Striatal responsiveness to reward under threat‐of‐shock and working memory load: A preliminary study

Working Memory Load Strengthens Reward Prediction Errors.

Reinforcement learning (RL) in simple instrumental tasks is usually modeled as a monolithic process in which reward prediction errors (RPEs) are used to update expected values of choice options. This modeling ignores the different contributions of different memory and decision-making systems thought to contribute even to simple learning. In an fMRI experiment, we investigated how working memory...

Striatal dopamine and working memory.

Recent studies have emphasized the importance of dopamine projections to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) for working memory (WM) function, although this system has rarely been studied in humans in vivo. However, dopamine and PFC activity can be directly measured with positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), respectively. In this study, we examined WM capa...

Working Memory Load Under Anxiety: Quadratic Relations to Cardiac Vagal Control and Inhibition of Distractor Interference

Changes in Effective Connectivity According to Working Memory Load: An fMRI Study of Face and Location Working Memory Tasks

OBJECTIVE The functional strategic mechanisms in the brain during performing visuospatial working memory tasks, especially tasks with heavy load, are controversial. We conducted the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while sixteen subjects were performing face- and location-matching n-back tasks to examine causal relations within the frontoparietal networks. METHODS We applied a sop...

Learned reward association improves visual working memory.

Statistical regularities in the natural environment play a central role in adaptive behavior. Among other regularities, reward association is potentially the most prominent factor that influences our daily life. Recent studies have suggested that pre-established reward association yields strong influence on the spatial allocation of attention. Here we show that reward association can also impro...