Hippocampal contributions to value-based learning: Converging evidence from fMRI and amnesia.

Hippocampal contributions to value-based learning: Converging evidence from fMRI and amnesia. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2019 Feb 14;: Authors: Palombo DJ, Hayes SM, Reid AG, Verfaellie M Abstract Recent evidence suggests that the human hippocampus-known primarily for its involvement in episodic memory-plays a role in a host of motivationally relevant behaviors, including some forms of value-based decision-making. However, less is known about the role of the hippocampus in value-based learning. Such learning is typically associated with a striatal system, yet a small number of studies, both in human and nonhuman species, suggest hippocampal engagement. It is not clear, however, whether this engagement is necessary for such learning. In the present study, we used both functional MRI (fMRI) and lesion-based neuropsychological methods to clarify hippocampal contributions to value-based learning. In Experiment 1, healthy participants were scanned while learning value-based contingencies (whether players in a "game" win money) in the context of a probabilistic learning task. Here, we observed recruitment of the hippocampus, in addition to the expected ventral striatal (nucleus accumbens) activation that typically accompanies such learning. In Experiment 2, we administered this task to amnesic patients with medial temporal lobe damage and to healthy controls. Amnesic patients, including those with damage circumscribed to the hippocampus, ...
Source: Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci Source Type: research