Books on the topic 'Reward Processing'

Schizophrenia is a complex neuropsychiatric syndrome presenting with a constellation of symptoms. Clinicians have long recognized that abnormalities in cognitive function and motivated behavior are a key component of psychosis, and of schizophrenia in particular. Here we postulate that these deficits may reflect, at least in part, impairments in the ability to actively maintain and utilize internal representations of emotional experiences, previous rewards, and motivational goals in order to drive current and future behavior in a way that would normally allow individuals to obtain desired outcomes. We discuss the evidence for such impairment in schizophrenia, how it manifests in domains typically referred to as executive control, working memory, and episodic memory, how it may help us understand impairments in reward processing and motivation in schizophrenia, and the animal research consistent with these hypotheses.

Cigarette smoking presents with considerable health risks and induces high costs on healthcare resources. People continue to smoke cigarettes in the face of adversity because they contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Nicotine is a stimulant that exerts its effects within the brain by acting at nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). nAChRs are located in areas of the brain involved in reward processing, motivation, and cognitive control, which results in disruptions to behaviour when nicotine addiction has developed. Disturbances to the brain and behaviour are particularly evident during early nicotine abstinence when people are in withdrawal. Importantly, treatments (e.g. varenicline, bupropion) that attenuate disturbances to reward and cognition in the brain during withdrawal in early nicotine abstinence are conferred with the efficacy to promote smoking cessation and protect against relapse.

Anorexia and bulimia nervosa are complex disorders with dysregulated appetitive behaviors. The underlying causes of disturbed patterns of eating are unknown, but a growing body of research suggests that aberrant functioning of brain or peripheral systems may be responsible. Neuroimaging technologies, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional MRI (fMRI), can be used to explore whether there are perturbations of the monoamine systems, the neurocircuitry of gustatory processing in eating disorders, and their relationship to metabolic homeostatic states. Together, PET and fMRI data suggest that individuals with eating disorders have disturbance of taste- and reward-processing regions of the brain, which may contribute to eating disorder symptoms.

Structural and functional imaging studies have identified abnormalities in the brains of individuals with OCD. The most consistent findings point to pathology in the circuitry connecting the prefrontal cortex with the basal ganglia, and especially to abnormalities in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and striatum. This chapter describes the detailed anatomy and interconnectivity of these structures, together with its functional correlates, to provide context for the more detailed treatment of abnormalities seen in OCD provided in the chapters that follow. These corticostriatal circuits are critical for reward processing, reward learning, and action selection, and so disruption in these circuitries in OCD may underlie abnormalities in these domains. Precisely defining the anatomy of these circuits and how it is disrupted in OCD, at both the group and individual level, is increasingly important, as it may help us to optimize anatomically targeted treatment strategies.

Chapter 2 introduces the concept of cultural learning and its function in the transmission of cultural knowledge over generations, and the construction of new cultural beliefs/values and behavioral scripts. It examines brain activity that is engaged in differential processing of culturally familiar and unfamiliar information by reviewing functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potential studies of neural activity involved in the processing of gesture, music, brand, and religious knowledge. Long-term cultural experiences give rise to specific neural mechanisms in the human brain that deal with culturally familiar information in multiple neural circuits underlying the inference of mental states and reward, for example. The unique neural mechanisms underlying culturally familiar stimuli provide a default mode of neural processing of culturally familiar information received in daily life.

The first part of the chapter describes effects of motivation on attention at the behavioural and physiological levels. For example, reward increases detection sensitivity (dprime) in both endogenous attention and exogenous attention tasks, enhances stimulus coding, and influences the filtering of task-irrelevant stimuli. These recent findings are surprising insofar as traditional psychological models have described motivation as a fairly unspecific ‘force’. The results reviewed are far from global. Instead they reflect specific mechanisms that are manifested selectively both at behavioural and neural levels. The second part of the chapter describes the role of attention when emotion-laden visual stimuli are processed. When one considers the bulk of the evidence, emotional processing is revealed to be capacity-limited. Yet, emotional processing is prioritized relative to that of neutral items.

Chapter 6 examines the effects of cultural priming on cognition and brain activity by reviewing brain imaging evidence that temporary shifts of cultural knowledge systems toward independence or interdependence can significantly modulated brain activities involved in pain-related sensory processing, visual perception, self-face recognition and self-reflection, monetary reward, empathy, and a resting state. These findings provide evidence for a causal relationship between cultural belief/value and functional organization of the human brain. The findings further suggest that functional brain activity is constrained by both the sustained cultural frameworks formulated during long-term cultural experiences and the transient cultural frameworks induced by short-term exposure to cultural values.

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are common disabling disorders that have impulsive behavior as a core feature. They emerge early in life and run a chronic lifelong course. They are assumed to lie at the severest end of a continuum of impulsivity that connects normal with pathological states. People with ICDs experience a drive to undertake repetitive acts. Although the consequences are damaging, performance of the impulsive act may be experienced as rewarding, or alternatively may relieve distress, implicating dysfunction of the neural circuitry involved in reward processing and/or behavioral inhibition. Clinical data are increasingly pointing toward an etiological association between some ICDs, such as pathological gambling and addiction, and others, such as trichotillomania and compulsive disorders. Comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders is also common, and hints at overlapping psychobiological processes across several diagnostic groups. The results of neurocognitive studies suggest that impulsivity is multidimensional and comprises dissociable cognitive and behavioral indices governed by separate underlying neural mechanisms. For example, trichotillomania may primarily involve motor impulsivity, whereas problem gambling may involve reward impulsivity and reflection impulsivity. Exploring neurocognitive changes in individuals with ICDs and other mental disorders characterized by poor impulse control, and among their family members, may help to elucidate the underpinning neurocircuitry and clarify their nosological status.

The brain is involved in controlling necessary motivational and cognitive processes optimized for survival. These processes can be disrupted by substances of addiction. The key neural substrates underlying these processes are made up of a network of four independent and overlapping brain circuits. These circuits govern reward processing, motivation and/or drive, learning and memory, and cognitive control. Anomalies within these circuits may also pre-date the addiction state, and facilitate the progress from experimentation to substance addiction. The subsequent excessive and chronic use of substances further exacerbates these abnormalities. Therefore, these brain circuits and key psychological processes related to their functioning must be understood if we are to develop and test new pharmacological and psychological treatment approaches in substance addiction.

For more than 2000 years Greek philosophers have thought about the puzzling introspectively assessed dichotomy between our physical bodies and our seemingly non-physical minds. How is it that we can think highly abstract thoughts, seemingly fully detached from actual, physical reality? Despite the obvious interactions between mind and body (we get tired, we are hungry, we stay up late despite being tired, etc.), until today it remains puzzling how our mind controls our body, and vice versa, how our body shapes our mind. Despite a big movement towards embodied cognitive science over the last 20 years or so, introductory books with a functional and computational perspective on how human thought and language capabilities may actually have come about – and are coming about over and over again – are missing. This book fills that gap. Starting with a historical background on traditional cognitive science and resulting fundamental challenges that have not been resolved, embodied cognitive science is introduced and its implications for how human minds have come and continue to come into being are detailed. In particular, the book shows that evolution has produced biological bodies that provide “morphologically intelligent” structures, which foster the development of suitable behavioral and cognitive capabilities. While these capabilities can be modified and optimized given positive and negative reward as feedback, to reach abstract cognitive capabilities, evolution has furthermore produced particular anticipatory control-oriented mechanisms, which cause the development of particular types of predictive encodings, modularizations, and abstractions. Coupled with an embodied motivational system, versatile, goal-directed, self-motivated behavior, learning becomes possible. These lines of thought are introduced and detailed from interdisciplinary, evolutionary, ontogenetic, reinforcement learning, and anticipatory predictive encoding perspectives in the first part of the book. A short excursus then provides an introduction to neuroscience, including general knowledge about brain anatomy, and basic neural and brain functionality, as well as the main research methodologies. With reference to this knowledge, the subsequent chapters then focus on how the human brain manages to develop abstract thought and language. Sensory systems, motor systems, and their predictive, control-oriented interactions are detailed from a functional and computational perspective. Bayesian information processing is introduced along these lines as are generative models. Moreover, it is shown how particular modularizations can develop. When control and attention come into play, these structures develop also dependent on the available motor capabilities. Vice versa, the development of more versatile motor capabilities depends on structural development. Event-oriented abstractions enable conceptualizations and behavioral compositions, paving the path towards abstract thought and language. Also evolutionary drives towards social interactions play a crucial role. Based on the developing sensorimotor- and socially-grounded structures, the human mind becomes language ready. The development of language in each human child then further facilitates the self-motivated generation of abstract, compositional, highly flexible thought about the present, past, and future, as well as about others. In conclusion, the book gives an overview over how the human mind comes into being – sketching out a developmental pathway towards the mastery of abstract and reflective thought, while detailing the critical body and neural functionalities, and computational mechanisms, which enable this development.

The industry of information technology in India includes the following services namely IT and software services, IT enabled services, hardware (engineering) services, and e-businesses/e-governance associated with government services. IT services are outsourcing of software support/installation, processing services, systems integration, exports of products and services, and training/education of the information technology science. The significant improvements in the industry have brought about a vital need for systematic process of managing the majority of employees in the IT industry. There was also a need created for technology in the subject matter of managing the employees and other aspects that came into picture. Hence, Innovative Human Resource practices came into existence for upgrading the skills and building the employees to work towards the goal of the organization. This gave birth to HR technology, Employee Engagement, ERP and so on. The study focuses on identifying various applications of Innovative Human resource practices in IT industry, the role of demographics and the factors influencing employee engagement and productivity. The study also analyzes the impact of innovative human resource practices on employee engagement and productivity and finally examines the mediating role of employee engagement upon the relationship between innovative human resource practices and employee productivity. To support the study, review of the relevant literature (Books, Research thesis and research papers) available in the innovative human resource practices space (both Global and Indian) was done. The research gap was identified in 4 categories i.e. empirical gap, evidence gap, methodological gap and population gap. The conceptual framework for the study was also designed. The literature review was categorized into national and international, theoretical and empirical to keep the study relevant according to the current global standards. Based on the research gap and the conceptual framework, the questionnaire was framed and according to the hypothesis the plan of analysis was structured to further the study. The data collection was completed through offline and online method, based on sample design. The analysis included Structural Equation Model, ANOVA, Independent t test and Mediation analysis – Andrew Hayes, Model 4 using SPSS and AMOS software. The study found out that HR Technology, HR Analytics, Collaboration Tools, AI in HR and Employee Pulse survey, are contributors to Innovative Human resource practices but there is no significant impact of demographic variables on perception of IHRM. Also, Employee retention, Reward and recognition, Personality development and Performance appraisal are factors influencing Employee engagement and Innovative work system, Employee contribution, Vigour, Dedication, Psychological factors, Motivational factors, Experience Factors and Individual capacity are factors influencing Employee Productivity. IHRM has significant impact on employee engagement and the employee productivity. Employee engagement mediates the relationship between IHRM and employee productivity. To conclude, this study provides insights into how employees are affected by innovative HR practices and provides practical solutions for organizations looking to encourage staff. By using motivational strategies that are directly tied to employees’ immediate interests and that are intended to affect their views and attitudes, innovative HR practices can assist firms in projecting a sense of employee engagement. Employees are further encouraged to be selfless and altruistic by the degrees of perceived satisfaction with the creative HR methods. As a result, they become more open to doing tasks that aren’t directly relevant to their professions but nevertheless helpful to their businesses. This would increase the efficiency of enterprises in managing their human resources, particularly those businesses that are team-based. Keywords: Innovative Human Resource Practices, Employee Engagement, Employee Productivity, IT Sector, Bengaluru, Human Resource Technology, Trends of IHRM, Innovative Human Resource Technology tools, IHRM Strategies, Information Technology.