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Poster Session A: Tuesday, August 12, 1:30 – 4:30 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Reward morphs non-spatial cognitive maps in humans

Nir Moneta¹, Luianta Verra, Charley M Wu², Christian F. Doeller³, Nicolas W. Schuck¹; ¹Universität Hamburg, ²Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, ³Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Presenter: Nir Moneta

This study examines the effect of reward on non-spatial cognitive maps in humans, building on previous research showing reward influences spatial maps in animals. Seventy-two participants (38 undergoing MRI), completed a perceptual discrimination task pre- and post-reward learning. Post-reward exposure, performance improved in previously rewarded areas, with effects generalizing to non-rewarded map areas. Behavioral findings suggest reward learning alters psychological distances between stimuli, corresponding to simulations of place field shifting towards rewarded locations, akin to gravitational pulling. Preliminary fMRI data supports this interpretation, with similar representational shifts in hippocampal representations, but mixed results in the medial-orbitofrontal and visual cortex. This suggests reward affects non-spatial cognitive maps and neural representations.

Topic Area: Reward, Value & Social Decision Making

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF