The brain architecture of punishment

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This project aims to map the neural architecture that underpins how punishment shapes our behaviours, decisions and choices. Reward and punishment are the most fundamental psychological building blocks of behaviour. They allow us to cope with a changing world and maximise our probability of survival by seeking utility and avoiding harm. This project expects to provide new mechanistic insights to advance theories of learning and decision-making and lay a new basic science platform for maintaining or restoring normal decision making and motivational processing. This project is expected to provide a new knowledge base for understanding decision-making and motivation in disorders that impose significant burdens on the Australian economy such as substance abuse, antisocial personality disorder and depression.