W13 - Emotion and Development 2/2

Question 1

Name two structures part of the corticostriatal circuit mediating reward and motivation?

Answer 1

Ventral striatum and mPFC

Question 2

What is the accumbofrontal tract?

Answer 2

White matter tract connecting mPFC to VS

Question 3

What is diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) used for?

Answer 3

Type of MRI that assess white matter density (integrity) and connectivity

Question 4

What indicator is DWI using to infer information about white matter integrity?

Answer 4

Movement of water molecules

Question 5

What is quantitative anisotropy (QA)?

Answer 5

Measurement used in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which is similar to DWI but provides more high-res details, e.g. orientation of axons and more precise assessment of white matter integrity

Question 6

What standardized protocol can be used to assess early life adversity?

Answer 6

Youth Life Stress Interview (YLSI)

Question 7

What can a probabilistic reinforcement learning (RL) task be used for?

Answer 7

Provide negative or positive feedback (affect) -> fitting a a reinforcement learning model

Question 8

How can a learning rate parameter or “feedback sensitivity” inform us about impact of prediction error in a RL task? What are the categories of feedback sensitivity established in the study of Kennedy et al.?

Answer 8

A high sensitivity to positive feedback would indicate that positive feedback has a high impact on future choice, whereas, a low sensitivity for positive feedback indicates it would hardly change future choice

Question 9

Why is it pertinent to also assess general cognitive ability when conducting a probabilistic reinforcement learning (RL) task?

Answer 9

As a control to assess specificity of any effects on reward learning

Question 10

What did Kennedy et al. find about ELA and accumbofrontal tract integrity?

Answer 10

Greater ELA predicted lower tract integrity in both hemispheres

Question 11

What did Kennedy et al. find about feedback sensitivity and accumbofrontal tract integrity?

Answer 11

Lower white matter integrity was related to negative feedback sensitivity

Question 12

What is mediation analysis in statistics?

Answer 12

Mediation analysis is a statistical technique used to examine the extent to which the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable can be explained by a third variable (or set of variables)

Question 13

True or false: The direct effect of ELA on negative feedback was significant.

Answer 13

False: There is a significant indirect effect of ELA on negative feedback sensitivity via an effect of ELA on left accumbofrontal tract integrity