Simultaneous Glucocorticoid and Noradrenergic Activity Disrupts the Neural Basis of Goal-Directed Action in the Human Brain
Open accessAbstract
Stress promotes a shift from goal-directed action–outcome learning toward habitual stimulus–response learning. This shift is mediated by an interaction of noradrenergic activity and glucocorticoid stress hormones. In the present experiment, we examined the neural correlates of the stress (hormone)-induced shift from goal-directed to habit learning in the human brain. Healthy participants were administered hydrocortisone, the α2-adrenoceptor antagonist yohimbine, or both before they were trained in two instrumental actions leading to two distinct food rewards. After training, one of the rewards was devalued by feeding participants to satiety on that food. Finally, participants were presented the two instrumental actions in extinction. We collected functional magnetic resonance images both during instrumental training and during extinction testing. Our behavioral data confirmed that the simultaneous administration of hydrocortisone and yohimbine renders instrumental behavior insensitive to the outcome devaluation (and thus habitual), whereas hydrocortisone or yohimbine alone have no such effect. At the neural level, the combined administration of hydrocortisone and yohimbine reduced the sensitivity of the orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex to changes in outcome value. Brain areas that have been previously implicated in habit learning were not modulated by hydrocortisone and yohimbine. These findings suggest that concurrent glucocorticoid and noradrenergic activity disrupts the neural bases of goal-directed action and thus renders behavior habitual.
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High levels of norepinephrine combined with glucocorticoids have also been shown to promote habitual responding and reduce the sensitivity of the vmPFC to changes in outcome value.
“High levels of norepinephrine combined with glucocorticoids have also been shown to promote habitual responding and reduce the sensitivity of the vmPFC to changes in outcome value59.”
From Stress weakens prefrontal networks: molecular insults to higher cognition (2015) · cites this paper as [59]
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- Authors
- Schwabe, L., Tegenthoff, M., Höffken, O., & Wolf, O. T.
- Affiliations
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
- BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil Bochum (DE)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2012-07-25
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 30
- Pages
- 10146-10155
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6703728
- OpenAlex
- W2007724444
- Cited by
- 162
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 7.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- glucocorticoids, noradrenergic activity, stress, goal-directed behavior, habit learning, outcome devaluation, outcome value, orbitofrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, cortisol, yohimbine, operant conditioning, extinction, food reward
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Brain, Brain Mapping, Conditioning, Operant, Extinction, Psychological, Female, Glucocorticoids, Goals, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Reward, Yohimbine, Cross-Over Studies, Adrenergic alpha-2 Receptor Antagonists
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