Reversal learning reveals cognitive deficits and altered prediction error encoding in the ventral striatum in Huntingtons disease

Nickchen, KatharinaCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany; Fliedner Klin Berlin, Germany (author)

Funding Agencies|Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [GRK-1123]
Huntingtons disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative condition characterized by a triad of movement disorder, neuropsychiatric symptoms and cognitive deficits. The striatum is particularly vulnerable to the effects of mutant huntingtin, and cell loss can already be found in presymptomatic stages. Since the striatum is well known for its role in reinforcement learning, we hypothesized to find altered behavioral and neural responses in HD patients in a probabilistic reinforcement learning task performed during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We studied 24 HD patients without central nervous system (CNS)-active medication and 25 healthy controls. Twenty HD patients and 24 healthy controls were able to complete the task. Computational modeling was used to calculate prediction error values and estimate individual parameters. We observed that gray matter density and prediction error signals during the learning task were related to disease stage. HD patients in advanced disease stages appear to use a less complex strategy in the reversal learning task. In contrast, HD patients in early disease stages show intact encoding of learning signals in the degenerating left ventral striatum. This effect appears to be lost with disease progression.

Böhme, RebeccaLinköpings universitet,Centrum för social och affektiv neurovetenskap,Medicinska fakulteten,Charite University of Medical Berlin, Germany(Swepub:liu)rebbo11 (author)
del Mar Amador, MariaCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany (author)
Haelbig, Thomas D.Charite University of Medical Berlin, Germany (author)
Dehnicke, KatharinaCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany; Helios Klinikum Bad Saarow, Germany (author)
Panneck, PatriciaCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany (author)
Behr, JoachimCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany; Medical School Brandenburg, Germany (author)
Prass, KonstantinHelios Klinikum Bad Saarow, Germany (author)
Heinz, AndreasCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany (author)
Deserno, LorenzCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany; Max Planck Institute Human Cognit and Brain Science, Germany (author)
Schlagenhauf, FlorianCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany; Max Planck Institute Human Cognit and Brain Science, Germany (author)
Priller, JosefCharite University of Medical Berlin, Germany; BIH, Germany; DZNE, Germany (author)
Charite University of Medical Berlin, Germany; Fliedner Klin Berlin, GermanyCentrum för social och affektiv neurovetenskap (creator_code:org_t)

By the author/editor: Nickchen, Kathar ...; Böhme, Rebecca; del Mar Amador, ...; Haelbig, Thomas ...; Dehnicke, Kathar ...; Panneck, Patrici ...; show more...; Behr, Joachim; Prass, Konstanti ...; Heinz, Andreas; Deserno, Lorenz; Schlagenhauf, Fl ...; Priller, Josef; show less...

About the subject

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES: MEDICAL AND HEAL ...; and Basic Medicine; and Neurosciences

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