title: The effect of graded monetary reward on cognitive event-related potentials and behavior in young healthy adults.
abstract: Temporal correlates of the brain circuit underlying reward processing in healthy adults remain unclear. The current study investigated the P3 and contingent negative variation (CNV) as putative reward-related temporal markers. The effect of sustained monetary reward on these event-related potentials and on behavior was assessed using a warned reaction-time paradigm in 16 young healthy subjects. Monetary reward (0, 1 and 45 cents) varied across blocks of trials. While the CNV was unaffected by money, P3 amplitude was significantly larger for 45 than the 1 and 0 cent conditions. This effect corresponded to the monotonically positive subjective ratings of interest and excitement on the task (45>1>0). These findings suggest a difference between the P3 and CNV; the P3 is sensitive to the sustained effect of relative reward value, while the CNV does not vary with reward magnitude.
authors.affiliation: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973-5000, USA. rgoldstein@bnl.gov
authors.forename: Rita Z
authors.initials: RZ
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: Lisa A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Cottone
authors.forename: Zhiru
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maloney
authors.forename: Nora D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Volkow
authors.forename: Nancy K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Squires
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward