotion regulation may reduce negative emotional arousal while enhancing the incentive salience of the infant laughter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of us can appreciate that it feels worse to fail when people around you are successful than when others are also failing. Indeed, comparison with other individuals is of central importance within social groups. Despite the importance of relative success or failure for human decision making and even well-being, the underlying neurobiological substrate of this social comparison process is not well understood. In the present study, ERPs were recorded while two participants received feedback on both their own, and the other participant's performance on each trial. The results showed that medial frontal negativity, an ERP component associated with deviations from the desired outcome, is particularly enhanced when an individual's own outcomes are worse than those of others. These results indicate that the way the brain evaluates the success of our actions is crucially dependent on the success or failure of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Plasma prolactin levels are sensitive to dopamine and serotonin function, and fatigue. Low cortisol, dopamine and/or serotonin may be involved in burnout and detachment. Methods: In this double-blind within-subject study, we treated 9 female burnout subjects and 9 controls with 35 mg cortisol and placebo orally. We measured state affect and plasma prolactin, oxytocin, cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone levels, and administered an attachment questionnaire. Results: The burnout subjects displayed an extreme distribution of basal prolactin levels, displaying higher or lower levels compared to the controls. The low prolactin burnouts had profoundly low attachment scores and tended to have low oxytocin levels. The high prolactin burnout subjects tended to show cortisol-induced decreased prolactin and fatigue, and increased vigor. Conclusion: Results are consistent with the hypothesis that burnout subjects are either characterized by low serotonergic function or by low dopaminergic function, and that the latter group benefits from cortisol replacement. These preliminary results suggest that differentiating between two syndromes may resolve inconsistencies in research on burnout, and be necessary for selecting the right treatment strategy. Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processing of reinforcers and punishers is crucial to adapt to an ever changing environment and its dysregulation is prevalent in mental health and substance use disorders. While many human brain measures related to reward have been based on activity in individual brain regions, recent studies indicate that many affective and motivational processes are encoded in distributed systems that span multiple regions. Consequently, decoding these processes using individual regions yields small effect sizes and limited reliability, whereas predictive models based on distributed patterns yield larger effect sizes and excellent reliability. To create such a predictive model for the processes of rewards and losses, termed the Brain Reward Signature (BRS), we trained a model to predict the signed magnitude of monetary rewards on the Monetary Incentive Delay task (MID; N = 39) and achieved a highly significant decoding performance (92% for decoding rewards versus losses). We subsequently demonstrate the generalizability of our signature on another version of the MID in a different sample (92% decoding accuracy; N = 12) and on a gambling task from a large sample (73% decoding accuracy, N = 1084). We further provided preliminary data to characterize the specificity of the signature by illustrating that the signature map generates estimates that significantly differ between rewarding and negative feedback (92% decoding accuracy) but do not differ for conditions that differ in disgust rather than reward in a novel Disgust-Delay Task (N = 39). Finally, we show that passively viewing positive and negatively valenced facial expressions loads positively on our signature, in line with previous studies on morbid curiosity. We thus created a BRS that can accurately predict brain responses to rewards and losses in active decision making tasks, and that possibly relates to information seeking in passive observational tasks., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest No competing interests., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Dishonesty is ubiquitous and imposes substantial financial and social burdens on society. Intuitively, dishonesty results from a failure of willpower to control selfish behavior. However, recent research suggests that the role of cognitive control in dishonesty is more complex. We review evidence that cognitive control is not needed to be honest or dishonest per se, but that it depends on individual differences in what we call one's 'moral default': for those who are prone to dishonesty, cognitive control indeed aids in being honest, but for those who are already generally honest, cognitive control may help them cheat to occasionally profit from small acts of dishonesty. Thus, the role of cognitive control in (dis)honesty is to override the moral default., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests No interests are declared., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Measurement of the determinants of socially undesirable behaviors, such as dishonesty, are complicated and obscured by social desirability biases. To circumvent these biases, we used connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) on resting state functional connectivity patterns in combination with a novel task which inconspicuously measures voluntary cheating to gain access to the neurocognitive determinants of (dis)honesty. Specifically, we investigated whether task-independent neural patterns within the brain at rest could be used to predict a propensity for (dis)honest behavior. Our analyses revealed that functional connectivity, especially between brain networks linked to self-referential thinking (vmPFC, temporal poles, and PCC) and reward processing (caudate nucleus), reliably correlates, in an independent sample, with participants' propensity to cheat. Participants who cheated the most also scored highest on several self-report measures of impulsivity which underscores the generalizability of our results. Notably, when comparing neural and self-report measures, the neural measures were found to be more important in predicting cheating propensity., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest No competing interests., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This study explored the feasibility of using shared neural patterns from brief affective episodes (viewing affective pictures) to decode extended, dynamic affective sequences in a naturalistic experience (watching movie-trailers). Twenty-eight participants viewed pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) and, in a separate session, watched various movie-trailers. We first located voxels at bilateral occipital cortex (LOC) responsive to affective picture categories by GLM analysis, then performed between-subject hyperalignment on the LOC voxels based on their responses during movie-trailer watching. After hyperalignment, we trained between-subject machine learning classifiers on the affective pictures, and used the classifiers to decode affective states of an out-of-sample participant both during picture viewing and during movie-trailer watching. Within participants, neural classifiers identified valence and arousal categories of pictures, and tracked self-reported valence and arousal during video watching. In aggregate, neural classifiers produced valence and arousal time series that tracked the dynamic ratings of the movie-trailers obtained from a separate sample. Our findings provide further support for the possibility of using pre-trained neural representations to decode dynamic affective responses during a naturalistic experience., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The extent to which brains respond similarly to a specific stimulus, across a small group of individuals, has been previously found to predict out-of-sample aggregate preference for that stimulus. However, the location in the brain where neural similarity predicts out-of-sample preference remains unclear. In this article, we attempt to identify the neural substrates in three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. Two fMRI studies (N = 40 and 20), using previously broadcasted TV commercials, show that spatiotemporal neural similarity at temporal lobe and cerebellum predict out-of-sample preference and recall. A follow-up fMRI study (N = 28) with previously unseen movie-trailers replicated the predictive effect of neural similarity. Moreover, neural similarity provided unique information on out-of-sample preference above and beyond in-sample preference. Overall, the findings suggest that neural similarity at temporal lobe and cerebellum - traditionally associated with sensory integration and emotional processing - may reflect the level of engagement with video stimuli., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Several lines of research in animals and humans converge on the distinction between two basic large-scale brain networks of self-regulation, giving rise to predictive and reactive control systems (PARCS). Predictive (internally-driven) and reactive (externally-guided) control are supported by dorsal versus ventral corticolimbic systems, respectively. Based on extant empirical evidence, we demonstrate how the PARCS produce frontal laterality effects in emotion and motivation. In addition, we explain how this framework gives rise to individual differences in appraising and coping with challenges. PARCS theory integrates separate fields of research, such as research on the motivational correlates of affect, EEG frontal alpha power asymmetry and implicit affective priming effects on cardiovascular indicators of effort during cognitive task performance. Across these different paradigms, converging evidence points to a qualitative motivational division between, on the one hand, angry and happy emotions, and, on the other hand, sad and fearful emotions. PARCS suggests that those two pairs of emotions are associated with predictive and reactive control, respectively. PARCS theory may thus generate important new insights on the motivational and emotional dynamics that drive autonomic and homeostatic control processes., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Studies of risky decision-making have demonstrated that humans typically prefer risky options after incurring a financial loss, while generally preferring safer options after a monetary gain. Here, we examined the neural processes underlying these inconsistent risk preferences by investigating the evaluation of gains and losses, and demonstrating how these responses can impact subsequent preference for either risky or safe choice options. Participants performed a task while undergoing fMRI in which they experienced both gains and losses. Immediately following a gain or loss, participants decided to either play or pass on a "double-or-quits" gamble. The outcome of the gamble could either double or eliminate their initial gain (from the time-estimation task) or redeem or double their initial loss. If they chose not to play this gamble, they retained the initial gain or loss. We demonstrate a shift in risk-taking preferences for identical sets of gambles as a function of previous gains or losses, with participants showing a greater preference towards riskier decisions in the context of a prior loss. An interaction between evaluating gain/loss contexts and subsequent behavioral risk pattern revealed an increased BOLD response in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), with stronger responses for both gambling in a loss context and safety in a gain context. This suggests that the vmPFC is responsible for integrating these contextual effects, with these processes impacting on subsequent risky choice., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The neuropeptide oxytocin has been implicated in a variety of social processes. However, recent studies indicate that oxytocin does not enhance prosocial behavior in all people in all circumstances. Here, we investigate effects of intranasal oxytocin administration on intrinsic functional brain connectivity with resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants were 42 women who received a nasal spray containing either 16 IU of oxytocin or a placebo and reported how often their mother used love withdrawal as a disciplinary strategy involving withholding love and affection after a failure or misbehavior. We found that oxytocin changes functional connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the brainstem. In the oxytocin group there was a positive connectivity between these regions, whereas the placebo group showed negative connectivity. In addition, oxytocin induced functional connectivity changes between the PCC, the cerebellum and the postcentral gyrus, but only for those participants who experienced low levels of maternal love withdrawal. We speculate that oxytocin enhances prosocial behavior by influencing complex brain networks involved in self-referential processing and affectionate touch, most prominently in individuals with supportive family backgrounds., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.)

The ability to learn from the consequences of our actions is crucial for adaptive goal-directed behavior. We learn to avoid actions that lead to unfavorable outcomes and pursue actions that lead to desirable results. By recording event-related potentials (ERPs), we show that neural reinforcement learning signals associated with positive outcomes are predictive of subsequent learning of a sequence of motor actions: Positive feedback to a response that was later correctly repeated was associated with a larger medial frontal negativity (MFN) compared to when it was not correctly repeated on a subsequent encounter. This finding adds to recent evidence suggesting that the function of the anterior cingulate cortex is to establish associations between actions and their outcomes, both positive and negative., (Copyright © 2012 Society for Psychophysiological Research.)

Background: Oxytocin facilitates parental caregiving and mother-infant bonding and might be involved in responses to infant crying. Infant crying provides information about the physical status and mood of the infant and elicits parental proximity and caregiving. Oxytocin might modulate the activation of brain structures involved in the perception of cry sounds-specifically the insula, the amygdala, and the thalamocingulate circuit-and thereby affect responsiveness to infant crying., Method: In a randomized controlled trial we investigated the influence of intranasally administered oxytocin on neural responses to infant crying with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Blood oxygenation level-dependent responses to infant crying were measured in 21 women who were administered oxytocin and 21 women who were administered a placebo., Results: Induced oxytocin levels reduced, experimentally, activation in the amygdala and increased activation in the insula and inferior frontal gyrus pars triangularis., Conclusions: Our findings suggest that oxytocin promotes responsiveness to infant crying by reducing activation in the neural circuitry for anxiety and aversion and increasing activation in regions involved in empathy., (Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)