Investigating the neural mechanisms of aversive learning: predictions, prediction errors and the effects of contextual novelty

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Nico Bunzeck
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2011 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 197448800

The ability to detect and respond to motivationally relevant information is crucial for survival. While the dopaminergic mesolimbic system, including substantia nigra / ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, has long been associated with reward learning, recent evidence shows that it also codes aversive events. Although this points towards a much more general role in salience processing, it remains unclear whether the mesolimbic system follows a unified coding strategy in aversive and appetitive learning. On the basis of my previous studies, I plan to address this apparent gap in our understanding of basic learning mechanisms by using intracranial recordings in humans (iEEG) as well as combined EEG/fMRI together with psychopharmacology and behavioral tests. This multimodal approach allows a characterization of the underlying neural processes with high temporal and spatial resolution and it offers direct conclusions regarding the role of dopamine. As such, this work will give new and important insights into the functional properties of the human mesolimbic system in aversive learning. From a more clinical perspective, it might allow us to establish new markers of how the healthy brain predicts and adapts to painful stimulation, which is altered in patients suffering from chronic pain.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants