ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2021
Shared and unique neural circuitry underlying temporally unpredictable threat and reward processing.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Resolving temporal threat uncertainty by observational learning involves the amygdala, hippocampus and anterior insula.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Wait for It: Defensive Reactivity and Individual Differences in Contrast Avoidance in the NPU-Reward Task.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- The effect of doll blind box uncertainty on consumers' irrational consumption behavior: the role of instant gratification, Gambler's fallacy, and perceived scarcity.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Altered Effective Connectivity During Threat Anticipation in Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- Insights into Overlapping Brain Networks for Anxiety and Alcohol Use Disorders.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Behavioral and brain reactivity to uncertain stress prospectively predicts binge drinking in youth.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Intolerance of Uncertainty and Cognition in Breast Cancer Survivors: The Mediating Role of Anxiety.Cancers · 2023Article
- Intolerance of uncertainty and functional connectivity of the anterior insula during anticipation of unpredictable reward.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2023Article
- Large-scale neural network computations and multivariate representations during approach-avoidance conflict decision-making.NeuroImage · 2022Article
- Association between startle reactivity to uncertain threats and structural brain volume.Psychophysiology · 2022Article
- Neural and Self-report Measures of Sensitivity to Uncertainty as Predictors of COVID-Related Negative Affect.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Temporally unpredictable stimuli influence behavior across species, as previously demonstrated for sequences of simple threats and rewards with fixed or variable onset. Neuroimaging studies have identified a specific frontolimbic circuit that may become engaged during the anticipation of temporally unpredictable threat (U-threat). However, the neural mechanisms underlying processing of temporally unpredictable reward (U-reward) are incompletely understood. It is also unclear whether these processes are mediated by overlapping or distinct neural systems. These knowledge gaps are noteworthy given that disruptions within these neural systems may lead to maladaptive response to uncertainty. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging data from a sample of 159 young adults, we showed that anticipation of both U-threat and U-reward elicited activation in the right anterior insula, right ventral anterior nucleus of the thalamus and right inferior frontal gyrus. U-threat also activated the right posterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, relative to U-reward. In contrast, U-reward elicited activation in the right fusiform and left middle occipital gyrus, relative to U-threat. Although there is some overlap in the neural circuitry underlying anticipation of U-threat and U-reward, these processes appear to be largely mediated by distinct circuits. Future studies are needed to corroborate and extend these preliminary findings.
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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.