title: The Role of Reward Expectations for Prospective Memory : An investigation with functional magnetic resonance imaging
creator: Gäbel, Andrea
subject: ddc-150
subject: 150 Psychology
description: Prospective memory is the ability to remember to carry out an intended action after a delay. However, it remains unclear how motivational aspects of the intended action,such as reward expectations, are integrated into the processes subserving intact prospective memory. The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the effects of motivational incentives on prospective memory on the behavioral and on the neural level, while taking into account individual differences in reward sensitivity and personality. In one behavioral and two functional imaging studies, we combined a prospective memory paradigm with different levels of monetary reward and loss. Study 1 demonstrated that while personality traits such as conscientiousness are linked to enhanced prospective memory performance in general, individual reward sensitivity can explain reward-related performance differences. Study 2 established that midbrain and striatal regions within the reward system are sensitive to the level of reward associated with prospective memory cues and that activation differences in the midbrain region are related to individual reward sensitivity. We found that performance increases under high reward are accompanied by an increased functional coupling between frontopolar and midbrain activation. Study 3 compared neural responses to reward and loss avoidance expectations. We found that high reward led to an elevated neural response compared to low reward or loss avoidance. Results further showed that midbrain activation reflected reward-related performance differences. In sum, these results suggest that regions involved in reward anticipation are sensitive to the level of reward associated with prospective intentions and that reward information accordingly is part of the cognitive representation of prospective intentions. Moreover, the results directly link neural reward representations to reward-related performance differences in prospective memory. Additionally, our findings highlight the role of individual reward sensitivity in the context of prospective remembering. 
date: 2010
type: Dissertation
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/11584/1/Diss_AG_final.pdf
identifier: DOI:10.11588/heidok.00011584
identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-opus-115841
identifier:   Gäbel, Andrea  (2010) The Role of Reward Expectations for Prospective Memory : An investigation with functional magnetic resonance imaging.  [Dissertation]     
relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/11584/
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/help/license_urhg.html
language: eng