Good Vibrations: Cross-Frequency Coupling in the Human Nucleus Accumbens during Reward Processing

Autor/inn/en	Cohen, Michael X.; Axmacher, Nikolai; Lenartz, Doris; Elger, Christian E.; Sturm, Volker; Schlaepfer, Thomas E.
Titel	Good Vibrations: Cross-Frequency Coupling in the Human Nucleus Accumbens during Reward Processing
Quelle	In: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21 (2009) 5, S.875-889 (15 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0898-929X
DOI	10.1162/jocn.2009.21062
Schlagwörter	Surgery; Patients; Rewards; Decision Making; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Learning Processes; Diagnostic Tests; Stimulation; Physiology; Neurology; Cognitive Processes + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Chirurgie; Patient; Reward; Belohnung; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Learning process; Lernprozess; Diagnostic test; Diagnostischer Test; Physiologie; Neurologie; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess
Abstract	The nucleus accumbens is critical for reward-guided learning and decision-making. It is thought to "gate" the flow of a diverse range of information (e.g., rewarding, aversive, and novel events) from limbic afferents to basal ganglia outputs. Gating and information encoding may be achieved via cross-frequency coupling, in which bursts of high-frequency activity occur preferentially during specific phases of slower oscillations. We examined whether the human nucleus accumbens engages such a mechanism by recording electrophysiological activity directly from the accumbens of human patients undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. Oscillatory activity in the gamma (40-80 Hz) frequency range was synchronized with the phase of simultaneous alpha (8-12 Hz) waves. Further, losing and winning small amounts of money elicited relatively increased gamma oscillation power prior to and following alpha troughs, respectively. Gamma-alpha synchronization may reflect an electrophysiological gating mechanism in the human nucleus accumbens, and the phase differences in gamma-alpha coupling may reflect a reward information coding scheme similar to phase coding. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10