Differential Monetary Rewards during Category Learning Result in
Increased Activity across Corticostriatal Networks
Abstract
How is the presence of reward reflected in activity in the
corticostriatal networks underlying human categorization? We examined
how basal ganglia and corticostriatal network activity differed on
trials in which participants received a reward for correct performance
versus trials with no associated reward. Participants learned to
categorize abstract fractal images as members of two different
categories via trial and error with feedback. Images were associated
with different monetary reward values (high, low, and none) which could
be obtained by the participant for correct categorization. We found that
neural activity in the caudate nucleus (head and body) and putamen was
greater for rewarded stimuli in comparison with nonrewarded. In addition
reward resulted in greater activity across the cortical regions
underlying categorization, including areas of the intraparietal sulcus
(IPS) associated with stimulus - response mapping, the frontoparietal
salience network, and visual cortical areas associated with object and
form processing. Reward effects were found both during early learning
when stimuli were novel, and when participants categorized stimuli on
which they had been extensively trained prior to the scan. These results
have implications for understanding how reward and categorization are
integrated in corticostriatal networks.