Corticostriatal White Matter Integrity and Dopamine D1 Receptor Availability Predict Age Differences in Prefrontal Value Signaling during Reward Learning

Probabilistic reward learning reflects the ability to adapt choices based on probabilistic feedback. The dopaminergically innervated corticostriatal circuit in the brain plays an important role in supporting successful probabilistic reward learning. Several components of the corticostriatal circuit deteriorate with age, as it does probabilistic reward learning. We showed previously that D1 receptor availability in NAcc predicts the strength of anticipatory value signaling in vmPFC, a neural correlate of probabilistic learning that is attenuated in older participants and predicts probabilistic reward learning performance. We investigated how white matter integrity in the pathway between nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) relates to the strength of anticipatory value signaling in vmPFC in younger and older participants. We found that in a sample of 22 old and 23 young participants, fractional anisotropy in the pathway between NAcc and vmPFC predicted the strength of value signaling in vmPFC independently from D1 receptor availability in NAcc. These findings provide tentative evidence that integrity in the dopaminergic and white matter pathways of corticostriatal circuitry supports the expression of value signaling in vmPFC which supports reward learning, however, the limited sample size calls for independent replication. These and future findings could add to the improved understanding of how corticostriatal integrity contributes to reward learning ability.