Instructed knowledge shapes feedback-driven aversive learning in striatum and orbitofrontal cortex, but not the amygdala.

ABSTRACT: Socially-conveyed rules and instructions strongly shape expectations and emotions. Yet most neuroscientific studies of learning consider reinforcement history alone, irrespective of knowledge acquired through other means. We examined fear conditioning and reversal in humans to test whether instructed knowledge modulates the neural mechanisms of feedback-driven learning. One group was informed about contingencies and reversals. A second group learned only from reinforcement. We combined quantitative models with functional magnetic resonance imaging and found that instructions induced dissociations in the neural systems of aversive learning. Responses in striatum and orbitofrontal cortex updated with instructions and correlated with prefrontal responses to instructions. Amygdala responses we

SUBMITTER: Atlas LY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4907691 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature