Abstract

It is easier to execute a response in the promise of a reward and withhold a response in the promise of a punishment than vice versa, due to a conflict between cue-related Pavlovian and outcome-related instrumental action tendencies in the reverse conditions. This robust learning asymmetry in go and nogo learning is referred to as the Pavlovian bias. Interestingly, it is similar to motivational tendencies reported for affective facial expressions, i.e., facilitation of approach to a smile and withdrawal from a frown. The present study investigated whether and how learning from emotional faces instead of abstract stimuli modulates the Pavlovian bias in reinforcement learning. To this end, 137 healthy adult participants performed an orthogonalized Go/Nogo task that fully decoupled action (go/nogo) and outcome valence (win points/avoid losing points). Three groups of participants were tested with either emotional facial cues whose affective valence was either congruent (CON) or incongruent (INC) to the required instrumental response, or with neutral facial cues (NEU). Relative to NEU, the Pavlovian bias was reduced in both CON and INC, though still present under all learning conditions. Importantly, only for CON, the reduction of the Pavlovian bias effect was adaptive by improving learning performance in one of the conflict conditions. In contrast, the reduction of the Pavlovian bias in INC was completely driven by decreased learning performance in non-conflict conditions. These results suggest a potential role of arousal/salience in Pavlovian-instrumental regulation and cue-action congruency in the adaptability of goal-directed behavior. Implications for clinical application are discussed.

中文翻译：

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情绪线索减少巴甫洛夫对基于反馈的 go 和 nogo 学习的干扰

摘要

由于相反条件下与线索相关的巴甫洛夫行为倾向和与结果相关的工具性行为倾向之间的冲突，在奖励承诺中执行响应并在惩罚承诺中保留响应比反之亦然更容易。go 和 nogo 学习中这种鲁棒的学习不对称性被称为巴甫洛夫偏差。有趣的是，它与所报道的情感面部表情的动机倾向相似，即容易微笑和不皱眉。本研究调查了从情绪面孔而不是抽象刺激中学习是否以及如何调节强化学习中的巴甫洛夫偏差。为此，137 名健康成年参与者执行了一项正交化的 Go/Nogo 任务，将行动（Go/Nogo）和结果效价（赢得分数/避免失分）完全解耦。三组参与者接受了情感面部线索（其情感价与所需仪器反应一致（CON）或不一致（INC））或中性面部线索（NEU）的测试。相对于 NEU，CON 和 INC 中的巴甫洛夫偏差有所减少，但在所有学习条件下仍然存在。重要的是，仅对于 CON，巴甫洛夫偏差效应的减少是通过提高其中一种冲突条件下的学习表现来自适应的。相比之下，INC 中巴甫洛夫偏差的减少完全是由非冲突条件下学习成绩的下降驱动的。这些结果表明，唤醒/显着性在巴甫洛夫工具调节中和提示动作一致性在目标导向行为的适应性中具有潜在作用。讨论了临床应用的意义。