Control preference persists with age.

The opportunity to exert control in one's environment is desirable, and individuals are willing to seek out control, even at a financial cost. Additionally, control-related activation of reward regions in the brain and the positive affect associated with the opportunity to exert control suggest that control is rewarding. The present study explores whether there are age-related differences in the preference for control. Older and younger adults chose whether to maintain control and play a guessing game themselves or to cede this control to the computer. Maintaining and ceding control were associated with different amounts of monetary reward that could be banked upon a successful guess. This required participants to weigh the value associated with control compared to monetary rewards. We found that older adults preferred control and traded monetary reward for control, similar to younger adults. The results suggest that the preference for exerting control may be preserved across age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Nicotine acutely alters temporal properties of resting brain states.

BACKGROUND: Nicotine-dependent individuals have altered activity in neurocognitive networks such as the default mode (DMN), salience (SN) and central executive networks (CEN). One theory suggests that, among chronic tobacco smokers, nicotine abstinence drives more DMN-related internal processing while nicotine replacement suppresses DMN and enhances SN and CEN. Whether acute nicotine impacts network dynamics in non-smokers is, however, unknown. METHODS: In a randomized double-blind crossover study, 17 healthy non-smokers (8 females) were administered placebo and nicotine (2-mg lozenge) on two different days prior to collecting resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Previously defined brain states in 462 individuals that spatially overlap with well-characterized resting-state networks including the DMN, SN, and CEN were applied to compute state-specific dynamics at rest: total time spent in state, persistence in each state after entry, and frequency of state transitions. We examined whether nicotine acutely alters these resting-state dynamics. RESULTS: A significant drug-by-state interaction emerged; post-hoc analyses clarified that, relative to placebo, nicotine suppressed time spent in a frontoinsular-DMN state (posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, striatum and orbitofrontal cortex) and enhanced time spent in a SN state (anterior cingulate cortex and insula). No significant findings were observed for persistence and frequency. CONCLUSIONS: In non-smokers, nicotine biases resting-state brain function away from the frontoinsular-DMN and toward the SN, which may reduce internally focused cognition and enhance salience processing. While past work suggests nicotine impacts DMN activity, the current work shows nicotinic influences on a specific DMN-like network that has been linked with rumination and depression.

The Protective Effects of Perceived Control During Repeated Exposure to Aversive Stimuli.

The ability to perceive and exercise control is a major contributor to our mental and physical wellbeing. When faced with uncontrollable aversive stimuli, organisms develop heightened anxiety and become unwilling to exert effort to avoid the stimuli. In contrast, when faced with controllable aversive stimuli, organisms demonstrate behavioral vigor via avoidance attempts toward trying to seek and exercise control over the environment. As such, controllability confers protective effects against reduced avoidance motivation trigged by aversive environments. These observations beg the question of whether controllability can be potent enough to reverse passivity following repeated exposure to uncontrollable aversive stimuli and how this protective effect is encoded neurally. Human participants performed a Control in Aversive Domain (CAD) task where they were first subjected to a series of repeated uncontrollable aversive stimuli (i.e., aversive tones) across several contexts that were followed by a series of controllable aversive stimuli in a novel context. Faced with persistent uncontrollability, participants significantly reduced their avoidance attempts over time and biased toward giving up. However, the subsequent presence of controllability rescued participants' avoidance behavior. Strikingly, participants who responded more strongly to the protective effects of control also had greater ventromedial prefrontal cortical (vmPFC) activation-a region previously observed to be associated with encoding the subjective value of control. Taken together, these findings highlighted the protective effect conferred by perceived control against passivity and offered insights into the potential role of the vmPFC in controllable environments, with implications for understanding the beneficial influence of perceived control on adaptive behavior.

The influence of contextual factors on the subjective value of control.

The propensity to perceive and exert control in our environment contributes to both our adaptive behavior and general well-being. Prior studies have shown that humans have an inherent behavioral bias toward control-conferring environments and that this bias translates into greater subjective affect and is protective of our well-being. As such, it is vital to understand contextual factors that can alter our preference for control. In our previous work, we demonstrated that the behavioral bias toward control can be captured experimentally as the subjective value of control using a novel Value of Control task. We adapted this task in two experiments to study whether one's subjective value of control is (a) tied to overestimation of success probability or outcome magnitude (Experiment 1) and (b) affected by the contextual valence of a decision (e.g., gain, loss; Experiment 2). Using a within-subjects design (Experiment 1), we found that participants showed similar behavioral bias toward control regardless of whether probability or magnitude was manipulated, suggesting that the perception of control can increase both how much a reward is subjectively worth and the probability estimation for obtaining the given reward. Using a between-subjects design (Experiment 2), we showed that when the outcome was framed as a potential loss, participants significantly lowered their subjective value of control, suggesting that outcome valence plays a role in shaping how much perceived control influences our behavior. Collectively, these findings offer further insight into the malleability of an individual's perception of control and drive to perform control-seeking behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Temporal Dynamics of Large-Scale Networks Predict Neural Cue Reactivity and Cue-Induced Craving.

BACKGROUND: Cue reactivity, a core characteristic of substance use disorders, commonly recruits brain regions that are key nodes in neurocognitive networks, including the default mode network (DMN) and salience network (SN). Whether resting-state temporal dynamic properties of these networks relate to subsequent cue reactivity and cue-induced craving is unknown. METHODS: The resting-state data of 46 nicotine-dependent participants were assessed to define temporal dynamic properties of DMN and SN states. Temporal dynamics focused on the total time across the scan session that brain activity resides in these specific states. Using regression models, we examined how the total time in each state related to neural reactivity to smoking cues within key DMN (posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex) or SN (anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) nodes. Mediation analyses were subsequently conducted to study how neural cue reactivity mediates the relationship between total time in state at rest and subjective cue-induced craving. RESULTS: Increased time spent in the DMN state and decreased time spent in the SN state predicted subsequent cue-induced increases in the anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, respectively. Cue-induced anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activity significantly mediated the relationship between time spent in DMN/SN and cue-induced subjective craving. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed a significant relationship between resting-state dynamics of the DMN/SN and task-activated SN nodes that together predicted cue-induced craving changes in nicotine-dependent individuals. These findings propose a neurobiological pathway for cue-induced craving that begins with resting-state temporal dynamics, suggesting that brain responding to external stimuli is driven by resting temporal dynamics.

Caudate reactivity to smoking cues is associated with increased responding to monetary reward in nicotine-dependent individuals.

Quitting smoking is challenging in part because environmental smoking cues can trigger the desire to smoke. Neurobiological responses to smoking cues are often observed in reward-related brain regions such as the caudate and nucleus accumbens (NAc). While reward plays a well-established role in the formation of cue reactivity, whether general reward responsiveness contributes to individual differences in cue-reactivity among chronic smokers is unclear; establishing such link could provide insight into the mechanisms maintaining cue reactivity. The current study explored this relationship by assessing smoking cue reactivity during functional magnetic imaging followed by an out-of-scanner probabilistic reward task (PRT) in 24 nicotine-dependent smokers (14 women). In addition, owing to sex differences in cue reactivity and reward function, this same relationship was examined as a function of sex. Following recent smoking, greater reward responsiveness on the PRT was associated with enhanced left caudate reactivity to smoking cues. No relationship was found in any other striatal subregion. The positive relationship between reward responsiveness and caudate smoking cue reactivity was significant only in male smokers, fitting with the idea that males and females respond to the reinforcing elements of smoking cues differently. These findings are clinically relevant as they show that, following recent smoking, nicotine-dependent individuals who are more cue reactive are also more likely to be responsive to non-drug rewards, which may be useful for making individualized treatment decisions that involve behavioral reward contingencies.

The acute effects of nicotine on corticostriatal responses to distinct phases of reward processing.

Nicotine enhances the reinforcement of non-drug rewards by increasing nucleus accumbens (NAcc) reactivity to anticipatory cues. This anticipatory effect is selective as no clear evidence has emerged showing that nicotine acutely changes reward receipt reactivity. However, repeated rewarding experiences shift peak brain reactivity from hedonic reward outcome to the motivational anticipatory cue yielding more habitual cue-induced behavior. Given nicotine's influence on NAcc reactivity and connectivity, it is plausible that nicotine acutely induces this shift and alters NAcc functional connectivity during reward processing. To evaluate this currently untested hypothesis, a randomized crossover design was used in which healthy non-smokers were administered placebo and nicotine (2-mg lozenge). Brain activation to monetary reward anticipation and outcome was evaluated with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Relative to placebo, nicotine induced more NAcc reactivity to reward anticipation. Greater NAcc activation during anticipation was significantly associated with lower NAcc activation to outcome. During outcome, nicotine reduced NAcc functional connectivity with cortical regions including the anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and insula. These regions showed the same negative relationship between reward anticipation and outcome as noted in the NAcc. The current findings significantly improve our understanding of how nicotine changes corticostriatal circuit function and communication during distinct phases of reward processing and critically show that these alterations happen acutely following a single dose. The implications of this work explain nicotinic modulation of general reward function, which offer insights into the initial drive to smoke and the subsequent difficulty in cessation.

Corticostriatal Circuits Encode the Subjective Value of Perceived Control.

The ability to perceive and exercise control over an outcome is both desirable and beneficial to our well-being. It has been shown that animals and humans alike exhibit behavioral bias towards seeking control and that such bias recruits the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and striatum. Yet, this bias remains to be quantitatively captured and studied neurally. Here, we employed a behavioral task to measure the preference for control and characterize its neural underpinnings. Participants made a series of binary choices between having control and no-control over a game for monetary reward. The mere presence of the control option evoked activity in the ventral striatum. Importantly, we manipulated the expected value (EV) of each choice pair to extract the pairing where participants were equally likely to choose either option. The difference in EV between the options at this point of equivalence was inferred as the subjective value of control. Strikingly, perceiving control inflated the reward value of the associated option by 30% and this value inflation was tracked by the vmPFC. Altogether, these results capture the subjective value of perceived control inherent in decision making and highlight the role of corticostriatal circuitry in the perception of control.

A Reward-Based Framework of Perceived Control.

Perceived control can be broadly defined as the belief in one's ability to exert control over situations or events. It has long been known that perceived control is a major contributor toward mental and physical health as well as a strong predictor of achievements in life. However, one issue that limits a mechanistic understanding of perceived control is the heterogeneity of how the term is defined in models in psychology and neuroscience, and used in experimental settings across a wide spectrum of studies. Here, we propose a framework for studying perceived control by integrating the ideas from traditionally separate work on perceived control. Specifically, we discuss key properties of perceived control from a reward-based framework, including choice opportunity, instrumental contingency, and success/reward rate. We argue that these separate reward-related processes are integral to fostering an enhanced perception of control and influencing an individual's behavior and well-being. We draw on select studies to elucidate how these reward-related elements are implicated separately and collectively in the investigation of perceived control. We highlight the role of dopamine within corticostriatal pathways shared by reward-related processes and perceived control. Finally, through the lens of this reward-based framework of perceived control, we consider the implications of perceived control in clinical deficits and how these insights could help us better understand psychopathology and treatment options.

Using fMRI to study reward processing in humans: past, present, and future.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive tool used to probe cognitive and affective processes. Although fMRI provides indirect measures of neural activity, the advent of fMRI has allowed for1) the corroboration of significant animal findings in the human brain, and2) the expansion of models to include more common human attributes that inform behavior. In this review, we briefly consider the neural basis of the blood oxygenation level dependent signal to set up a discussion of how fMRI studies have applied it in examining cognitive models in humans and the promise of using fMRI to advance such models. Specifically, we illustrate the contribution that fMRI has made to the study of reward processing, focusing on the role of the striatum in encoding reward-related learning signals that drive anticipatory and consummatory behaviors. For instance, we discuss how fMRI can be used to link neural signals (e.g., striatal responses to rewards) to individual differences in behavior and traits. While this functional segregation approach has been constructive to our understanding of reward-related functions, many fMRI studies have also benefitted from a functional integration approach that takes into account how interconnected regions (e.g., corticostriatal circuits) contribute to reward processing. We contend that future work using fMRI will profit from using a multimodal approach, such as combining fMRI with noninvasive brain stimulation tools (e.g., transcranial electrical stimulation), that can identify causal mechanisms underlying reward processing. Consequently, advancements in implementing fMRI will promise new translational opportunities to inform our understanding of psychopathologies.