RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Neural Correlates of Specific and General Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer within Human Amygdalar Subregions: A High-Resolution fMRI Study
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 8383
OP 8390
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6237-11.2012
VO 32
IS 24
A1 Charlotte Prévost
A1 Mimi Liljeholm
A1 Julian M. Tyszka
A1 John P. O'Doherty
YR 2012
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/24/8383.abstract
AB It is widely held that the interaction between instrumental and Pavlovian conditioning induces powerful motivational biases. Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) is one of the key paradigms demonstrating this effect, which can further be decomposed into a general and specific component. Although these two forms of PIT have been studied at the level of amygdalar subregions in rodents, it is still unknown whether they involve different areas of the human amygdala. Using a high-resolution fMRI (hr-fMRI) protocol optimized for the amygdala in combination with a novel free operant task designed to elicit effects of both general and specific PIT, we demonstrate that a region of ventral amygdala within the boundaries of the basolateral complex and the ventrolateral putamen are involved in specific PIT, while a region of dorsal amygdala within the boundaries of the centromedial complex is involved in general PIT. These results add to a burgeoning literature indicating different functional contributions for these different amygdalar subregions in reward-processing and motivation.