Towards an integrative understanding of the impact of different types of discounting on decision making and its neural underpinnings in AUD (B08)

• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology ; Biological Psychiatry ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 402170461

In the 1st FP we developed an experimental and statistical framework that allows to formally model and validate reward and aversion discounting, and to identify their underlying neurobiological mechanisms in human fMRI and animal experiments. In the 2nd FP we aim to investigate these specific cognitive processes for their individual and combined contribution to addiction. By an iterative experimental approach, we will identify the most relevant processes by computational modeling of observed behaviors and then examine their underlying mechanisms by fMRI. We further hypothesize that core regions of behavioral control are comparable between humans and animals. Therefore, in rats we will characterize the neuronal activity and connectivity patterns expressed during specific discounting behaviors and identify neural trait markers of discounting behavior.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 265: Losing and Regaining Control over Drug Intake: From Trajectories to Mechanisms to Interventions
• Applicant Institution: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Peter Kirsch; Professorin Dr. Georgia Koppe; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Heinrich Sommer