Novel rewards occlude the reward positivity, and what to do about it.

Novel rewards occlude the reward positivity, and what to do about it.
Biol Psychol. 2020 Jan 21;:107841
Authors: Brown DR, Cavanagh JF
Abstract
Both the Reward Positivity (RewP) and the novelty N2 component appear within the same spatio-temporal window. This signal overlap impedes the assessment of the RewP evoked by complex novel rewards like affective or motivational imagery. Here we conducted a series of experiments which successfully isolated signals of reward and novelty through spectral decomposition as well as with experimental manipulations that systematically removed the influence of novelty on the reward-evoking image. Together, these findings help explain the nature of this component overlap and provide methodological and analytic techniques for isolating reward- and novelty-specific computations to complex stimuli.
PMID: 31978500 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Biological Psychology - January 20, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Brown DR, Cavanagh JF Tags: Biol Psychol Source Type: research