Approach-avoidance conflict recruits lateral frontoparietal and cinguloinsular networks in a predator-prey game...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Computational Psychiatry

Background:

• Approach-avoidance conflict (AAC) arises from stimuli with both rewarding and threatening properties.
• Existing research on AAC predominantly uses static stimuli, limiting ecological validity.
• Dynamic, interactive environments offer a more realistic setting to study AAC processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural substrates of AAC processing in a dynamic, interactive environment.
• To examine how stimulus imminence influences brain network activation during AAC.
• To differentiate the temporal dynamics of brain network responses to AAC agents.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed with 31 subjects playing a predator-prey video game.
• Participants navigated a maze with agents that were either consistently harmful/healing (non-AAC) or probabilistically so (AAC).
• Neural activity was analyzed in relation to agent imminence and type.

Main Results:

• Agent imminence significantly predicted activation in the cingulo-insular (CI), dorsal frontoparietal (DFP), and occipitotemporal (OT) networks.
• The CI network showed transient activation at trial onset, while the lateral frontoparietal (LFP) network exhibited sustained activation.
• Distinct temporal activation patterns were observed for CI and LFP networks in response to AAC agents.

Conclusions:

• In dynamic settings, the CI and LFP networks play complementary roles in processing AAC.
• The CI network appears crucial for initial discrimination of AAC agents.
• The LFP network is involved in sustaining behavioral responses to varying levels of AAC.