Behavioral Theories and the Neurophysiology of Reward
Top Cited Papers
- 1 January 2006
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Annual Reviews in Annual Review of Psychology
- Vol. 57 (1) , 87-115
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070229
Abstract
The functions of rewards are based primarily on their effects on behavior and are less directly governed by the physics and chemistry of input events as in sensory systems. Therefore, the investigation of neural mechanisms underlying reward functions requires behavioral theories that can conceptualize the different effects of rewards on behavior. The scientific investigation of behavioral processes by animal learning theory and economic utility theory has produced a theoretical framework that can help to elucidate the neural correlates for reward functions in learning, goal-directed approach behavior, and decision making under uncertainty. Individual neurons can be studied in the reward systems of the brain, including dopamine neurons, orbitofrontal cortex, and striatum. The neural activity can be related to basic theoretical terms of reward and uncertainty, such as contiguity, contingency, prediction error, magnitude, probability, expected value, and variance.Keywords
This publication has 85 references indexed in Scilit:
- Independent Coding of Movement Direction and Reward Prediction by Single Pallidal NeuronsJournal of Neuroscience, 2004
- Prefrontal cortex and decision making in a mixed-strategy gameNature Neuroscience, 2004
- Effects of Expectations for Different Reward Magnitudes on Neuronal Activity in Primate StriatumJournal of Neurophysiology, 2003
- Reward-predicting and reward-detecting neuronal activity in the primate supplementary eye field.Journal of Neurophysiology, 2000
- Goal-directed instrumental action: contingency and incentive learning and their cortical substratesPublished by Elsevier ,1998
- Hunger and satiety modify the responses of olfactory and visual neurons in the primate orbitofrontal cortexJournal of Neurophysiology, 1996
- Responses of tonically active neurons in the primate's striatum undergo systematic changes during behavioral sensorimotor conditioningJournal of Neuroscience, 1994
- Neuronal activity in monkey striatum related to the expectation of predictable environmental eventsJournal of Neurophysiology, 1992
- Responses to reward in monkey dorsal and ventral striatumExperimental Brain Research, 1991
- Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of RiskEconometrica, 1954