Early-life adversity, dopamine, and decision-making processes

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Individuals seek rewards essential for survival and procreation, such as food, water, shelter, and mates. Yet numerous decisions have to be made about these rewards – timing of collecting rewards, choice between different classes of rewards, as well as within category choices. These processes are exceptionally complex as they integrate homeostatic and affective states, ‘plans’, as well as what has previously been learned. Through instrumental learning individuals learn how to obtain these rewards. However, other processes, such as Pavlovian conditioning can influence these processes as well. Pavlovian conditioned stimuli can alter motivational states and facilitate instrumental learning. In fact, numerous experimental studies have investigated how Pavlovian conditioning can facilitate instrumental learning and performance.