CHYS 1F90 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Anhedonia, Basal Ganglia
7 Oct 2016
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Research focused upon the emotional development of school-ages children who have had adverse early experiences as a way to better understand the processes of emotional development. Adults and their social interactions are the primary bass upon which these children begin to learn about their social environment. Hypothesized that this social context might affect the brain regions associated with learning which features of the environment lead to reward or punishment. In this study, abused children aged 5-6 believed that almost any kind of interpersonal situation could result in an adult becoming angry. It may be the case that abused children prioritize negative social cues at the expense of positive cues. Depression is frequently considered to be a problem involving sadness, but one of the core symptoms is anhedonia- reduced experience of pleasure. Current thinking is that the basal ganglia guides learning based on assessments of the probability of a positive outcome, while the orbitofrontal cortex represents gain-loss information.
