Affective traits link to reliable neural markers of incentive anticipation
Open accessAbstract
While theorists have speculated that different affective traits are linked to reliable brain activity during anticipation of gains and losses, few have directly tested this prediction. We examined these associations in a community sample of healthy human adults (n=52) as they played a Monetary Incentive Delay task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI). Factor analysis of personality measures revealed that subjects independently varied in trait Positive Arousal and trait Negative Arousal. In a subsample (n=14) retested over 2.5years later, left nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activity during anticipation of large gains (+$5.00) and right anterior insula activity during anticipation of large losses (-$5.00) showed significant test-retest reliability (intraclass correlations>0.50, p's<0.01). In the full sample (n=52), trait Positive Arousal correlated with individual differences in left NAcc activity during anticipation of large gains, while trait Negative Arousal correlated with individual differences in right anterior insula activity during anticipation of large losses. Associations of affective traits with neural activity were not attributable to the influence of other potential confounds (including sex, age, wealth, and motion). Together, these results demonstrate selective links between distinct affective traits and reliably-elicited activity in neural circuits associated with anticipation of gain versus loss. The findings thus reveal neural markers for affective dimensions of healthy personality, and potentially for related psychiatric symptoms.
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Signals in the striatum are most robust when high rewards are at stake, while responses to lower rewards are present yet less reproducible.
“Indeed, signals in the striatum are most robust when high rewards are at stake, while responses to lower rewards are present yet less reproducible 45.”
From Increased neural responses to reward in adolescents and young adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and their unaffected siblings (2015) · cites this paper as [45]
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- Authors
- Wu, C. C., Samanez-Larkin, G. R., Katovich, K., & Knutson, B.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Knutson, Brian
- Venue
- NeuroImage
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-01
- Volume
- 84
- Pages
- 279-289
- ISSN
- 1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3849140
- OpenAlex
- W2009175897
- Cited by
- 176
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 6.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R21-AG030778, P30-AG017253, F31-AG032804, F32-AG039131, K99-AG042596)
- Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32-MH020006)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Gambling Behavior and Treatments
- Keywords
- emotional characteristics, nucleus accumbens, anterior insula, monetary incentive delay task, test-retest reliability, individual differences, personality
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Aged, Arousal, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Motivation, Nerve Net, Reference Values, Reinforcement, Psychology, Reward, Young Adult, Anticipation, Psychological
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