Research 3

Dysfunctions of the reward system and of the prefrontal cortex

      Understanding the neural bases of reward information and decision making processes are of crucial importance because of the fundamental role of rewards in behavioral processes such as motivation, learning and cognition and because of their theoretical and clinical implications for understanding dysfunctions of the dopaminergic reward system and a number of neuropathologies involving motivational and decision making disorders. We are studying the reward dopaminergic system and decision making mechanisms in healthy aging subjects and in a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders in which motivation or decision making are dysfunctional, such as Parkinson’s disease, pathological gambling, eating disorders, schizophrenia and patients with focal prefrontal cortex lesions. One approach we are currently taking is to compare how different types of rewards and decisions are processed in brain disorders which are more specific of one reward domain (eg. food for anorexia, money in pathological gambling …).

Selected papers:

- J-C Dreher , A. Meyer-Lindenberg, P. Kohn and K. F. Berman. Age-related changes in midbrain dopaminergic regulation of the human reward system. Proceedings of th National Academy of Sciences USA, 105(39):15106-11, 2008.
- J-C Dreher , E. Koechlin, M. Tierney, J. Grafman. Damage to the Fronto-Polar Cortex Is Associated with Impaired Multitasking. PLoS ONE. 3(9):e3227, 2008.
- J-C. Dreher , P.J. Schmidt, P. Kohn, D. Furman, D. Rubinow, K.F. Berman. Menstrual cycle phase modulates reward-related neural function in women, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 104 (7), 2465–2470, 2007.