Is Pain Rewarding? Proposal for a Current Stimulator

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This proposal is a request for funds to acquire a current stimulator, which is a non-invasive pain stimulation device suitable for use with humans. The apparatus would enable Dr. Clay Holroyd to extend his research program on the brain mechanisms of reward processing to include work on the neural mechanisms of pain avoidance. Dr. Holroyd has proposed a highly influential theory that unexpected rewards - such as winning a small amount of money in a gambling task - elicit a brainwave called the "reward positivity". The theory also holds that losses and errors (whether these are expected or not) do not elicit the reward positivity. The theory has been tested in numerous laboratories worldwide and the evidence for it is strong. However, recent studies have found that unexpected physical punishments also elicit the reward positivity. These findings present a serious challenge to the theory, because the theory predicts that the reward positivity should only be elicited by unexpected positive events. If in fact pain stimuli elicit this brainwave, as claimed, then the standard theory of this neural system is incorrect. Dr. Holroyd plans to utilize the pain stimulator to investigate this issue.