The Role of Frontostriatal Systems in Instructed Reinforcement Learning: Evidence From Genetic and Experimentally-Induced Variation.

ABSTRACT: Instructions have a powerful effect on learning and decision-making, biasing choice even in the face of disconfirming feedback. Detrimental biasing effects have been reported in a number of studies in which instruction was given prior to trial-and-error learning. Previous work has attributed individual differences in instructional bias to variations in prefrontal and striatal dopaminergic genes, suggesting a role for prefrontally-mediated cognitive control processes in biasing learning. The current study replicates and extends these findings. Human subjects performed a probabilistic reinforcement learning task after receiving inaccurate instructions about the quality of one of the options. In order to establish a causal relationship between prefrontal cortical mechanisms and instructional

SUBMITTER: Tardiff N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6304395 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature