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The stomach-derived hormone ghrelin plays not only a role in feeding, starvation, and survival, but it has been suggested to also be involved in the stress response, in neuropsychiatric conditions, and in alcohol and drug use disorders. Mechanisms related to reward processing might mediate ghrelin’s broader effects on complex behaviors, as indicated by animal studies and mostly correlative human studies. Here, using a within-subject double-blind placebo-controlled design with intravenous ghrelin infusion in healthy volunteers ( n  = 30), we tested whether ghrelin alters sensitivity to reward and punishment in a reward learning task. Parameters were derived from a computational model of participants’ task behavior. The reversal learning task with monetary rewards was performed during functional brain imaging to investigate ghrelin effects on brain signals related to reward prediction errors. Compared to placebo, ghrelin decreased punishment sensitivity ( t  = −2.448, p  = 0.021), while reward sensitivity was unaltered ( t  = 0.8, p  = 0.43). We furthermore found increased prediction-error related activity in the dorsal striatum during ghrelin administration (region of interest analysis: t- values ≥ 4.21, p -values ≤ 0.044). Our results support a role for ghrelin in reward processing that extends beyond food-related rewards. Reduced sensitivity to negative outcomes and increased processing of prediction errors may be beneficial for food foraging when hungry but could also relate to increased risk taking and impulsivity in the broader context of addictive behaviors.

One-hundred-six 5-year-olds' (Mage = 5;6; SD = 0.40) were trained with second-order false belief tasks in one of the following conditions: (a) feedback with explanation; (b) feedback without explanation; (c) no feedback; (d) active control. The results showed that there were significant improvements in children's scores from pretest to posttest in the three experimental conditions even when children's age, verbal abilities, or working memory scores were controlled for. The training effect was stable at a follow-up session 4 months after the pretest. Overall, our results suggest that 5-year-olds' failures in second-order false belief tasks are due to lack of experience and that they can be helped over the threshold by exposure to many stories involving second-order false belief reasoning, including why questions.

Substantial evidence indicates that decision outcomes are typically evaluated relative to expectations learned from relatively long sequences of previous outcomes. This mechanism is thought to play a key role in general learning and adaptation processes but relatively little is known about the determinants of outcome evaluation when the capacity to learn from series of prior events is difficult or impossible. To investigate this issue, we examined how the feedback-related negativity (FRN) is modulated by information briefly presented before outcome evaluation. The FRN is a brain potential time-locked to the delivery of decision feedback and it is widely thought to be sensitive to prior expectations. We conducted a multi-trial gambling task in which outcomes at each trial were fully randomised to minimise the capacity to learn from long sequences of prior outcomes. Event-related potentials for outcomes (Win/Loss) in the current trial (Outcomet) were separated according to the type of outcomes that occurred in the preceding two trials (Outcomet-1 and Outcomet-2). We found that FRN voltage was more positive during the processing of win feedback when it was preceded by wins at Outcomet-1 compared to win feedback preceded by losses at Outcomet-1. However, no influence of preceding outcomes was found on FRN activity relative to the processing of loss feedback. We also found no effects of Outcomet-2 on FRN amplitude relative to current feedback. Additional analyses indicated that this effect was largest for trials in which participants selected a decision different to the gamble chosen in the previous trial. These findings are inconsistent with models that solely relate the FRN to prediction error computation. Instead, our results suggest that if stable predictions about future events are weak or non-existent, then outcome processing can be determined by affective systems. More specifically, our results indicate that the FRN is likely to reflect the activity of positive affective systems in these contexts. Importantly, our findings indicate that a multifactorial explanation of the nature of the FRN is necessary and such an account must incorporate affective and motivational factors in outcome processing. •FRN is sensitive to prior events but does this persist when learning is impossible?•Four FRN theories were examined in a task with fully randomised feedback.•Previous trial outcome modulated FRN during positive but not negative outcomes.•Results consistent with a positive affective modulation interpretation of the FRN.•FRN is determined by factors beyond prediction error (e.g. affective/motivational).

Complex bimanual motor learning causes specific changes in activation across brain regions. However, there is little information on how motor learning changes the functional connectivity between these regions, and whether this is influenced by different sensory feedback modalities. We applied graph-theoretical network analysis (GTNA) to examine functional networks based on motor-task-related fMRI activations. Two groups learned a complex 90° out-of-phase bimanual coordination pattern, receiving either visual or auditory feedback. 3T fMRI scanning occurred before (day 0) and after (day 5) training. In both groups, improved motor performance coincided with increased functional network connectivity (increased clustering coefficients, higher number of network connections and increased connection strength, and shorter communication distances). Day×feedback interactions were absent but, when examining network metrics across all examined brain regions, the visual group had a marginally better connectivity, higher connection strength, and more direct communication pathways. Removal of feedback had no acute effect on the functional connectivity of the trained networks. Hub analyses showed an importance of specific brain regions not apparent in the standard fMRI analyses. These findings indicate that GTNA can make unique contributions to the examination of functional brain connectivity in motor learning.

RationaleOxytocin has been found to play an important role in human social cognition and social interaction. Over the last two decades, surge studies have been conducted to investigate how oxytocin impacts other-oriented processes, such as trust and generosity (Zak et al. in PLoS ONE 2(11):e1128, 2007); however, the examination of the effect of oxytocin on self-related processes was relatively inadequate. Appropriate and efficient social interactions require both self- and other-related information processing. Recent studies have found that intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) influences the self-related process, although the results have been mixed. The computational process underlying the effects of IN-OT on self-processing remains unknown.ObjectivesWe aim to investigate the effect of IN-OT on self-oriented learning across different contexts (self-other independent vs. self-other dependent) and uncover the process by which IN-OT affects dynamic behavior changes.MethodsWe performed two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies and used reinforcement learning theory to integrate action and related feedback for participants’ behaviors.ResultsIn study 1, IN-OT decreased self-oriented reward learning when self-oriented learning and prosocial (other-oriented) learning were assessed separately. These effects were partially due to the OT-related increase in choice variability during self-oriented learning. In study 2, IN-OT also decreased learning performance during self-oriented reward learning when self-related and other-related rewards were present together. These effects occurred at an early stage of the learning process and could be moderated by the participants’ social value orientation. Our findings show that OT attenuates the process of self-oriented learning and provides an underlying computational process.ConclusionsOur findings shed new light on the dynamics of IN-OT’s effects on human self-oriented learning processes. For future studies on OT effects on self-oriented learning, individual factors such as social value orientation should be taken into consideration in research development and analysis.

We examined the impact of social feedback and objective false evidence on belief in occurrence, belief in accuracy, and recollection of an autobiographical experience. Participants viewed six virtual scenes (e.g., park) and were tested on their belief/recollection. After 1-week, participants were randomly assigned to four groups. One group received social feedback that one scene was not experienced. A second group received objective false evidence that one of the scenes was not shown. A third group received both social feedback and objective false evidence and the control group did not receive any manipulation. Belief in occurrence dropped considerably in the social feedback group and in the combined group. Also, nonbelieved memories were most likely to occur in participants receiving both social feedback and objective false evidence. We show that social feedback and objective false evidence undermine belief in occurrence, but that they leave belief in accuracy and recollection unaffected.

Outcome monitoring is crucial for subsequent adjustments in behavior and is associated with a specific electrophysiological response, the feedback-related negativity (FRN). Besides feedback generated by one’s own action, the performance of others may also be relevant for oneself, and the observation of outcomes for others’ actions elicits an observer FRN (oFRN). To test how these components are influenced by social setting and predictive value of feedback information, we compared event-related potentials, as well as their topographies and neural generators, for performance feedback generated by oneself and others in a cooperative versus competitive context. Our results show that (1) the predictive relevance of outcomes is crucial to elicit an FRN in both players and observers, (2) cooperation increases FRN and P300 amplitudes, especially in individuals with high traits of perspective taking, and (3) contrary to previous findings on gambling outcomes, oFRN components are generated for both cooperating and competing observers, but with smaller amplitudes in the latter. Neural source estimation revealed medial prefrontal activity for both FRN and oFRN, but with additional generators for the oFRN in the dorsolateral and ventral prefrontal cortex, as well as the temporoparietal junction. We conclude that the latter set of brain regions could mediate social influences on action monitoring by representing agency and social relevance of outcomes and are, therefore, recruited in addition to shared prediction error signals generated in medial frontal areas during action outcome observation.

Here, we investigated whether explicit feedback on the result of the action (success or failure) modified sense of agency (SoA) in a continuous action task. Participants carried a white dot with a delay to a target square while avoiding obstacle squares. The color of the target changed unpredictably between white and blue. A trial was considered as successful or failed if the dot reached the target while it was white or blue. Thus, actions during the task resulted in almost identical experiences of successful and failed trials. After each trial, the participants reported to what extent they felt that they had been in control of the dot. The results showed that SoA was higher with shorter delay (i.e., easier control) and in the successful trials. These findings indicate that the sense of online control and the evaluation of continuous action based on feedback independently influence SoA. Particularly, the evaluation retrospectively modulated SoA.

In economic studies, it is standard practice to pay out the reward of only one randomly selected trial (pay-one) instead of the total reward accumulated across trials (pay-all), assuming that both methods are equivalent. We tested this assumption by recording electrophysiological activity to reward feedback from participants engaged in a decision-making task under both a pay-one and a pay-all condition. We show that participants are approximately 12% more risk averse in the pay-one condition than in the pay-all condition. Furthermore, we observed that the electrophysiological response to monetary rewards, the reward positivity, is significantly reduced in the pay-one condition relative to the pay-all condition. The difference of brain responses is associated with the difference in risky behavior across conditions. We concluded that the two payment methods lead to significantly different results and are therefore not equivalent.

Many students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) struggle to appropriately interact and play with their peers at recess. In this pilot feasibility study, we tested the efficacy of practitioner-implemented, peer-mediated Pivotal Response Training (PRT) with 11 elementary and middle school students with ASD. Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. We measured outcomes at multiple time points, and analyzed data using multi-level modeling with time nested within student. We demonstrated large and statistically significant increases in peer interaction (d = 1.13). Appropriate play with peers also increased substantially (d = 0.89). Practitioners and students provided positive feedback. These findings suggest school staff can feasibly facilitate peer-implemented PRT that improves social outcomes for students with ASD at recess.