Ventral striatal activity correlates with memory confidence for old- and new-responses in a difficult recognition test
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Ventral striatal activity correlates with memory confidence for old- and new-responses in a difficult recognition test. / Schwarze, Ulrike; Bingel, Ulrike; Badre, David; Sommer-Blöchl, Tobias.
In: PLOS ONE, Vol. 8, No. 3, 01.01.2013, p. e54324.Research output: SCORING: Contribution to journal › SCORING: Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Ventral striatal activity correlates with memory confidence for old- and new-responses in a difficult recognition test
AU - Schwarze, Ulrike
AU - Bingel, Ulrike
AU - Badre, David
AU - Sommer-Blöchl, Tobias
PY - 2013/1/1
Y1 - 2013/1/1
N2 - Activity in the ventral striatum has frequently been associated with retrieval success, i.e., it is higher for hits than correct rejections. Based on the prominent role of the ventral striatum in the reward circuit, its activity has been interpreted to reflect the higher subjective value of hits compared to correct rejections in standard recognition tests. This hypothesis was supported by a recent study showing that ventral striatal activity is higher for correct rejections than hits when the value of rejections is increased by external incentives. These findings imply that the striatal response during recognition is context-sensitive and modulated by the adaptive significance of "oldness" or "newness" to the current goals. The present study is based on the idea that not only external incentives, but also other deviations from standard recognition tests which affect the subjective value of specific response types should modulate striatal activity. Therefore, we explored ventral striatal activity in an unusually difficult recognition test that was characterized by low levels of confidence and accuracy. Based on the human uncertainty aversion, in such a recognition context, the subjective value of all high confident decisions is expected to be higher than usual, i.e., also rejecting items with high certainty is deemed rewarding. In an accompanying behavioural experiment, participants rated the pleasantness of each recognition response. As hypothesized, ventral striatal activity correlated in the current unusually difficult recognition test not only with retrieval success, but also with confidence. Moreover, participants indicated that they were more satisfied by higher confidence in addition to perceived oldness of an item. Taken together, the results are in line with the hypothesis that ventral striatal activity during recognition codes the subjective value of different response types that is modulated by the context of the recognition test.
AB - Activity in the ventral striatum has frequently been associated with retrieval success, i.e., it is higher for hits than correct rejections. Based on the prominent role of the ventral striatum in the reward circuit, its activity has been interpreted to reflect the higher subjective value of hits compared to correct rejections in standard recognition tests. This hypothesis was supported by a recent study showing that ventral striatal activity is higher for correct rejections than hits when the value of rejections is increased by external incentives. These findings imply that the striatal response during recognition is context-sensitive and modulated by the adaptive significance of "oldness" or "newness" to the current goals. The present study is based on the idea that not only external incentives, but also other deviations from standard recognition tests which affect the subjective value of specific response types should modulate striatal activity. Therefore, we explored ventral striatal activity in an unusually difficult recognition test that was characterized by low levels of confidence and accuracy. Based on the human uncertainty aversion, in such a recognition context, the subjective value of all high confident decisions is expected to be higher than usual, i.e., also rejecting items with high certainty is deemed rewarding. In an accompanying behavioural experiment, participants rated the pleasantness of each recognition response. As hypothesized, ventral striatal activity correlated in the current unusually difficult recognition test not only with retrieval success, but also with confidence. Moreover, participants indicated that they were more satisfied by higher confidence in addition to perceived oldness of an item. Taken together, the results are in line with the hypothesis that ventral striatal activity during recognition codes the subjective value of different response types that is modulated by the context of the recognition test.
KW - Adult
KW - Basal Ganglia
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Learning
KW - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW - Male
KW - Motivation
KW - Recognition (Psychology)
KW - Regression Analysis
KW - Reproducibility of Results
KW - Reward
KW - Young Adult
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0054324
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0054324
M3 - SCORING: Journal article
C2 - 23472064
VL - 8
SP - e54324
JO - PLOS ONE
JF - PLOS ONE
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 3
ER -
