Influence of reward on memory consolidation in adults and adolescence

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Project Summary/Abstract Adolescence marks a state of increased engagement of dopamine systems, a neurobiological state associated with increased reward-motivated behaviors. While increased dopamine signaling during this time period predominately supports adaptive developmental processes, such as exploration and reward learning, it can also propel risk taking behaviors associated with substance use and abuse. Prominent animal models have shown that engagement of dopamine systems and increased reward sensitivtycan increase plasticity and consolidation in hippocampal learning systems, resulting in enhanced memory for rewarding events. Critically, these enhancements in memory underlie the reinstatement of prior drug-related contexts and propel drug use. While a large rodent literature has focused on reward’s influence on hippocampal-dependent plasticity, relatively little work has characterized these processes in human adults or adolescents. We propose to study the influence of reward on memory consolidation and episodic memory throughout adolescence into early adulthood. We will study 90 14- to 25- year-old healthy subjects using multiple neuroimaging modalities. All participants will complete a reward memory paradigm, which will allow for the quantification of the influence of reward on episodic memory, i.e. a behavioral marker of hippocampal consolidation. Memory enhancements for reward will be associated with neural markers related to memory consolidation. In Aim 1, we will characterize associations between reward-mediated memory enhancements and neural markers of consolidation in healthy adults, allowing us to translate and extend animal models into a human neuroscience framework. In Aim 2, we will characterize these relationships throughout adolescence to better understand how adolescents heighted sensitivity to reward influences long-term memory representations throughout development. This work will provide a deeper understanding of how hippocampal plasticity is influenced by reward throughout adolescence, and bolster a foundation to better understand the vulnerability to substance abuse in this population.