Figure 4. Configural learning is related to hippocampal-nucleus accumbens outcome functional connectivity.
(A) Schematic illustration of choice→outcome connectivity analysis. Within-trial choice and outcome BOLD activations were used to assess how choice-related activations in anterior hippocampus (aHip) drive subsequent Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) outcome activations on a trial-by-trial basis. (B) Task differences in aHip-NAc coupling. AHip choice responses were more correlated with NAc outcome responses in the Inseparable Task. (C) aHip-NAc coupling and individual learning differences. The left graph plots average aHip-NAc coupling for participants classified as configural or elemental learners in the Separable Task. The middle graph plots the positive relationship between aHip-NAc choice-outcome coupling configural learning during the Inseparable Task. (D) Schematic illustration of outcome→subsequent choice connectivity analysis. Across-trial choice and outcome BOLD activations were used to assess how NAc outcome-related activations drove aHip choice-related activation when participants next saw the relevant configuration. (E) No outcome→subsequent choice differences across tasks. AHip choice responses were more correlated with NAc outcome responses in the Inseparable Task. (F) NAc-aHip coupling and individual learning differences. The left graph plots NAc-aHip coupling for participants classified as configural or elemental learners in the Separable Task. Correlation between NAc-aHip outcome→subsequent choice coupling and configural learning during the Inseparable Task (middle) and the Separable Task (right). Lines depict group-level linear effects +/− 2 SE.
