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Neuropeptides are ubiquitous in the nervous system. Research into neuropeptides has been limited by a lack of experimental tools that allow for the precise dissection of their complex and diverse dynamics in a circuit-specific manner. Opioid peptides modulate pain, reward and aversion and as such have high clinical relevance. To illuminate the spatiotemporal dynamics of endogenous opioid signaling in the brain, we developed a class of genetically encoded fluorescence sensors based on kappa, delta and mu opioid receptors: κLight, δLight and µLight, respectively. We characterized the pharmacological profiles of these sensors in mammalian cells and in dissociated neurons. We used κLight to identify electrical stimulation parameters that trigger endogenous opioid release and the spatiotemporal scale of dynorphin volume transmission in brain slices. Using in vivo fiber photometry in mice, we demonstrated the utility of these sensors in detecting optogenetically driven opioid release and observed differential opioid release dynamics in response to fearful and rewarding conditions.

Delay discounting refers to the behavioral tendency to devalue rewards as a function of their delay in receipt. Heightened delay discounting has been associated with substance use disorders and multiple co-occurring psychopathologies. Human and animal genetic studies have established that delay discounting is heritable, but only a few associated genes have been identified. We aimed to identify novel genetic loci associated with delay discounting through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using Heterogeneous Stock (HS) rats, a genetically diverse outbred population derived from eight inbred founder strains. We assessed delay discounting in 650 male and female HS rats using an adjusting amount procedure in which rats chose between smaller immediate sucrose rewards or a larger reward at various delays. Preference switch points were calculated and both exponential and hyperbolic functions were fitted to these indifference points. Area under the curve (AUC) and the discounting parameter k of both functions were used as delay discounting measures. GWAS for AUC, exponential k, and one indifference point identified significant loci on chromosomes 20 and 14. The gene Slc35f1, which encodes a member of the solute carrier family, was the sole gene within the chromosome 20 locus. That locus also contained an eQTL for Slc35f1, suggesting that heritable differences in the expression might be responsible for the association with behavior. Adgrl3, which encodes a latrophilin subfamily G-protein coupled receptor, was the sole gene within the chromosome 14 locus. These findings implicate novel genes in delay discounting and highlight the need for further exploration.

Anxiety disorders are common and highly distressing mental health conditions. Exposure therapy is a gold-standard treatment for anxiety disorders. Mechanisms of Pavlovian fear learning, and particularly fear extinction, are central to exposure therapy. A growing body of evidence suggests an important role of reward processes during Pavlovian fear extinction. Nonetheless, predominant models of exposure therapy do not currently incorporate reward processes. Herein, we present a theoretical model of reward processes in relation to Pavlovian mechanisms of exposure therapy, including a focus on dopaminergic prediction error signaling, coinciding positive emotional experiences (i.e., relief), and unexpected positive outcomes. We then highlight avenues for further research and discuss potential strategies to leverage reward processes to maximize exposure therapy response, such as pre-exposure interventions to increase reward sensitivity or post-exposure rehearsal (e.g., savoring, imaginal recounting strategies) to enhance retrieval and retention of learned associations.

Choosing whether to exert effort to obtain rewards is fundamental to human motivated behavior. However, the neural dynamics underlying the evaluation of reward and effort in humans is poorly understood. Here, we report an exploratory investigation into this with chronic intracranial recordings from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and basal ganglia (BG; subthalamic nuclei and globus pallidus) in people with Parkinsons disease performing a decision-making task with offers that varied in levels of reward and physical effort required. This revealed dissociable neural signatures of reward and effort, with BG beta (12 to 20 Hz) oscillations tracking effort on a single-trial basis and PFC theta (4 to 7 Hz) signaling previous trial reward, with no effects of net subjective value. Stimulation of PFC increased overall acceptance of offers and sensitivity to reward while decreasing the impact of effort on choices. This work uncovers oscillatory mechanisms that guide fundamental decisions to exert effort for reward across BG and PFC, supports a causal role of PFC for such choices, and seeds hypotheses for future studies.

BACKGROUND: Young adults 18-24 years old have the highest prevalence of cigarillo use, exposing young adults to comparable or higher nicotine levels and many of the same toxicants as combustible cigarettes. Identifying individual and product characteristics that increase the potential for persistent use is warranted. We sought to examine the interacting effects of depression symptoms and sweet flavoring on the rewarding and reinforcing value of cigarillo use. METHODS: 86 young adults (18-24 years old, 73.3 % male, 38.4 % White, 33.7 % Black, and 27.9 % Other) completed three laboratory visits assessing the subjective rewarding value (exposure paradigm), relative reinforcing value (computerized choice task), and absolute reinforcing value (ad libitum cigarillo smoking session) of sweet-flavored versus non-flavored cigarillos. Depression symptoms were measured with the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies of Depression Scale and treated as a continuous variable. RESULTS: General linear models with the appropriate family link tested differences in depressive symptomology for each outcome. Irrespective of flavor, greater cigarillo subjective reward was reported across increasing depressive symptomology (B=.0.03 [95%CI=0.00, 0.05], p=.017). Across symptom levels, no significant differences were observed in the subjective reward and relative and absolute reinforcing values of sweet-flavored versus non-flavored cigarillos (ps >.05). CONCLUSIONS: Young adults with elevated depression find cigarillos more rewarding but not more reinforcing. They are not more vulnerable than young adults with lower symptom levels to sweet cigarillo flavoring. Public health prevention campaigns and tobacco product regulations aimed at preventing the initiation and escalation of young adult cigarillo use may impact young adults broadly.

Learning causal relationships relies on understanding how often one event precedes another. To investigate how dopamine neuron activity and neurotransmitter release change when a retrospective relationship is degraded for a specific pair of events, we used outcome-selective Pavlovian contingency degradation in rats. Conditioned responding was attenuated for the cue-reward contingency that was degraded, as was dopamine neuron activity in the midbrain and dopamine release in the ventral striatum in response to the cue and subsequent reward. Contingency degradation also abolished the trial-by-trial history dependence of the dopamine responses at the time of trial outcome. This profile of changes in cue- and reward-evoked responding is not easily explained by a standard reinforcement learning model. An alternative model based on learning causal relationships was better able to capture dopamine responses during contingency degradation, as well as conditioned behavior following optogenetic manipulations of dopamine during noncontingent rewards. Our results suggest that mesostriatal dopamine encodes the contingencies between meaningful events during learning.

The ventral pallidum (VP) contains GABA and glutamate neurons projecting to ventral tegmental area (VTA) whose stimulation drives approach and avoidance, respectively. Yet little is known about the mechanisms by which VP cell types shape VTA activity and drive behavior. Here, we found that both VP GABA and glutamate neurons were activated during approach to reward or by delivery of an aversive stimulus. Stimulation of VP GABA neurons inhibited VTA GABA, but activated dopamine and glutamate neurons. Remarkably, stimulation-evoked activation was behavior-contingent such that VTA recruitment was inhibited when evoked by the subjects own action. Conversely, VP glutamate neurons activated VTA GABA, as well as dopamine and glutamate neurons, despite driving aversion. However, VP glutamate neurons evoked dopamine in aversion-associated ventromedial nucleus accumbens (NAc), but reduced dopamine release in reward-associated dorsomedial NAc. These findings show how heterogeneous VP projections to VTA can be engaged to shape approach and avoidance behaviors.

There has been renewed interest in the use of 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) and serotonergic psychedelics in the treatment of multiple psychiatric disorders. Many of these compounds are known to produce prosocial effects, but how these effects relate to therapeutic efficacy and the extent to which prosocial effects are unique to a particular drug class is unknown. In this article, we present a narrative overview and compare evidence for the prosocial effects of MDMA and serotonergic psychedelics to elucidate shared mechanisms that may underlie the therapeutic process. We discuss 4 categories of prosocial effects: altered self-image, responses to social reward, responses to negative social input, and social neuroplasticity. While both categories of drugs alter self-perception, MDMA may do so in a way that is less related to the experience of mystical-type states than serotonergic psychedelics. In the case of social reward, evidence supports the ability of MDMA to enhance responses and suggests that serotonergic psychedelics may also do so, but more research is needed in this area. Both drug classes consistently dampen reactivity to negative social stimuli. Finally, preclinical evidence supports the ability of both drug classes to induce social neuroplasticity, promoting adaptive rewiring of neural circuits, which may be helpful in trauma processing. While both MDMA and serotonergic psychedelics produce prosocial effects, they differ in the mechanisms through which they do this. These differences affect the types of psychosocial interventions that may work best with each compound.

Opioid addiction is a relapsing disorder marked by uncontrolled drug use and reduced interest in normally rewarding activities. The current study investigated the impact of spontaneous withdrawal from chronic morphine exposure on emotional, motivational and cognitive processes involved in regulating the pursuit and consumption of food rewards in male rats. In Experiment 1, rats experiencing acute morphine withdrawal lost weight and displayed somatic signs of drug dependence. However, hedonically driven sucrose consumption was significantly elevated, suggesting intact and potentially heightened reward processing. In Experiment 2, rats undergoing acute morphine withdrawal displayed reduced motivation when performing an effortful response for palatable food reward. Subsequent reward devaluation testing revealed that acute withdrawal disrupted their ability to exert flexible goal-directed control over reward seeking. Specifically, morphine-withdrawn rats were impaired in using current reward value to select actions both when relying on prior action-outcome learning and when given direct feedback about the consequences of their actions. In Experiment 3, rats tested after prolonged morphine withdrawal displayed heightened rather than diminished motivation for food rewards and retained their ability to engage in flexible goal-directed action selection. However, brief re-exposure to morphine was sufficient to impair motivation and disrupt goal-directed action selection, though in this case, rats were only impaired in using reward value to select actions in the presence of morphine-paired context cues and in the absence of response-contingent feedback. We suggest that these opioid-withdrawal induced deficits in motivation and goal-directed control may contribute to addiction by interfering with the pursuit of adaptive alternatives to drug use.

Work shows that sexually-diverse individuals face high rates of early life adversity and in turn increased engagement in behavioral outcomes traditionally associated with adversity, such as sexual risk taking. Recent theoretical work suggests that these associations may be attributable to heightened sexual reward sensitivity among adversity-exposed women. We aimed to test these claims using a combination of self-report and EEG measures to test the relationship between early adversity, sexual reward sensitivity (both self-reported and EEG measured) and sexual risk taking in a sexually diverse sample of cis-gender women (N = 208) (Mage = 27.17, SD = 6.36). Results showed that childhood SES predicted self-reported sexual reward sensitivity which in turn predicted numbers of male and female sexual partners. In contrast we found that perceived childhood unpredictability predicted neurobiological sexual reward sensitivity as measured by EEG which in turn predicted male sexual partner number. The results presented here provide support for the notion that heightened sexual reward sensitivity may be a pathway through which early life adversity augments future sexual behavior, and underscores the importance of including greater attention to the dynamics of pleasure and reward in sexual health promotion.

Animals make predictions to guide their behavior and update those predictions through experience. Transient increases in dopamine (DA) are thought to be critical signals for updating predictions. However, it is unclear how this mechanism handles a wide range of behavioral timescales-from seconds or less (for example, if singing a song) to potentially hours or more (for example, if hunting for food). Here we report that DA transients in distinct rat striatal subregions convey prediction errors based on distinct time horizons. DA dynamics systematically accelerated from ventral to dorsomedial to dorsolateral striatum, in the tempo of spontaneous fluctuations, the temporal integration of prior rewards and the discounting of future rewards. This spectrum of timescales for evaluative computations can help achieve efficient learning and adaptive motivation for a broad range of behaviors.

AimsThis study aimed to compare reward, relief, and habit treatment-seeking individuals on recent drinking, alcohol use disorder (AUD) phenomenology, and mood. The second aim of the study was to evaluate the predictive validity of reward, relief, and habit profiles.MethodTreatment-seeking individuals with an AUD (n = 169) were recruited to participate in a medication trial for AUD (NCT03594435). Reward, relief, and habit drinking groups were assessed using the UCLA Reward Relief Habit Drinking Scale. Group differences at baseline were evaluated using univariate analyses of variance. A subset of participants were enrolled in a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled medication trial (n = 102), and provided longitudinal drinking and phenomenology data. The predictive validity of group membership was assessed using linear regression analyses.ResultsAt baseline, individuals who drink primarily for relief had higher craving and negative mood than those who drink for reward and habit. Prospectively, membership in the relief drinking group predicted greater alcohol use, greater heavy drinking, and fewer days abstinent compared to those in the reward drinking group. Membership in the relief drinking group also predicted greater alcohol craving, more alcohol-related consequences, and more anxiety symptoms over 12 weeks compared to those in the reward drinking group.ConclusionsThis study provides support for reward and relief drinking motive profiles in treatment-seeking individuals with an AUD. Membership in the relief drinking motive group was predictive of poorer drinking outcomes and more negative symptomology over 12 weeks, indicating that individuals who drink for relief may be a particularly vulnerable sub-population of individuals with AUD.

Animals, including humans, rely on contextual information to interpret ambiguous stimuli. Impaired context processing is a hallmark of several neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction. While sex differences in the prevalence and manifestations of these disorders are well established, potential sex differences in context processing remain uncertain. Here, we examined sex differences in the contextual control over cue-evoked reward seeking and its neural correlates, in rats. Male and female rats were trained in a bidirectional occasion-setting preparation in which the validity of two auditory reward-predictive cues was informed by the presence, or absence, of a visual contextual feature (LIGHT: X+/DARK: X-/LIGHT: Y-/DARK: Y+). Females were significantly slower to acquire contextual control over cue-evoked reward seeking. However, once established, the contextual control over behavior was more robust in female rats; it showed less within-session variability (less influence of prior reward) and greater resistance to acute stress. This superior contextual control achieved by females was accompanied by an increased activation of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) compared to males. Critically, these behavioral and neural sex differences were specific to the contextual modulation process and not observed in simple, context-independent, reward prediction tasks. These results indicate a sex-biased trade-off between the speed of acquisition and the robustness of performance in the contextual modulation of cued reward seeking. The different distribution of sexes along the fast learning ↔ steady performance continuum might reflect different levels of engagement of the OFC, and might have implications for our understanding of sex differences in psychiatric disorders.

Alterations in attention to cues signaling the need for inhibitory control play a significant role in a wide range of psychopathology. However, the degree to which motivational and attentional factors shape the neurocomputations of proactive inhibitory control remains poorly understood. The present study investigated how variation in monetary incentive valence and stake modulate the neurocomputational signatures of proactive inhibitory control. Adults (N = 46) completed a Stop-Signal Task (SST) with concurrent EEG recording under four conditions associated with stop performance feedback: low and high punishment (following unsuccessful stops) and low and high reward (following successful stops). A Bayesian learning model was used to infer individual's probabilistic expectations of the need to stop on each trial: P(stop). Linear mixed effects models were used to examine whether interactions between motivational valence, stake, and P(stop) parameters predicted P1 and N1 attention-related event-related potentials (ERPs) time-locked to the go-onset stimulus. We found that P1 amplitudes increased at higher levels of P(stop) in punished but not rewarded conditions, although P1 amplitude differences between punished and rewarded blocks were maximal on trials when the need to inhibit was least expected. N1 amplitudes were positively related to P(stop) in the high punishment condition (low N1 amplitude), but negatively related to P(stop) in the high reward condition (high N1 amplitude). Critically, high P(stop)-related N1 amplitude to the go-stimulus predicted behavioral stop success during the high reward block, providing evidence for the role of motivationally relevant context and inhibitory control expectations in modulating the proactive allocation of attentional resources that affect inhibitory control. These findings provide novel insights into the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying proactive inhibitory control under valence-dependent motivational contexts, setting the stage for developing motivation-based interventions that boost inhibitory control.

Intertemporal choices - decisions that play out over time - pervade our life. Thus, how people make intertemporal choices is a fundamental question. Here, we investigate the role of attribute latency (the time between when people start to process different attributes) in shaping intertemporal preferences using five experiments with choices between smaller-sooner and larger-later rewards. In the first experiment, we identify attribute latencies using mouse-trajectories and find that they predict individual differences in choices, response times, and changes across time constraints. In the other four experiments we test the causal link from attribute latencies to choice, staggering the display of the attributes. This changes attribute latencies and intertemporal preferences. Displaying the amount information first makes people more patient, while displaying time information first does the opposite. These findings highlight the importance of intra-choice dynamics in shaping intertemporal choices and suggest that manipulating attribute latency may be a useful technique for nudging.

Incentives tend to drive improvements in performance. But when incentives get too high, we can "choke under pressure" and underperform right when it matters most. What neural processes might lead to choking under pressure? We studied rhesus monkeys performing a challenging reaching task in which they underperformed when an unusually large "jackpot" reward was at stake, and we sought a neural mechanism that might result in that underperformance. We found that increases in reward drive neural activity during movement preparation into, and then past, a zone of optimal performance. We conclude that neural signals of reward and motor preparation interact in the motor cortex (MC) in a manner that can explain why we choke under pressure. [Display omitted] • Rhesus monkeys "choke under pressure" in a difficult reaching task • Neural activity in the motor cortex scales monotonically with reward magnitude • These reward signals adversely interact with movement preparation • This adverse interaction constitutes a neural basis of choking under pressure Why do we "choke under pressure," underperforming when we want to succeed the most? Smoulder et al. identify a neural basis of this paradoxical phenomenon in the motor cortex, where greater rewards influence movement preparatory neural states to be closer to, then farther from, an optimal zone for upcoming movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding queenly expenditure is a key part of studying queenship, not least because it provides insight into how queens carried out their roles and responsibilities. But examining such expenditure also serves a purpose in relation to research on the material foundations of queenship. This article examines one aspect of that expenditure, namely the gifts and rewards given by Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth of York, two fifteenth-century English queens consort. Gifts and rewards serve as signal examples of how these queens used their economic resources and provide an additional entry into how to view these queens in economic and social/cultural terms. It shows that relating the queens’ gifts and rewards to and demonstrating the implications of their practices on both their economic and social roles is a fruitful method of extending our understanding of the economic resources available to the queens and how they used them. This article is part of a research cluster in this issue on the economic power of medieval queens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music listening is enjoyed across the lifespan and around the world. This has spurred many theories on the evolutionary purpose of music. The Music for Social Bonding hypothesis posits that the human capacity to make music evolved for the purpose of creating and preserving relationships between one another. Considering different time periods of music use across the lifespan, adolescence is especially a period of social reorientation away from family towards peers, characterized by new social bonds and increased prosocial behavior. This shift is accompanied by notable structural and functional changes in brain networks supporting reward processing and prosocial behavior. Reviewing the extant literature on developmental cognitive neuroscience and adolescent music use, we propose that neurocognitive changes in the reward system make adolescence an ideal developmental time window for investigating interactions between prosocial behavior and reward processing, as adolescence constitutes a time of relative increase in music reward valuation. Testing this hypothesis may clarify our understanding of developmental trajectories in music reward valuation, and offer insights into why music from adults' adolescence holds a great deal of personal significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol and drug dependence are major health and economic burdens to society. One of the major challenges to reducing this burden will be to develop more effective and better tolerated medications that target alternative mechanisms in the brain. While the dopamine system has been well characterized for mediating the reward value of drugs, there is evidence that the endocrine system also conveys signals to the same neural systems using gut hormones. Summary: These gut hormones, produced in the stomach and intestine and that regulate food intake, have also been shown to control the use of other substances, such as alcohol and drugs of abuse. Examples of such hormones are ghrelin and glucagon-like peptide-1, which exert their effects on dopamine transmission in parts of the brain known to be involved in some of the core features of addiction, such as reward sensitivity. Key Messages: This raises the possibility that gut hormone systems may play a pivotal role in addictive disorders. This review will briefly outline emerging evidence that the ghrelin and glucagon-like peptide-1 hormones are contrasting mediators of alcohol and drug use and may present a promising alternative target for treatment intervention in addictive disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging research in nonhuman animals implicates cerebellar projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in appetitive behaviors, but these circuits have not been characterized in humans. Here, we mapped cerebello-VTA white matter connectivity in a cohort of men and women using probabilistic tractography on diffusion imaging data from the Human Connectome Project. We uncovered the topographical organization of these connections by separately tracking from parcels of cerebellar lobule VI, crus I/II, vermis, paravermis, and cerebrocerebellum. Results revealed that connections between the cerebellum and VTA predominantly originate in the right cerebellar hemisphere, interposed nucleus, and paravermal cortex and terminate mostly ipsilaterally. Paravermal crus I sends the most connections to the VTA compared with other lobules. We discovered a mediolateral gradient of connectivity, such that the medial cerebellum has the highest connectivity with the VTA. Individual differences in microstructure were associated with measures of negative affect and social functioning. By splitting the tracts into quarters, we found that the socioaffective effects were driven by the third quarter of the tract, corresponding to the point at which the fibers leave the deep nuclei. Taken together, we produced detailed maps of cerebello-VTA structural connectivity for the first time in humans and established their relevance for trait differences in socioaffective regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serotonin modulates diverse phenotypes and functions including depressive, aggressive, impulsive, and feeding behaviors, all of which have reward-related components. To date, research has focused on understanding these effects by measuring and manipulating dorsal raphe serotonin neurons and using single-receptor approaches. These studies have led to a better understanding of the heterogeneity of serotonin actions on behavior; however, they leave open many questions about the timing and location of serotonin's actions modulating the neural circuits that drive these behaviors. Recent advances in genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors, including the GPCR activation-based sensor for serotonin (GRAB-5-HT), enable the measurement of serotonin release in mice on a timescale compatible with a single rewarding event without corelease confounds. Given substantial evidence from slice electrophysiology experiments showing that serotonin influences neural activity of the striatal circuitry, and the known role of the dorsal medial striatal (DMS) in reward-directed behavior, we focused on understanding the parameters and timing that govern serotonin release in the DMS in the context of reward consumption, external reward value, internal state, and cued reward. Overall, we found that serotonin release is associated with each of these and encodes reward anticipation, value, approach, and consumption in the DMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serotonin is an essential neuromodulator that affects behavioral and cognitive functions. Previous studies have shown that activation of serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) promotes patience to wait for future rewards. However, it is still unclear whether serotonergic neurons also regulate persistence to act for future rewards. Here we used optogenetic activation and inhibition of DRN serotonergic neurons to examine their effects on sustained motor actions for future rewards. We trained mice to perform waiting and repeated lever-pressing tasks with variable reward delays and tested effects of optogenetic activation and inhibition of DRN serotonergic neurons on task performance. Interestingly, in the lever-pressing task, mice tolerated longer delays as they repeatedly pressed a lever than in the waiting task, suggesting that lever-pressing actions may not simply be costly, but may also be subjectively rewarding. Optogenetic activation of DRN serotonergic neurons prolonged waiting duration in the waiting task, consistent with previous studies. However, its effect on lever presses was nuanced, and was detected only by focusing on the period before premature reward check and by subtracting the trends within and across sessions using generalized linear model. While optogenetic inhibition decreased waiting, it did not affect lever pressing time or numbers. These results revealed that the necessity of motor actions may increase motivation for delayed rewards and that DRN serotonergic neurons more significantly promote waiting rather than persistent motor actions for future rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macaque ventral frontal cortex is composed of a set of anatomically heterogeneous and highly interconnected areas. Collectively, these areas have been implicated in many higher-level affective and cognitive processes, most notably the adaptive control of decision-making. Despite this appreciation, little is known about how subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex dynamically interact with each other during decision-making. Here, we assessed functional interactions between areas by analyzing the activity of thousands of single neurons recorded from eight anatomically defined subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex in macaques performing a visually guided two-choice probabilistic task for different fruit juices. We found that the onset of stimuli and reward delivery globally increased communication between all parts of ventral frontal cortex. Inter-areal communication was, however, temporally specific, occurred through unique activity subspaces between areas, and depended on the encoding of decision variables. In particular, areas 12l and 12o showed the highest connectivity with other areas while being more likely to receive information from other parts of ventral frontal cortex than to send it. This pattern of functional connectivity suggests a role for these two areas in integrating diverse sources of information during decision processes. Taken together, our work reveals the specific patterns of inter-areal communication between anatomically connected subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex that are dynamically engaged during decision-making. • Ventral frontal connectivity is temporally specific between distinct subdivisions • Connectivity between ventral frontal areas relies on the encoding of task variables • Subdivisions communicate through distinct population activity subspaces • In each trial, task-related information flowed toward areas 12l and 12o Stoll and Rudebeck report spatially and temporally specific patterns of communication between populations of neurons in distinct subdivisions of ventral frontal cortex in macaques performing a two-choice probabilistic task. This study provides a functional account of the previously described anatomical networks that span ventral frontal cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebellum is a key-structure for the modulation of motor, cognitive, social and affective functions, contributing to automatic behaviours through interactions with the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia and spinal cord. The predictive mechanisms used by the cerebellum cover not only sensorimotor functions but also reward-related tasks. Cerebellar circuits appear to encode temporal difference error and reward prediction error. From a chemical standpoint, cerebellar catecholamines modulate the rate of cerebellar-based cognitive learning, and mediate cerebellar contributions during complex behaviours. Reward processing and its associated emotions are tuned by the cerebellum which operates as a controller of adaptive homeostatic processes based on interoceptive and exteroceptive inputs. Lobules VI-VII/areas of the vermis are candidate regions for the cortico-subcortical signaling pathways associated with loss aversion and reward sensitivity, together with other nodes of the limbic circuitry. There is growing evidence that the cerebellum works as a hub of regional dysconnectivity across all mood states and that mental disorders involve the cerebellar circuitry, including mood and addiction disorders, and impaired eating behaviors where the cerebellum might be involved in longer time scales of prediction as compared to motor operations. Cerebellar patients exhibit aberrant social behaviour, showing aberrant impulsivity/compulsivity. The cerebellum is a master-piece of reward mechanisms, together with the striatum, ventral tegmental area (VTA) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Critically, studies on reward processing reinforce our view that a fundamental role of the cerebellum is to construct internal models, perform predictions on the impact of future behaviour and compare what is predicted and what actually occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the recent regulatory restrictions on the use of fluoroquinolones and their impact on treating orthopaedic infections. We focus on the balance between the benefits and risks of fluoroquinolones in scenarios involving severe infections where alternative antibiotics may be less effective. The discussion includes a summary of recent evidence on adverse effects and the implications for clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rewards often unfold over time; we must summarize events in memory to guide future choices. Do first impressions matter most, or is it better to end on a good note? Across nine studies (N = 569), we tested these competing intuitions and found that preferences depend on when rewards occur and when we are asked to evaluate an experience. In our "garage sale" task, participants opened boxes containing sequences of objects with values. All boxes were equally valuable, but rewards were either evenly distributed or clustered at the beginning, middle, or end of the sequence. First, we tested preferences and valuation shortly after learning; we consistently found that boxes with rewards at the beginning were strongly preferred and overvalued. Object-value associative memory was impaired in boxes with early rewards, suggesting that value information was linked to the box rather than the objects. However, when tested after an overnight delay, participants equally preferred boxes with any cluster of rewards, whether at the beginning, middle, or end of the experience. Finally, we demonstrated that evaluating shortly after an experience led to lasting preferences for early rewards. Overall, we show that people summarize rewarding experiences in a nonlinear and time-dependent way, unifying prior work on affect, memory, and decision making. We propose that short-term preferences are biased by first impressions. However, when we wait and evaluate an experience after a delay, we summarize rewarding events in memory to inform adaptive longer term preferences. Preferences depend on when rewards occur and when we first evaluate an experience. Public Significance Statement: These studies demonstrate that our preferences are influenced by how positive or negative experiences unfold over time, as well as when we are first asked to express our preferences. Shortly after an experience (as in rating a restaurant or judging a competition), preferences are driven by first impressions. However, when we wait and evaluate after a longer delay (as in returning to a restaurant or selecting a job candidate), preferences instead reflect clusters of rewards that occurred at any time during the experience. Our findings offer broader implications for understanding everyday experiences, including consumer choices, comparative decisions, and social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by the interaction of person-affect-cognition-execution (I-PACE) theory, the present studies examined the association between peer rejection, peer popularity, and social media addiction (SMA) at both between-person and within-person levels. Two distinct processes, the fear-driven/compensation-seeking process and the reward-driven process were explored. In Study 1, using a cross-sectional sample of high school students (N = 318), both processes were supported via different cognitive mediators. Support for the fear-driven/compensation-seeking process was demonstrated by finding that avoidance expectancy was a significant cognitive mediator between peer-nominated rejection and SMA. In turn, the reward-driven process was supported by the significant mediation of reward expectancy between peer-nominated popularity and SMA. In Study 2, using ecological momentary assessment with college students (N = 54), we found the fear-driven/compensation-seeking process partially supported through both between-person and within-person mediations. Specifically, negative affect and social media craving were two affective mediators that linked peer rejection and addictive social media use behaviors. On the other hand, the reward-driven process was predominantly supported by within-person mediations, in which positive affect and social media craving were found to be mediators of the relationship between peer popularity and addictive social media use behaviors. The results underscore that adolescents experiencing rejection tend to use social media to avoid negative feelings and compensate for interpersonal deficits, while adolescents experiencing popularity tend to use social media to maintain positive feelings and gain social rewards. Implications for the assessment, case formulation, and treatment of SMA in counseling practice are discussed. Public Significance Statement: The study suggests that peer rejection and popularity predispose adolescents to social media addiction through different cognitive and affective mechanisms. These findings warrant the need for counselors to assess and formulate SMA from an interpersonal perspective and develop counseling interventions that target unique cognitive and affective components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important for people to disengage attention from a distraction, which can help them complete the task at hand as quickly as possible. Recent studies have shown that people's attention stays longer on reward‐distractors than on loss‐distractors, and a delay in attentional disengagement is noted when reward‐distractors are present. However, few studies have examined whether attentional disengagement from an evaluative distractor relies upon working memory (WM) components. In the present study, we used an attentional disengagement paradigm in which reward‐ or loss‐distractors were presented at a central location and the target was presented at a peripheral location, in combination with different WM tasks. The results from Experiment 1 showed that participants were slower to disengage their attention from a central reward‐distractor than a loss‐distractor regardless of cognitive load when the phonological loop component of WM was involved. The results from Experiment 2 revealed that people had difficulty in shifting their attention away from a reward‐distractor in comparison to a loss‐distractor when spatial WM was low, whereas no such difference was observed when spatial WM was high. We conclude that WM components differently modulate attentional disengagement from evaluative distractors. That is, the processing of evaluative (reward and loss) distractors may rely on the same cognitive resources as the spatial WM component, but not the phonological loop component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction The neural underpinnings underlying individual differences in nicotine-enhanced reward sensitivity (NERS) and smoking progression are poorly understood. Thus, we investigated whether brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC.) during smoking abstinence predicts NERS and smoking progression in young light smokers. We hypothesized that high rsFC between brain areas with high densities of nicotinic receptors (insula, anterior cingulate cortex [ACC], hippocampus, thalamus) and areas involved in reward-seeking (nucleus accumbens [NAcc], prefrontal cortex [PFC]) would predict NERS and smoking progression. Aims and Methods Young light smokers (N  = 64, age 18–24, M = 1.89 cigarettes/day) participated in the study. These individuals smoked between 5 and 35 cigarettes per week and lifetime use never exceeded 35 cigarettes per week. Their rsFC was assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging after 14 hours of nicotine deprivation. Subjects also completed a probabilistic reward task after smoking a placebo on 1 day and a regular cigarette on another day. Results The probabilistic-reward-task assessed greater NERS was associated with greater rsFC between the right anterior PFC and right NAcc, but with reduced rsFC between the ACC and left inferior prefrontal gyrus and the insula and ACC. Decreased rsFC within the salience network (ACC and insula) predicted increased smoking progression across 18 months and greater NERS. Conclusions These findings provide the first evidence that differences in rsFCs in young light smokers are associated with nicotine-enhanced reward sensitivity and smoking progression. Clinical trial registration NCT02129387 (preregistered hypothesis: www.clinicaltrials.gov). Implications Weaker rsFC within the salience network predicted greater NERS and smoking progression. These findings suggest that salience network rsFC and drug-enhanced reward sensitivity may be useful tools and potential endophenotypes for reward sensitivity and drug-dependence research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selectively remembering more valuable information can improve memory efficiency. Such value effects have been observed on long-term memory for item-colour binding, but the possible contributory factors are unclear. The current study explored contributions from attention (Experiment 1) and verbal rehearsal (Experiment 2). Across two experiments, memory was superior for item-colour bindings that were associated with high (relative to low) point values at encoding, both in an immediate test and a delayed re-test. When availability of attentional resources was reduced during encoding, value only influenced immediate and not delayed memory (Experiment 1). This indicates that a transient value effect can be obtained with little attentional resources, but attentional resources are involved in creating a longer lasting effect. When articulatory suppression was implemented during encoding (Experiment 2), value effects were somewhat reduced in the immediate test and abolished in the delayed re-test, suggesting a role for verbal rehearsal in value effects on item-colour binding memory. These patterns of value effects did not interact with encoding presentation format (i.e., sequential vs. simultaneous presentation of objects). Together, these results suggest that attentional resources and verbal rehearsal both contribute to value effects on item-colour binding memory, with varying impacts on the durability of these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforcement sensitivity is a hypothesized attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) intermediate phenotype but its role in transgenerational transmission of ADHD-linked psychopathology risk is largely unknown. We examined, in a carefully phenotyped, N = 123 sample of adolescents (M age = 15.27 years, SD = 0.984; 61.78% boys), whether (1) parental psychopathology is differentially associated with fMRI-indexed neural response to reward receipt and (2) both maternal and paternal psychopathology are associated with neural response to reward; across adolescents at-risk for and not at-risk for ADHD. Indices of parental psychopathology were differentially associated with adolescent offspring neural response to reward such that across measures, parental psychopathology was negatively or not associated with offspring superior frontal gyrus (SFG) response to reward receipt in adolescents at-risk for ADHD, but parental psychopathology was positively associated with offspring SFG response in adolescents not at-risk. Further, across measures, greater maternal psychopathology was associated with blunted adolescent SFG response to reward in adolescents at-risk for ADHD whereas greater maternal externalizing problems were linked to enhanced adolescent SFG response in adolescents not at-risk. Across measures, paternal psychopathology was not associated with adolescent response to reward, in either group. ADHD risk confers differential reward-related susceptibility to the effects of parental psychopathology. Results also show this association is nonspecific in terms of parental psychopathology type but is specific to maternal psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing cognitive traits poses consistent methodological challenges. We describe a method for testing Arctic charr by incorporating a T‐maze into their housing, which reduced stress and improved the engagement of the tested fish in the task. We outline the phases of testing to evaluate learning efficiency and determine which orientation strategies, such as motor response versus beaconing, are prioritized by the animals. We emphasize the stress management aspects of the design, aiming to inspire other researchers tackling similar obstacles, rather than delving into the specific aspects of cognitive abilities assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of valence coding neurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) that form distinct projections to other brain regions implies functional opposition between aversion and reward during learning. However, evidence for opponent interactions in fear learning is sparse and may only be apparent under certain conditions. Here we test this possibility by studying the roles of the BLA→central amygdala (CeA) and BLA→nucleus accumbens (Acb) pathways in fear learning in male rats. First, we assessed the organization of these pathways in the rat brain. BLA→CeA and BLA→Acb pathways were largely segregated in the BLA but shared overlapping molecular profiles. Then we assessed activity of the BLA→CeA and BLA→Acb pathways during two different forms of fear learning—fear learning in a neutral context and fear learning in a reward context. BLA→CeA neurons were robustly recruited by footshock regardless of where fear learning occurred, whereas recruitment of BLA→Acb neurons was state-dependent because footshock only recruited this pathway in a reward context. Finally, we assessed the causal roles of activity in these pathways in fear learning. Photoinhibition of the BLA→CeA pathway during the footshock US impaired fear learning, regardless of where fear learning occurred. In contrast, photoinhibition of the BLA→Acb pathway augmented fear learning, but only in the reward context. Taken together, our findings show circuit- and state-dependent opponent processing of fear. Footshock activity in the BLA→Acb pathway limits how much fear is learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frontal eye field (FEF) plays a well-established role in the control of visual attention. The strength of an FEF neuron’s response to a visual stimulus presented in its receptive field is enhanced if the stimulus captures spatial attention by virtue of its salience. A stimulus can be rendered salient by cognitive factors as well as by physical attributes. These include surprise. The aim of the present experiment was to determine whether surprise-induced salience would result in enhanced visual-response strength in the FEF. Toward this end, we monitored neuronal activity in two male monkeys while presenting first a visual cue predicting with high probability that the reward delivered at the end of the trial would be good or bad (large or small) and then a visual cue announcing the size of the impending reward with certainty. The second cue usually confirmed but occasionally violated the expectation set up by the first cue. Neurons responded more strongly to the second cue when it violated than when it confirmed expectation. The increase in the firing rate was accompanied by a decrease in spike-count correlation as expected from capture of attention. Although both good surprise and bad surprise induced enhanced firing, the effects appeared to arise from distinct mechanisms as indicated by the fact that the bad-surprise signal appeared at a longer latency than the good-surprise signal and by the fact that the strength of the two signals varied independently across neurons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Cytoplasmic fragile X messenger ribonucleoprotein 1 (FMR1)‐interacting protein 2 (CYFIP2), as a component of the Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome protein family verprolin‐homologous protein (WAVE) regulatory complex, is involved in actin polymerization, contributing to neuronal development and structural plasticity. Mutating serine‐968 to phenylalanine (S968F) in CYFIP2 causes an altered cocaine response in mice. The neuronal mechanisms underlying this response remain unknown. Experimental Approach: We performed cocaine reward‐related behavioural tests and examined changes in synaptic protein phenotypes and neuronal morphology in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), using CYFIP2 S968F knock‐in mice to investigate the role of CYFIP2 in regulating cocaine reward. Key Results: CYFIP2 S968F mutation attenuated cocaine‐induced behavioural sensitization and conditioned place preference. Cocaine‐induced c‐Fos was not observed in the NAc of CYFIP2 S968F knock‐in mice. However, c‐Fos induction was still evident in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). CYFIP2 S968F mutation altered cocaine‐associated CYFIP2 signalling, glutamatergic protein expression and synaptic density in the NAc following cocaine exposure. To further determine the role of CYFIP2 in NAc neuronal activity and the mPFC projecting to the NAc activity‐mediating reward response, we used optogenetic tools to stimulate the NAc or mPFC‐NAc pathway and observed that optogenetic activation of the NAc or mPFC‐NAc pathway induced reward‐related behaviours. This effect was not observed in the S968F mutation in CYFIP2. Conclusion and Implications: These results suggest that CYFIP2 plays a role in controlling cocaine‐mediated neuronal function and structural plasticity in the NAc, and that CYFIP2 could serve as a target for regulating cocaine reward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention and reward are functions that are critical for the control of behavior, and massive multi-region neural systems have evolved to support the discrete computations associated with each. Previous research has also identified that attention and reward interact, though our understanding of the neural mechanisms that mediate this interplay is incomplete. Here, we review the basic neuroanatomy of attention, reward, and cholinergic systems. We then examine specific contexts in which attention and reward computations interact. Building on this work, we propose two discrete neural circuits whereby acetylcholine, released from cell groups located in different parts of the brain, mediates the impact of stimulus-reward associations as well as motivation on attentional control. We conclude by examining these circuits as a potential shared loci of dysfunction across diseases states associated with deficits in attention and reward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the global prevalence of obesity has continued to rise, with a preference for high-sugar and high-fat foods being one of the primary contributors to this condition. Food preference refers to the degree of individual liking for specific foods, and its formation is closely related to the physiological effects such as satiety, satisfaction and reward that occur after food digestion in the gastrointestinal tract. With the continuous advancement of technologies such as neuroimaging and chemogenetics, the underlying neural and physiological mechanisms of food preference behavior are gradually being elucidated. Studies have shown that the digestion and absorption of food in the gastrointestinal tract can release chemical or electrical signals, which are transmitted to the central nervous system via neural pathways, humoral pathways and the gut-brain axis mediated by gut microbiota. Subsequently, these signals regulate feeding behavior by activating or inhibiting neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract, the dopaminergic reward pathways and relevant neural circuits in the hypothalamus. Based on this, the article introduces the definition, evaluation methods and mechanisms of food preference, and reviews the pathways of food information transmission within the gutbrain axis, the reward circuits that modulate food preference and the application of food preference behavior to the treatment of obesity, in order to provide reference for research in the field of food preference and obesity treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rewards act as external motivators and can improve performance in various cognitive tasks. However, previous research demonstrated mixed findings regarding the effect of reward on working memory (WM) performance, and the question of whether reward enhances WM performance is arguable. It remains unclear how the effect of reward on WM can be influenced by various factors, such as types of reward and experimental paradigms. In this meta-analytic study, we systematically investigated the effect of reward on WM by analyzing data from 51 eligible studies involving a total of 1767 participants. Our results showed that reward robustly enhanced WM performance, with non-monetary rewards inducing more benefits than monetary rewards. This may be because, while both types of reward could induce extrinsic motivation, non-monetary rewards enhanced intrinsic motivation while monetary rewards reduced it. Notably, all three reward methods—reward binding, reward expectation, and subliminal reward—effectively improved WM performance, with the reward binding paradigm exhibiting the greatest effects. This finding suggests that the reward effect can be attributed to both increasing the total amount of WM resources and improving the flexibility of resource reallocation. Moreover, the type of WM, the experimental paradigms, and the outcome measures are three moderators that should be jointly considered when assessing the reward effects on WM. Overall, this meta-analytic study provides solid evidence that reward improves WM performance and reveals possible mechanisms underlying these improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to analyze the effect of reward and punishment on employee performance at Bank Sumsel Babel Prabumulih Branch Office. Data was collected through questionnaires distributed to employees at the branch office. Research data was collected by distributing questionnaires to employees at Bank Sumsel Babel Prabumulih Branch Office. The analytical method used is multiple linear regression, which allows researchers to evaluate the individual influence of the independent variables (reward and punishment) on the dependent variable (employee performance). The results of the analysis show that both reward and punishment have a positive and significant influence on employee performance. Appropriate rewards can increase employee motivation and productivity, while punishment that is applied fairly also plays a role in maintaining discipline and optimal performance. This research emphasizes the importance of a balanced managerial strategy between reward and punishment to create a conducive work environment and achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Brain functional and physiological plasticity is essential to combat dynamic environmental challenges. The rhythmic dopamine signaling pathway, which regulates emotion, reward and learning, shows seasonal patterns with higher capacity of dopamine synthesis and lower number of dopamine transporters during dark seasons. However, seasonal variation of the dopamine receptor signaling remains to be characterized. Methods: Based on a historical database of healthy human brain [11C]raclopride PET scans (n = 291, 224 males and 67 females), we investigated the seasonal patterns of D2/3 dopamine receptor signaling. Daylength at the time of scanning was used as a predictor for brain regional non-displaceable binding of the radiotracer, while controlling for age and sex. Results: Daylength was negatively correlated with availability of D2/3 dopamine receptors in the striatum. The largest effect was found in the left caudate, and based on the primary sample, every 4.26 h (i.e., one standard deviation) increase of daylength was associated with a mean 2.8% drop (95% CI -0.042 to -0.014) of the receptor availability. Conclusions: Seasonally varying D2/3 receptor signaling may also underlie the seasonality of mood, feeding, and motivational processes. Our finding suggests that in future studies of brain dopamine signaling, especially in high-latitude regions, the effect of seasonality should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although personality traits are assumed to have biological/physiological foundations, research has yielded mixed evidence regarding the relationship between personality and physiological stress responses. Moreover, the field has often overlooked the contemporary neuroscience-based personality approach, known as the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) of Personality, in stress research. Method: The present study examined the relationship between the revised RST's personality dimensions and heart rate and skin conductance level (SCL) in response to the Trier Social Stress Test in a sample of 61 healthy university students. Results: Piecewise latent growth curve analysis controlling for the participants' current life stress, smoking use, and caffeine intake revealed that individuals with higher behavioral inhibition exhibited higher physiological reactivity, whereas those with high reward sensitivity showed smaller heart rate reactivity. The behavioral disengagement facet of the behavioral inhibition scale was associated with reduced sympathetic arousal during the stress task. Additionally, reward interest was associated with a larger recovery of SCL. Conclusion: Results were generally in line with the revised theory. The study findings were discussed within the paradigm of the approach-avoidance conflict and highlighted the importance of reward sensitivity in stress resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relatively little work has focused on why we are motivated to learn words. In adults, recent experiments have shown that intrinsic reward signals accompany successful word learning from context. In addition, the experience of reward facilitated long‐term memory for words. In adolescence, developmental changes are seen in reward and motivation systems as well as in reading and language systems. Here, in the face of this developmental change, we ask whether adolescents experience reward from word learning, and how the reward and memory benefit seen in adults is modulated by age. We used a naturalistic reading paradigm, which involved extracting novel word meanings from sentence context without the need for explicit feedback. By exploring ratings of enjoyment during the learning phase, as well as recognition memory for words a day later, we assessed whether adolescents show the same reward and learning patterns as adults. We tested 345 children between the ages of 10–18 (N > 84 in each 2‐year age‐band) using this paradigm. We found evidence for our first prediction: children aged 10–18 report greater enjoyment for successful word learning. However, we did not find evidence for age‐related change in this developmental period, or memory benefits. This work gives us greater insight into the process of language acquisition and sets the stage for further investigations of intrinsic reward in typical and atypical development. Research Highlights: We constantly learn words from context, even in the absence of explicit rewards or feedback.In adults, intrinsic reward experienced during word learning is linked to a dopaminergic circuit in the brain, which also fuels enhancements in memory for words.We find adolescents also report enhanced reward or enjoyment when they successfully learn words from sentence context.The relationship between reward and learning is maintained between the ages of 10 and 18.Unlike in adults, we did not observe ensuing memory benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a method to solve the 2D irregular packing problem using Deep Reinforcement Learning (Deep RL) for logistics. Our method employs a Q agent trained to predict the best placement within a container, maximizing available space. Unlike previous Deep RL algorithms, our method introduces a dense reward function at each packing step, providing immediate feedback and accelerating learning. To our knowledge, this is the first approach to use a dense reward to address the 2D irregular packing problem. Building on our earlier work, we improve the deep neural network by incorporating the Double Deep Q-Network (DDQN) framework to enhance our deep Q-learning approach, reducing overestimation biases and improving decision-making reliability. Simulation results show the method's effectiveness in completing the online 2D irregular packing tasks, achieving promising volume efficiency and packed piece metrics. This research extends our initial findings, highlighting the practical importance of DDQN and dense reward in advancing 2D irregular packing problem-solving. These advancements not only broaden the applications of deep learning but also hold practical importance for real-world logistics challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: The on-demand service platform is an uprising business that has become more popular recently. Nevertheless, the competition within this industry can make it hard for companies to survive. Therefore, brand loyalty is vital to ensure the business survives the competition. Purpose: This study investigates how reward and consumer brand engagement can affect brand loyalty in the on-demand service industry. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical evidence was collected using a quantitative method using convenience sampling from 232 users of Indonesia's most significant ondemand service industry. This study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings/Result: The results of this study show that reward and consumer brand engagement both have positive and significant effects on brand loyalty. Furthermore, consumer brand engagement also mediates the relationship between reward and brand loyalty of the customers. Conclusion: Therefore, it is crucial for on-demand service platforms to improve their reward system for the customer and to pay more attention to their consumer brand engagement to improve brand loyalty. Originality/value (State of the art): Only a few articles use rewards in gamification in a business context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Hypothesis Disturbances in effort-cost decision-making have been highlighted as a potential transdiagnostic process underpinning negative symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia. However, recent studies using computational phenotyping show that individuals employ a range of strategies to allocate effort, and use of different strategies is associated with unique clinical and cognitive characteristics. Building on prior work in schizophrenia, this study evaluated whether effort allocation strategies differed in individuals with distinct psychotic disorders. Study Design We applied computational modeling to effort-cost decision-making data obtained from individuals with psychotic disorders (n  = 190) who performed the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task. The sample included 91 individuals with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder, 90 individuals with psychotic bipolar disorder, and 52 controls. Study Results Different effort allocation strategies were observed both across and within different disorders. Relative to individuals with psychotic bipolar disorder, a greater proportion of individuals with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder did not use reward value or probability information to guide effort allocation. Furthermore, across disorders, different effort allocation strategies were associated with specific clinical and cognitive features. Those who did not use reward value or probability information to guide effort allocation had more severe positive and negative symptoms, and poorer cognitive and community functioning. In contrast, those who only used reward value information showed a trend toward more severe positive symptoms. Conclusions These findings indicate that similar deficits in effort-cost decision-making may arise from different computational mechanisms across the psychosis spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformative integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into educational settings, exemplified by ChatGPT, presents a myriad of ethical considerations that extend beyond conventional risk assessments. This study employs a pioneering framework encapsulating risk, reward, and resilience (RRR) dynamics to explore the ethical landscape of ChatGPT utilization in education. Drawing on an extensive literature review and a robust conceptual framework, the research identifies and categorizes ethical concerns associated with ChatGPT, offering decision-makers a structured approach to navigate this intricate terrain. Through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the study prioritizes ethical themes based on global weights. The findings underscore the paramount importance of resilience elements such as solidifying ethical values, higher-level reasoning skills, and transforming educative systems. Privacy and confidentiality emerge as critical risk concerns, along with safety and security concerns. This work also highlights reward elements, including increasing productivity, personalized learning, and streamlining workflows. This study not only addresses immediate practical implications but also establishes a theoretical foundation for future AI ethics research in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infants rely on developing attention skills to identify relevant stimuli in their environments. Although caregivers are socially rewarding and a critical source of information, they are also one of many stimuli that compete for infants' attention. Young infants preferentially hold attention on caregiver faces, but it is unknown whether they also preferentially orient to caregivers and the extent to which these attention biases reflect reward‐based attention mechanisms. To address these questions, we measured 4‐ to 10‐month‐old infants' (N = 64) frequency of orienting and duration of looking to caregiver and stranger faces within multi‐item arrays. We also assessed whether infants' attention to these faces related to individual differences in Surgency, an indirect index of reward sensitivity. Although infants did not show biased attention to caregiver versus stranger faces at the group level, infants were increasingly biased to orient to stranger faces with age and infants with higher Surgency scores showed more robust attention orienting and attention holding biases to caregiver faces. These effects varied based on the selective attention demands of the task, suggesting that infants' attention biases to caregiver faces may reflect both developing attention control skills and reward‐based attention mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some situations, for example, when we expect to gain a reward in case of good performance, goal‐driven top‐down attention is particularly strong. Little is known about the task specificity of such increases of top‐down attention due to environmental factors. To understand to what extent performance‐contingent reward prospects can result in specific and unspecific changes in cognitive processing, we here investigate reward effects under different levels of task specification. Thirty‐two participants performed a visual or an auditory discrimination task cued by two consecutive visual stimuli: First, a reward cue indicated if good performance was rewarded. Second, a task cue announced either which of the two tasks would follow (precise cue) or that both tasks would follow equally likely (imprecise cue). Reward and task cue preciseness both significantly improved performance. Moreover, the response time difference between precisely and imprecisely cued trials was significantly stronger in rewarded than in unrewarded trials. These effects were reflected in event‐related potential (ERP) slow wave amplitudes: Reward and preciseness both significantly enhanced the contingent negative variation (CNV) prior to the task stimulus. In an early CNV time interval, both factors also showed an interaction. A negative slow wave prior to the task cue was also significantly enhanced for rewarded trials. This effect correlated with the reward difference in response times. These results indicate that reward prospects trigger task‐specific changes in preparatory top‐down attention which can flexibly adapt over time and across different task requirements. This highlights that a reward‐induced increase of cognitive control can occur on different specificity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]