Maladaptive Pavlovian biases in decision making and their association with compulsivity – a computational modelling approach

• Applicant: Dr. Vanessa Scholz
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2018 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 399850126

Our decisions are not only influenced by our previous experience but also by emotional and motivational processes. Innate Pavlovian biases within decision-making can aid in dealing with our complex and rapidly changing environment by heuristically facilitating certain behavioral strategies and thereby reducing the computational load of decision-making. At the same time, the intrinsic coupling of response initiation with rewards and abstinence from a behavioral response when faced with punishments can also translate in suboptimal behavior, when the environment or context requires contrasting behavioral patterns. It is conceivable that the maladaptive expression of motivational biases underlies some forms of pathological behavior in mental disorders such as compulsions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Overly strong Pavlovian biasing could for instance lead to the initiation or the further strengthening of compulsive behavior. In order to further the investigation into the still poorly understood mechanisms of motivational biases in compulsive behavior, two studies will examine both the behavioral expression as well as the neurobiological underpinnings of these biases in the general population and OCD patients. For this, both studies will employ the same, well-established Go NoGo paradigm, which has been shown to reliably elicit Pavlovian effects on choice behavior. To assess the underlying latent processes of these biases in the context of decision-making, state-of-the-art computational models, based on reinforcement learning theory and dynamic causal modelling approaches, will be applied to the behavioral and neuroimaging data.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Netherlands
• Host: Professorin Hanneke E. M. den Ouden