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Amygdala and nucleus accumbens involvement in appetitive extinction
Onno Kruse1,2, Sanja Klein2,3, Isabell Tapia León1,2
1Department of Clinical Psychology, University Siegen, Siegen, Germany.
Human Brain Mapping
|January 8, 2020
Summary
Appetitive extinction learning, a model for addiction treatment, involves significant neural changes. The nucleus accumbens and amygdala show key roles in human reward learning and extinction processes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Extinction of appetitive conditioning is a crucial model for understanding and treating psychiatric disorders like addiction.
- Neural correlates of appetitive extinction in humans are not well-established, necessitating further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural correlates of appetitive extinction in a large, diverse human sample.
- To replicate and extend findings from previous studies on appetitive extinction.
- To elucidate the roles of specific brain regions in reward learning and extinction.
Main Methods:
- Differential appetitive conditioning using a monetary reward stimulus (CS+) versus a non-reward stimulus (CS-).
- Extinction phase where neither CS+ nor CS- were reinforced.
- Measurement of behavioral responses (valence, arousal ratings, skin conductance) and neural activity (fMRI).
Main Results:
- Successful appetitive conditioning led to reduced valence and arousal ratings, and decreased skin conductance responses to CS+ during extinction.
- Early extinction showed differential activation in the dACC and hippocampus (CS+ vs. CS-).
- Late extinction replicated differential activation in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens, with the amygdala showing increased activation over time.
Conclusions:
- The study successfully replicated key findings on the neural basis of appetitive extinction in humans.
- The nucleus accumbens and amygdala play significant roles in human reward learning and extinction processes.
- These findings support the use of appetitive extinction as a neural model for addiction treatment.
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