Common and Distinct Reward and Punishment Systems in the Human Brain

在日常生活中，人们经常面临不同目标之间的抉择。这通常涉及不同类型奖励之间的选择。例如，我是应该加班来获得奖金，还是应该把加班的时间用来陪伴家人？为了理解大脑是如何在不同类型的奖励之间做出决定的，有必要首先确定每种不同类型的奖励在大脑中的表现方式。这个项目的目标是确定不同的奖励是否在不同的大脑区域表现出来，以及是否也存在一个系统对不同类型的奖励做出相似的反应。在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，加州理工学院（California Institute of Technology）的约翰·奥多尔蒂（John O’doherty）博士和他的同事们将利用脑成像技术（功能性磁共振成像）来探测大脑中一些关键区域对奖惩的神经反应，这些区域已知与情绪反应和奖励的处理有关，包括杏仁核、眶额皮质、腹侧纹状体和前脑岛。在一系列实验中，人类志愿者将被呈现两种不同类型的奖惩：果汁（令人愉快的和令人厌恶的）和金钱（赢和输），在同一个实验中交错进行。然后将这些反应直接与对两种类型的奖励或惩罚做出反应的区域进行比较，以及确定只对一种或另一种类型做出反应的区域。大脑的反应不仅会对收到的奖励进行测量，还会对他们的期望进行测量。这项工作将使我们对人类大脑中的奖惩表征有一个更全面的了解。这项研究还可以深入了解依赖于不同类型奖励信息整合的复杂决策行为背后的机制。这项研究的发现有助于阐明所有动机行为背后的基本学习机制。这些发现可能会对认知神经科学以外的领域产生重大影响，比如经济学和决策理论。这项研究还可能导致新技术的发展，以帮助人们做出更好的决定，或通过使用强化来提高学习和技能习得。这项申请的资金将用于支持加州理工学院的一个新的研究小组，该小组可以为认知神经科学和脑成像领域的本科生、研究生和博士后学员提供研究培训机会。

In the course of everyday life, people are frequently faced with decisions between different goals. Often these involve choices between different types of rewards. For example, should I spend extra hours at work to get that salary bonus, or should I spend that time instead to be with my family? In order to develop an understanding of how the brain computes decisions between different types of reward it is necessary to first determine how each of these different types of reward are represented in the brain. The goals of this project are to determine whether different rewards are represented in different brain areas, and whether there also exists a system that responds similarly to different types of reward. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. John O'Doherty and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology will address these questions by using brain imaging techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to probe neural responses to rewards and punishments in a number of key brain regions known to be involved in processing of emotional responses and rewards, including the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum and anterior insula. A series of experiments will be conducted during which human volunteers will be presented with two different types of reward and punishment: juice (pleasant and aversive) and money (wins and losses), interleaved within the same experiments. These responses will then be compared directly to test for regions responding to both types of reward or punishment, as well as to determine regions that respond exclusively to one or other type. Brain responses will be measured not only to the receipt of reward, but also to their expectation. This work will result in a more comprehensive picture of reward and punishment representations in the human brain. The research could also provide insights into the mechanisms underlying complex decision making behaviors that depend on integration of different types of reward information. The findings generated by this research could help elucidate the fundamental learning mechanisms that underlie all motivated behaviors. Such findings could have a significant impact on fields outside cognitive neuroscience such as economics and decision theory. This research could also lead to the development of novel techniques to help people make better decisions, or improve learning and skill acquisition through the use of reinforcement. The funding from this application will be used to support a new research group at Caltech which can provide research training opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral trainees in cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging.