COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGYReward sensitivity in impulsivityMartin, Laura E.CA; Potts, Geoffrey F. Author Information Rice University, Department of Psychology, MS-25, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA CACorresponding Author: [email protected] Received 15 April 2004; accepted 23 April 2004 NeuroReport 15(9):p 1519-1522, June 28, 2004. | DOI: 10.1097/01.wnr.0000132920.12990.b9 Buy Metrics Abstract Impulsive individuals choose immediate small over delayed larger rewards, suggesting reward hypersensitivity. Single-unit studies have shown increased ventral tegmental activity to rewards and reward predictors and decreased activity when predicted rewards are withheld. The orbitofrontal ventral tegmental cortical target also responds to reward and expectation in single-unit and neuroimaging studies. The anterior P2a event-related potential component is a proposed index of reward-related orbitofrontal activity. In this reward prediction study in high and low impulsive subjects, the P2a localized to orbitofrontal cortex and was largest to non-predicted rewards and smallest in the absence of predicted rewards in subjects higher on self-reported impulsiveness, consistent with a P2a index of orbitofrontal reward processing and with reward hypersensitivity in impulsivity. © 2004 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
