title: Reward-based contextual learning supported by anterior cingulate cortex.
abstract: The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is commonly associated with cognitive control and decision making, but its specific function is highly debated. To explore a recent theory that the ACC learns the reward values of task contexts (Holroyd & McClure in Psychological Review, 122, 54-83, 2015; Holroyd & Yeung in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 122-128, 2012), we recorded the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) from participants as they played a novel gambling task. The participants were first required to select from among three games in one "virtual casino," and subsequently they were required to select from among three different games in a different virtual casino; unbeknownst to them, the payoffs for the games were higher in one casino than in the other. Analysis of the reward positivity, an ERP component believed to reflect reward-related signals carried to the ACC by the midbrain dopamine system, revealed that the ACC is sensitive to differences in the reward values associated with both the casinos and the games inside the casinos, indicating that participants learned the values of the contexts in which rewards were delivered. These results highlight the importance of the ACC in learning the reward values of task contexts in order to guide action selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. akumemoto@gmail.com.|Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3, Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima City, Hiroshima, 734-8553, Japan. akumemoto@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Akina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Umemoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Azadeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: HajiHosseini
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Yates
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Clay B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Holroyd
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000523:psychology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anterior cingulate cortex; Contextual learning; Dopamine; ERP; Learning reward value; Reinforcement learning