ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2021
Signed Reward Prediction Errors in the Ventral Striatum Drive Episodic Memory.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Midbrain-Hippocampus Structural Connectivity Selectively Predicts Motivated Memory Encoding.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Trial
- Hippocampal-cingulate dynamics in the human brain link reinforcement-learning and memory.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Does signed prediction error drive declarative memory? Evidence from variable choice paradigms.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- Article
- Distinct Hippocampal Mechanisms Support Concept Formation and Updating.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Repeated extrinsic rewards following retrieval practice facilitate later memory.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- Shared effects of one's own and others' experiences during reinforcement learning on episodic memory.NPJ science of learning · 2026Article
- Neural and computational evidence for a predictive learning account of the testing effect.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Reinforcement learning increasingly relates to memory specificity from childhood to adulthood.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Predictive learning as the basis of the testing effect.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Positive affect modulates memory by regulating the influence of reward prediction errors.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Long-term, multi-event surprise correlates with enhanced autobiographical memory.Nature human behaviour · 2023Article
- The effect of prediction error on episodic memory encoding is modulated by the outcome of the predictions.NPJ science of learning · 2023Review
- Beta Oscillations in Monkey Striatum Encode Reward Prediction Error Signals.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Patterns of retrieval-related cortico-striatal connectivity are stable across the adult lifespan.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2023Article
- The subjective feeling of a gap between conceptual and perceptual fluency is interpreted as a metacognitive signal of pastness.Cognitive processing · 2023Article
- An Adaptive Motivation Approach to Understanding the 'How' and 'Why' of Wellbeing.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Reward prediction errors drive declarative learning irrespective of agency.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2021Article
- A predictive account of how novelty influences declarative memory.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2021Article
- The impact of musical pleasure and musical hedonia on verbal episodic memory.Scientific reports · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recent behavioral evidence implicates reward prediction errors (RPEs) as a key factor in the acquisition of episodic memory. Yet, important neural predictions related to the role of RPEs in episodic memory acquisition remain to be tested. Humans (both sexes) performed a novel variable-choice task where we experimentally manipulated RPEs and found support for key neural predictions with fMRI. Our results show that in line with previous behavioral observations, episodic memory accuracy increases with the magnitude of signed (i.e., better/worse-than-expected) RPEs (SRPEs). Neurally, we observe that SRPEs are encoded in the ventral striatum (VS). Crucially, we demonstrate through mediation analysis that activation in the VS mediates the experimental manipulation of SRPEs on episodic memory accuracy. In particular, SRPE-based responses in the VS (during learning) predict the strength of subsequent episodic memory (during recollection). Furthermore, functional connectivity between task-relevant processing areas (i.e., face-selective areas) and hippocampus and ventral striatum increased as a function of RPE value (during learning), suggesting a central role of these areas in episodic memory formation. Our results consolidate reinforcement learning theory and striatal RPEs as key factors subtending the formation of episodic memory.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.