Strength of Ventral Tegmental Area Connections With Left Caudate Nucleus Is Related to Conflict Monitoring

Successful learning requires the control of attention to monitor performance and compare actual versus expected outcomes. Neural activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has been linked to attention control in animals. However, it is unknown whether the strength of VTA connections is related to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in psychology Vol. 10; p. 2869
Main Authors: Mamiya, Ping C., Richards, Todd, Corrigan, Neva M., Kuhl, Patricia K.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 09.01.2020
Subjects:
attention control
basal ganglia
dopamine
executive function
midbrain
Psychology
attention control
basal ganglia
midbrain
dopamine
executive function
ISSN:1664-1078, 1664-1078
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Successful learning requires the control of attention to monitor performance and compare actual versus expected outcomes. Neural activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has been linked to attention control in animals. However, it is unknown whether the strength of VTA connections is related to conflict monitoring in humans. To study the relationship between VTA connections and conflict monitoring, we acquired diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data on 50 second language learners who we have previously studied. We performed probabilistic tractography to document VTA connections with the dorsal striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and administered the Flanker task in which subjects were required to monitor and report conflicts in visual stimuli. Reaction times (RTs) indexed students' conflict monitoring. Probabilistic tractography revealed distinct neural connections between the VTA and the dorsal striatum and ACC. Correlational analyses between tractography and flanker RTs revealed that the strength of VTA connections with the left caudate nucleus was negatively correlated with RTs recorded in the presence of conflicts. This provides the first evidence to suggest that VTA connections with the left caudate nucleus are related to conflict monitoring in humans.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Reviewed by: Xun Liu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; Ting-Ting Chang, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Edited by: Xiaolin Zhou, Peking University, China
This article was submitted to Language Sciences, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02869