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Dissociating the Predictive and Incentive Motivational Properties of Reward-Related Cues Through the Study of Individual Differences
Open accessAbstract
Background If presentation of a stimulus (conditional stimulus, CS) reliably predicts delivery of a reward, the CS will come to evoke a conditional response (CR) through Pavlovian learning, and the CS may also acquire incentive motivational properties. Thus, CSs can have both predictive and incentive properties. We ask here whether it is possible to dissociate the predictive versus incentive properties of a CS in rats by considering individual differences in the nature of the CR.Methods We used Pavlovian procedures to study the ability of a localizable CS (an illuminated lever) to acquire two properties of an incentive stimulus-the ability to attract and the ability to act as a conditional reinforcer.Results For some rats, the CS evoked a "sign-tracking" CR, consisting of approach toward and engagement with the CS itself. For other rats, the CS instead produced a "goal-tracking" CR: approach was directed away from the CS toward the site of food delivery. For sign-trackers (but not goal-trackers) the CS also acted as an effective conditional reinforcer.Conclusions The predictive and incentive properties of a CS can be dissociated by considering individual differences in the CR. In a given animal, a cue that is predictive of reward, supporting Pavlovian learning, may or may not be attributed with incentive salience. This procedure may provide a powerful means to test hypotheses regarding the role of neural systems in learning versus incentive motivational functions and to study individual variation in the extent to which reward-associated stimuli act as incentive stimuli.
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“Other influential accounts of dopamine function also highlight that dopamine firing to reward cues can reflect the incentive salience of the cue 20 and can in some cases reflect the treatment of the cue as a reward in itself 21.”
From The social brain and reward: Social information processing in the human striatum (2014) · cites this paper as [21]
In the citing paper
“These results are consistent with the incentive salience theory, however, and highlight the dissociation that can occur between the predictive value of a cue, driven by cue learning (cue-reward association), and the attribution of cue ‘wanting’ (T. E. Robinson & Flagel, 2009; Zhang, Berridge, Tindell, Smith, & Aldridge, 2009).”
From Cued for Risk: Evidence for an Incentive Sensitization Framework to Explain the Interplay between Stress and Anxiety, Substance Abuse, and Reward Uncertainty in Disordered Gambling Behavior (2019) · cites this paper as T. E. Robinson & Flagel, 2009
In the citing paper
“These two approach strategies are thought to differ in the amount of incentive salience assigned to the CS.40, 56”
From Behavioral flexibility in a mouse model for obsessive‐compulsive disorder: Impaired Pavlovian reversal learning in SAPAP3 mutants (2019) · cites this paper as [40]
In the citing paper
“In rats selectively-bred for differences in locomotor responses to a novel environment14, high responders to novelty (bHR) consistently learn a sign-tracking CR but low responders to novelty (bLR) consistently learn a goal-tracking CR15.”
From A selective role for dopamine in stimulus-reward learning (2011) · cites this paper as [14]
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Citations
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Test–retest reliability of the gaze index for sign-tracking and goal-tracking
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Beyond dopamine: Broader neuromodulatory contributions in sign- and goal-tracking
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Metadata
- Authors
- Robinson, T. E., & Flagel, S. B.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Corresponding author
- Robinson, Terry E.
- Venue
- Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-05
- Volume
- 65
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 869-873
- ISSN
- 0006-3223 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2737368
- OpenAlex
- W2005718472
- Cited by
- 416
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 67 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 4.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (P01DA021633, R37DA004294, R37 DA04294)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- classical conditioning, incentive salience, sign-tracking, goal tracking, individual differences, approach behavior, incentive motivation, rats
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Conditioning, Classical, Cues, Individuality, Motivation, Reinforcement, Psychology, Reward, Rats
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