Frontostriatal white matter integrity mediates adult age differences in probabilistic reward learning.

ABSTRACT: Frontostriatal circuits have been implicated in reward learning, and emerging findings suggest that frontal white matter structural integrity and probabilistic reward learning are reduced in older age. This cross-sectional study examined whether age differences in frontostriatal white matter integrity could account for age differences in reward learning in a community life span sample of human adults. By combining diffusion tensor imaging with a probabilistic reward learning task, we found that older age was associated with decreased reward learning and decreased white matter integrity in specific pathways running from the thalamus to the medial prefrontal cortex and from the medial prefrontal cortex to the ventral striatum. Further, white matter integrity in these thalamocorticostriatal p

SUBMITTER: Samanez-Larkin GR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3744863 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature