Different aspects of performance feedback engage different brain areas: Disentangling valence and expectancy in feedback processing

Evaluating the positive and negative outcomes of our behaviour is important for action selection and learning. Such reinforcement learning has been shown to engage a specific neural circuitry including the mesencephalic dopamine system and its target areas, the striatum and medial frontal cortex, especially the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). An intensively pursued debate regards the prevailing influence of feedback expectancy and feedback valence on the engagement of these two brain regions in reinforcement learning and their respective roles are far from being understood. To this end, we used a time estimation task with three different types of feedback that allows disentangling the effect of feedback valence and expectancy using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Our results show greater ACC activation after unexpected positive and unexpected negative feedback than after expected feedback and by this sensitivity to unexpected events in general irrespective of their valence.