Neural basis of reward anticipation and its genetic determinants

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • King's College London (KCL)
  • University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Fudan University
  • Heidelberg University 
  • Trinity College Dublin
  • University of Montreal
  • French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)
  • University of Vermont
  • University of Nottingham
  • Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
  • McGill University
  • INSERM - Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale
  • University of Toronto
  • McGill University Health Centre
  • University of California at Berkeley
  • University of Cambridge
  • Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • University of Warwick
  • University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf
  • University of Hamburg

Abstract

Dysfunctional reward processing is implicated in various mental disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and addictions. Such impairments might involve different components of the reward process, including brain activity during reward anticipation. We examined brain nodes engaged by reward anticipation in 1,544 adolescents and identified a network containing a core striatal node and cortical nodes facilitating outcome prediction and response preparation. Distinct nodes and functional connections were preferentially associated with either adolescent hyperactivity or alcohol consumption, thus conveying specificity of reward processing to clinically relevant behavior. We observed associations between the striatal node, hyperactivity, and the vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 4A (VPS4A) gene in humans, and the causal role of Vps4 for hyperactivity was validated in Drosophila. Our data provide a neurobehavioral model explaining the heterogeneity of rewardrelated behaviors and generate a hypothesis accounting for their enduring nature.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3879-3884
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume113
Issue number14
Publication statusPublished - 5 Apr 2016
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 27001827
ORCID /0000-0001-5398-5569/work/161890795

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Dopamine receptor, FMRI, GWAS, Neural network, VPS4A