Our task, called the Anticipation, Conflict, and Reward (ACR) task, supports lower reward probabilities combined with high attentional demand in relation to alternative tasks. Moreover, the ACR task includes a surprising non-reward component that allows one to assess violation of reward expectations. The ACR task is shorter than similar tasks and is particularly suited for use in youths. We have found this task particularly useful when studying young children at risk for later addiction (Ivanov et al., 2012). Crucially, the ACR design allows one to assess the effects Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of cognitive demands on reward processing, through interaction effects, framed in terms of task components.
The current study used the ACR task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the interactions between anticipation, cognitive demand, and reward processing, under expected reward and unexpected reward Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical outcomes. On the basis of the available literature (Epigenetic inhibitor libraries Engelmann et al. 2009; Pessoa and Engelmann
2010), we predicted that motivation (reward anticipation) would modulate processing in attentional regions such as frontoparietal cortex, and specifically decrease activity in regions associated with conflict resolution, such as the ACC. Furthermore, considering findings Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical suggesting that activation in the ventral striatum may be inversely influenced by the degree of cognitive demand for a given task (Botvinick et al. 2009), we hypothesized that conflict would be associated with reduced activation in the reward network, including the ventral striatum Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and the OFC. Methods Participants Sixteen healthy right-handed adults (six females) aged 21–45 years (mean = 30.63, SD = 7.44) participated in the study over two visits. During the first visit, all participants signed an informed consent form approved by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Institutional Review Board.
Participants also received a physical exam, an electrocardiogram, and blood pressure readings and were screened for current Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical or past history of head injuries, neurological or cardiovascular disease, other systemic illness, and contraindications for MRI. In addition, board certified psychiatrists (J. H. N. and I. I.) performed a mental status exam to screen for a current or past psychiatric history using the screen section of the Structured Clinical Interview for Fossariinae DSM-IV (Spitzer et al. 1992). Participants completed the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R)(Cyr et al. 1988), the Michigan Assessment-Screening Test/Alcohol-Drug (MAST-AD)(Westermeyer et al. 2004), and Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scale – Self-Report: Long Version CAARS (Conners 2000). The Matrix Reasoning and Vocabulary subtests of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) (Ryan et al. 2003) were administered to estimate Full Scale IQ. A T-score of 1.