Leveraging individual differences in cue-reward learning to investigate the psychological and neural basis of shared psychiatric symptomatology: The sign-tracker/goal-tracker model.

In our modern environment, we are bombarded with stimuli or cues that exert significant influence over our actions. The extent to which such cues attain control over or disrupt goal-directed behavior is dependent on several factors, including one's inherent tendencies. Using a rodent model, we have shown that individuals vary in the value they place on stimuli associated with reward. Some individuals, termed "goal-trackers," primarily attribute predictive value to reward cues, whereas others, termed "sign-trackers," attribute predictive and incentive value. Thus, for sign-trackers, the reward cue is transformed into an incentive stimulus that is capable of eliciting maladaptive behaviors. The sign-tracker/goal-tracker animal model has allowed us to refine our understanding of behavioral and computational theories related to reward learning and to parse the underlying neural processes. Further, the neurobehavioral profile of sign-trackers is relevant to several psychiatric disorders, including substance use disorder, impulse control disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. This model, therefore, can advance our understanding of the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to individual differences in vulnerability to psychopathology. Notably, initial attempts at translation-capturing individual variability in the propensity to sign-track in humans-have been promising and in line with what we have learned from the animal model. In this review, we highlight the pivotal role played by the sign-tracker/goal-tracker animal model in enriching our understanding of the psychological and neural basis of motivated behavior and psychiatric symptomatology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).