Reward prediction error signal enhanced by striatum–amygdala interaction explains the acceleration of probabilistic reward learning by emotion
Open accessAbstract
Learning does not only depend on rationality, because real-life learning cannot be isolated from emotion or social factors. Therefore, it is intriguing to determine how emotion changes learning, and to identify which neural substrates underlie this interaction. Here, we show that the task-independent presentation of an emotional face before a reward-predicting cue increases the speed of cue-reward association learning in human subjects compared with trials in which a neutral face is presented. This phenomenon was attributable to an increase in the learning rate, which regulates reward prediction errors. Parallel to these behavioral findings, functional magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated that presentation of an emotional face enhanced reward prediction error (RPE) signal in the ventral striatum. In addition, we also found a functional link between this enhanced RPE signal and increased activity in the amygdala following presentation of an emotional face. Thus, this study revealed an acceleration of cue-reward association learning by emotion, and underscored a role of striatum-amygdala interactions in the modulation of the reward prediction errors by emotion.
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Emotional context facilitates the formation of predictive errors.
“previous literature suggesting that emotional context facilitates the formation of predictive errors (Vogel et al., 2015; Wata nabe et al., 2013).”
From Predictive coding in neuropsychiatric disorders: a systematic transdiagnostic review. (2025) · cites this paper as Watanabe et al., 2013
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- Authors
- Watanabe, N., Sakagami, M., & Haruno, M.
- Affiliations
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JP)
- Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University (JP)
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (JP)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2013-03-06
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 4487-4493
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6704947
- OpenAlex
- W2019015957
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 4.02
- 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
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (22300139, 24243028)
- Japan Science and Technology Agency
- Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology
- 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
- reward prediction error, probabilistic reward learning, learning rate, ventral striatum, amygdala, affective learning
- MeSH terms
- Amygdala, Association Learning, Corpus Striatum, Cues, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Neural Pathways, Oxygen, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Predictive Value of Tests, Probability Learning, Reaction Time, Reward, Statistics as Topic, Young Adult
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