TY  - JOUR
A1  - Nebe, Stephan
A1  - Kroemer, Nils B.
A1  - Schad, Daniel
A1  - Bernhardt, Nadine
A1  - Sebold, Miriam
A1  - Mueller, Dirk K.
A1  - Scholl, Lucie
A1  - Kuitunen-Paul, Sören
A1  - Heinz, Andreas
A1  - Rapp, Michael A.
A1  - Huys, Quentin J. M.
A1  - Smolka, Michael N.
T1  - No association of goal-directed and habitual control with alcohol consumption in young adults
JF  - Addiction biology
N2  - Alcohol dependence is a mental disorder that has been associated with an imbalance in behavioral control favoring model-free habitual over model-based goal-directed strategies. It is as yet unknown, however, whether such an imbalance reflects a predisposing vulnerability or results as a consequence of repeated and/or excessive alcohol exposure. We, therefore, examined the association of alcohol consumption with model-based goal-directed and model-free habitual control in 188 18-year-old social drinkers in a two-step sequential decision-making task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging before prolonged alcohol misuse could have led to severe neurobiological adaptations. Behaviorally, participants showed a mixture of model-free and model-based decision-making as observed previously. Measures of impulsivity were positively related to alcohol consumption. In contrast, neither model-free nor model-based decision weights nor the trade-off between them were associated with alcohol consumption. There were also no significant associations between alcohol consumption and neural correlates of model-free or model-based decision quantities in either ventral striatum or ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Exploratory whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses with a lenient threshold revealed early onset of drinking to be associated with an enhanced representation of model-free reward prediction errors in the posterior putamen. These results suggest that an imbalance between model-based goal-directed and model-free habitual control might rather not be a trait marker of alcohol intake per se.
KW  - alcohol
KW  - goal-directed
KW  - reinforcement learning
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/adb.12490
SN  - 1355-6215
SN  - 1369-1600
VL  - 23
IS  - 1
SP  - 379
EP  - 393
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sebold, Miriam
A1  - Chen, Hao
A1  - Önal, Aleyna
A1  - Kuitunen-Paul, Sören
A1  - Mojtahedzadeh, Negin
A1  - Garbusow, Maria
A1  - Nebe, Stephan
A1  - Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich
A1  - Huys, Quentin J. M.
A1  - Schlagenhauf, Florian
A1  - Rapp, Michael A.
A1  - Smolka, Michael N.
A1  - Heinz, Andreas
T1  - Stronger prejudices are associated with decreased model-based control
JF  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - Background: 
Prejudices against minorities can be understood as habitually negative evaluations that are kept in spite of evidence to the contrary. Therefore, individuals with strong prejudices might be dominated by habitual or "automatic" reactions at the expense of more controlled reactions. Computational theories suggest individual differences in the balance between habitual/model-free and deliberative/model-based decision-making.

Methods: 
127 subjects performed the two Step task and completed the blatant and subtle prejudice scale.

Results: 
By using analyses of choices and reaction times in combination with computational modeling, subjects with stronger blatant prejudices showed a shift away from model-based control. There was no association between these decision-making processes and subtle prejudices.

Conclusion: 
These results support the idea that blatant prejudices toward minorities are related to a relative dominance of habitual decision-making. This finding has important implications for developing interventions that target to change prejudices across societies.
KW  - subtle and blatant prejudice
KW  - immigrant
KW  - social behavior;
KW  - decision-making
KW  - computational modeling
KW  - reinforcement learning
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.767022
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 12
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -