Draft:Reward devaluation

This process is critical in behavioral neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and economics, as it influences decision-making, learning, and adaptive behavior. For example, animals or humans may reduce their effort to obtain a reward if its perceived value decreases (e.g., due to overconsumption or negative associations). The concept is often studied in paradigms like operant conditioning, where devaluation of a reinforcer (e.g., food) can weaken previously learned behaviors. Clinically, aberrant reward devaluation mechanisms are implicated in psychiatric conditions such as depression , where patients exhibit anhedonia (diminished pleasure in rewarding activities) and a hypersensitivity to negative outcomes , potentially reflecting dysregulated interactions between the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC){{cite journal |last1=Pickens |first1=Charles L. |last2=Saddoris |first2=Michael P. |last3=Gallagher |first3=Michela |last4=Holland |first4=Peter C. |title=Orbitofrontal Lesions Impair Use of Cue-Outcome Associations in a Devaluation Task. |journal=Behavioral Neuroscience |date=2005 |volume=119 |issue=1 |pages=317–322 |doi=10.1037/0735-7044.119.1.317|pmid=15727536 |pmc=1201523 }}, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC){{cite journal |last1=Yuan |first1=Zhengwei |last2=Qi |first2=Zhongyang |last3=Wang |first3=Ruiyu |last4=Cui |first4=Yuting |last5=An |first5=Sile |last6=Wu |first6=Guoli |last7=Feng |first7=Qiru |last8=Lin |first8=Rui |last9=Dai |first9=Ruicheng |last10=Li |first10=Anan |last11=Gong |first11=Hui |last12=Luo |first12=Qingming |last13=Fu |first13=Ling |last14=Luo |first14=Minmin |title=A corticoamygdalar pathway controls reward devaluation and depression using dynamic inhibition code |journal=Neuron |date=December 2023 |volume=111 |issue=23 |pages=3837–3853.e5 |doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2023.08.022}}, and basolateral amygdala (BLA){{cite journal |last1=Wellman |first1=Laurie L. |last2=Gale |first2=Karen |last3=Malkova |first3=Ludise |title=GABA A -Mediated Inhibition of Basolateral Amygdala Blocks Reward Devaluation in Macaques |journal=The Journal of Neuroscience |date=4 May 2005 |volume=25 |issue=18 |pages=4577–4586 |doi=10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2257-04.2005|pmid=15872105 |pmc=6725040 }}. These regions are thought to underlie the inability to update reward values in response to changing environmental or internal states, perpetuating motivational deficits. The phenomenon also plays a role in understanding disorders like addiction, where impaired devaluation mechanisms may drive compulsive reward-seeking despite adverse consequences.

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