reward and pleasure- lecture 16

What is anhedonia?

a lack of interest or pleasure

What are the 3 major components of reward?

liking, wanting, and learning

What is liking in reward?

the pleasure component/hedonic impact of reward that can be both conscious and sub conscious

What is wanting in reward?

the motivational component of reward that can be both conscious and sub conscious

What is learning in reward?

the associative and predictive component of reward such as associative conditioning and cognitive predictions

What are the 2 dimensions that characterize stimuli/experiences?

intensity and valence

What is intensity?

how strong a stimulus is

What is valence?

subjective output of a sensory experience

How do intensity and valence interact?

asymmetrically correlated between valences (negative to positive) and correlated with valence

What brain areas are associated with reward and pleasure

orbitofrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, thalamus, and midbrain

What is the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) associated with?

adaptive decision making

True or false: valence is represented differently in different regions of the OFC

true

The mid-anterior OFC is associated with the representation of what?

sensory pleasure

The medial OFC is involved with what?

learning and memory of rewards

The lateral OFC helps to what?

monitoring disincentives and negative reinforcements

The anterior OFC represents what?

complex or abstract reinforcers such as money

What are the 5 functions of the OFC?

1) encoding valence

2) maintaining representations of expected rewards

3) learning and updating reward expectations

4) predicting future reward

5) contributing to decision making

What are the endogenous opioids?

endorphins, enkephalins, dynorphins

What does the brain use opioids for?

analgesia (pain relief) and reward

Where are pleasure opioids involved in?

nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is associated with what?

serving as the hedonic hotspot for pleasure generation and contributing to dread and desire

Inhibiting NAc produces what?

intense motivation

GABA blockades ___ pallidal activity

increases

What do ventral tegmental areas contribute to?

learning and reward prediction

When there is a positive reward prediction error what happens to firing rate and dopamine levels?

both increase

Ventral tegmental area cells that release dopamine target which brain areas?

Orbitiofrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and ventral pallidum

Recen evidence suggests that dopamine functions how?

by increasing wanting without pleasure

How do heroin and nicotine impact dopamine in the nucleus accumbens?

increasing dopamine release

How does cocaine impact dopamine in the nucleus accumbens?

it prolongs dopamine action at dopamine receptors

The amygdala plays a role in what?

computing stimulus values

How do neurons in the amygdala encode stimulus values?

in appetitive and aversive tasks

The amygdala provides information about stimulus values to where?

orbitofrontal cortex

Are reproductive organs innervated by the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system?

both

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