The roles of valuation and reward processing in cognitive function and psychiatric disorders

Abstract

In neuroeconomics, valuation refers to the process of assigning values to states and actions on the basis of the animal's current representation of the environment, while reward processing corresponds to processing the feedback received from the environment to update the values of states and actions. In this article, we review the brain circuits associated with valuation and reward processing and argue that these are fundamental processes critical to many cognitive functions. Specifically, we focus on the role of valuation and reward processing in attention, memory, decision making, and learning. Next, the extant neuroimaging literature on a number of psychiatric disorders is reviewed (i.e., addiction, pathological gambling, schizophrenia, and mood disorders), and an argument is made that associated deficits in cognitive functions can be explained in terms of abnormal valuation and reward processing. The review concludes with the impact of this framework in clinical settings and prescriptions for future research, in particular with regard to the conversions of qualitatively different valuation systems into a system of common currency.

Keywords: cognitive function; psychiatric disorders; reward processing; valuation.

Figure 1

A high–level representation of RL.

Figure 2

Brain regions associated with the representation of common currency in Ref. . Blue = vmPFC; Red = VS. The brain mask was adapted from the supplementary material of Ref. .