Contextual interaction between novelty and reward processing within the mesolimbic system.

摘要: Medial temporal lobe (MTL) dependent long-term memory for novel events is modulated by a circuitry that also responds to reward and includes the ventral striatum, dopaminergic midbrain, medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). This common neural network may reflect functional link between novelty whereby motivates exploration in search rewards; termed “exploration bonus.” We used fMRI scene encoding paradigm investigate interaction with focus on signals akin an bonus. As expected, related scenes (after 24 hours) strongly correlated activity of MTL, substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA). Furthermore, hippocampus showed main effect novelty, striatum reward, mOFC signalled both reward. An bonus was found hippocampus. These data suggest MTL are interpreted terms their reward-predicting properties mOFC, which biases striatal responses. The together SN/VTA then regulates MTL-dependent formation contextual Hum Brain Mapp, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.