Reward Memory
Reward Memory - Related Videos
08:05
A Prediction Error-driven Retrieval Procedure for Destabilizing and Rewriting Maladaptive Reward Memories in Hazardous Drinkers
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Cited by 24 •
2018
This manuscript describes a memory retrieval procedure for destabilizing robust reward memories and rewriting them with counterconditioning prior to their reconsolidation.
09:44
An Introduction to Reward and Addiction
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2023
Consequences play a major role in controlling our behavior. If the consequence is a reward, then it encourages the associated behavior. Rewards can come in many forms such as a pleasant feeling, money, or food. However, sometimes an individual engages in compulsive behavior despite of negative consequences, and this state is known as addiction. Administration of addictive substances is neurochemically rewarding, which ultimately causes a loss of control in limiting the intake. Scientists aim...
12:09
Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans
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Cited by 9 •
2014
This article describes a set of methods for the measurement of food related motivation and food related goal values in humans.
10:06
An Introduction to Learning and Memory
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2023
Learning is the process of acquiring new information and memory is the retention or storage of that information. Different types of learning, such as non-associative and associative learning, and different types of memory, such as long-term and short-term memory, have been associated with human behaviors. Studying these components in detail helps behavioral scientists understand the neural mechanisms behind these two complex phenomena. JoVE's overview on learning and memory introduces common...
06:57
A Simple Way to Measure Alterations in Reward-seeking Behavior Using Drosophila melanogaster
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Cited by 11 •
2016
We describe a protocol for inducing rewarding and nonrewarding experiences in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) using voluntary ethanol consumption as a measure for changes in reward states.
FAQs
A rewarding outcome increases dopamine signaling, which reinforces activity in neural circuits. This reinforcement helps link surrounding contextual and sensory cues with the value assigned to an action, so those cues can later influence choice. In behavioral research, this mechanism explains how an experienced outcome can bias subsequent behavior rather than remaining an isolated event.
Synaptic plasticity supports longer-term storage by changing how neural circuits retain information about a rewarding experience. In this context, storage is not limited to the immediate response to an outcome; it allows relationships among cues, actions, and value to remain available for later retrieval. That persistence helps explain repeated choices and habit formation.
These regions provide important sites for examining how reward-related information is represented and retained in the brain. Because reward memory connects contextual and sensory cues with action value, measurements involving the striatum, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex can help relate neural activity to memory formation, retrieval, and later behavior. Their involvement connects neural processes with observable behavioral outcomes.
It may measure subsequent choices and adaptive behavior, asking whether a prior rewarding outcome changes responses to associated cues or actions. Such experiments provide behavioral evidence that reward information is retrieved and used. Comparing later decisions can reveal how strongly an experience influences motivation, learning, decision-making, or habit formation.
Neural measurements can examine activity in reward-related circuits as organisms process rewarding outcomes and later use associated information. Paired with behavioral observations, these measurements help connect dopamine signaling and synaptic plasticity with observable changes in choice or adaptive behavior. This combined approach links changes in performance with the neural processes that may support them.
It is especially relevant when researchers study motivation, learning, decision-making, and habit formation, because prior rewards can shape later choices. The framework also supports investigation of maladaptive reward evaluation or reinforcement, including addiction. In these settings, experiments can examine why particular cues or actions continue to influence behavior when reward-related processes become maladaptive.