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The novelty exploration bonus and its attentional modulation
Ruth M Krebs1, Björn H Schott, Hartmut Schütze
1Department of Neurology and Center for Advanced Imaging, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
Neuropsychologia
|June 16, 2009
Summary
Novelty acts as a reward exploration bonus, enhancing brain reward anticipation signals. This effect, however, depends on task demands, particularly when attending to reward cues.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Reinforcement Learning
Background:
- Novel stimuli are hypothesized to be salient learning signals motivating exploration for rewards.
- In reinforcement learning, this is termed the novelty 'exploration bonus'.
- Stimulus novelty may enhance reward anticipation signals in dopaminergic circuitry, reducing responses to actual rewards.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if stimulus novelty enhances reward anticipation signals and reduces reward outcome responses.
- To determine if this effect is modulated by task demands and attention to reward-predicting properties.
Main Methods:
- Two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments were conducted.
- Participants viewed images of natural scenes predicting monetary reward or neutral outcomes.
- Stimuli were either novel or familiar, with tasks varying in attention to reward-predicting image properties.
Main Results:
- Novelty enhanced mesolimbic reward prediction responses and reduced responses to reward outcomes.
- This effect was task-dependent, occurring only when participants explicitly attended to reward-predicting image properties.
- Recognition memory for stimuli was enhanced by reward anticipation in both tasks.
Conclusions:
- Novelty can function as a bonus for rewards when reward-predicting properties are explicitly attended.
- This provides a motivational signal for exploration, biasing organisms towards reward anticipation.
- Findings support the role of novelty in driving exploratory behavior within specific attentional contexts.
