Force of habit: Stress hormones switch off areas of the brain for goal-directed behaviour

RUB publication: Combination of 2 stress hormones is responsible

2012-07-26

(Press-News.org) Cognition psychologists at the Ruhr-Universität together with colleagues from the University Hospital Bergmannsheil (Prof. Dr. Martin Tegenthoff) have discovered why stressed persons are more likely to lapse back into habits than to behave goal-directed. The team of PD Dr. Lars Schwabe and Prof. Dr. Oliver Wolf from the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have mimicked a stress situation in the body using drugs. They then examined the brain activity using functional MRI scanning. The researchers have now reported in the Journal of Neuroscience that the interaction of the stress hormones hydrocortisone and noradrenaline shut down the activity of brain regions for goal-directed behaviour. The brain regions responsible for habitual behaviour remained unaffected.

Two stress hormones in use

In order to test the different stress hormones, the cognition psychologists used three substances - a placebo, the stress hormone hydrocortisone and yohimbine, which ensures that the stress hormone noradrenaline stays active longer. Part of the volunteers received hydrocortisone alone or just yohimbine, others both substances. A fourth group were administered a placebo. Altogether, the data of 69 volunteers was included in the study.

Goal-directed behaviour and habits investigated in the experiment

In the experiment, all participants - both male and female - learned that they would receive cocoa or orange juice as a reward if they chose certain symbols on the computer. After this learning phase, volunteers were allowed to eat as many oranges or as much chocolate pudding as they liked. "That weakens the value of the reward", explained Schwabe. "Whoever eats chocolate pudding will lose the attraction to cocoa. Whoever is satiated with oranges, has less appetite for orange juice." In this context, goal-directed behaviour means: Whoever has previously eaten the chocolate pudding, chooses the symbols leading to cocoa reward less frequently. Whoever is satiated with oranges, selects less frequently the symbols associated with orange juice. Based on previous results, the scientists assumed that only the combination of yohimbine and hydrocortisone attenuates goal-directed behaviour. They have now confirmed this hypothesis.

Combined effect of yohimbine and hydrocortisone

As expected, volunteers who took yohimbine and hydrocortisone did not behave goal-directed but according to habit. In other words, satiation with oranges or chocolate pudding had no effect. Persons who had taken a placebo or only one medication, on the other hand, behaved goal-directed and showed a satiating effect. The brain data revealed: The combination of yohimbine and hydrocortisone reduced the activity in the forebrain – in the so-called orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex. These areas have been already previously associated with goal-directed behaviour. The brain regions which are important for habitual learning, on the other hand, were similarly active for all volunteers.

### Bibliographic record

L. Schwabe, M. Tegenthoff, O. Höffken, O.Wolf (2012): Simultaneous glucocorticoid and Noradrenergic activity disrupts the neural basis of goal-directed action in the human brain, Journal of Neuroscience, doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1304-12.2012

Further information

PD Dr. Lars Schwabe, Cognition Psychology, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty for Psychology at the Ruhr-Universität, 44780 Bochum, Germany, Tel. +49/234/32-29324 Lars.Schwabe@rub.de

Click for more

Earlier press release on this subject http://aktuell.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pm2011/pm00383.html.en

Cognitive Psychology at RUB http://www.cog.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/index.html

Editor: Dr. Julia Weiler

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Women have a poorer quality of life after a stroke or mini stroke than men

2012-07-26

Having a stroke or mini stroke has a much more profound effect on women than men when it comes to their quality of life, according to research published in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing. Swedish researchers at Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm, asked all patients attending an out-patient clinic over a 16-month period to complete the Nottingham Health Profile, a generic quality of life survey used to measure subjective physical, emotional and social aspects of health. A total of 496 patients agreed to take part – 379 were stroke patients and 117 had ...

Research charts growing threats to biodiversity 'arks'

2012-07-26

Many of the world's tropical protected areas are struggling to sustain their biodiversity, according to a study by more than 200 scientists from around the world. But the study published in Nature includes research focusing on a reserve in Tanzania by University of York scientists that indicates that long-term engagement with conservation has positive results Dr Andy Marshall, of the Environment Department at York and Director of Conservation Science at Flamingo Land, compared the data he collected in the Udzungwa mountains with data collected more than 20 years previously ...

Aesop's Fable unlocks how we think

2012-07-26

Cambridge scientists have used an age-old fable to help illustrate how we think differently to other animals. Lucy Cheke, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge's Department of Experimental Psychology expanded Aesop's fable into three tasks of varying complexity and compared the performance of Eurasian Jays with local school children. The task that set the children apart from the Jays involved a mechanism which was counter-intuitive as it was hidden under an opaque surface. Neither the birds nor the children were able to learn how the mechanism worked, but the ...

Obama needs to show Americans he's still 'one of them'

2012-07-26

To win a second term in office, President Obama needs to persuade voters that he is still one of them – and recapture some of the charisma that help propel him to the top four years ago. However, this is clearly a challenge given the economic difficulties facing many Americans. Writing in Scientific American Mind, Professors Alex Haslam of the University of Exeter and Stephen Reicher of St Andrews describe how presenting themselves as 'one of us' is central to leaders being seen as a charismatic. Rather than being an inherent personal quality, they identify charisma ...

With the crisis, less money is wagered but more people play

2012-07-26

This press release is available in Spanish. VIDEO: Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have recently published a report which analyzes the impact of the economic crisis on gambling and the social perception of games of... Click here for more information. Scientists from the Institute of Policy and Governance (whose initials in Spanish are IPOLGOB) at the UC3M have ...

Cyberbullying: 1 in 2 victims suffer from the distribution of embarrassing photos and videos

2012-07-26

This press release is available in German. Embarrassing personal photos and videos circulating in the Internet: researchers at Bielefeld University have discovered that young people who fall victim to cyberbullying or cyber harassment suffer most when fellow pupils make them objects of ridicule by distributing photographic material. According to an online survey published on Thursday 19 July, about half of the victims feel very stressed or severely stressed by this type of behaviour. 1,881 schoolchildren living in Germany took part in the survey conducted by the ...

Key function of protein discovered for obtaining blood stem cells as source for transplants

2012-07-26

Researchers from IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) have deciphered the function executed by a protein called β-catenin in generating blood tissue stem cells. These cells, also called haematopoietic, are used as a source for transplants that form part of the therapies to fight different types of leukaemia. The results obtained will open the doors to produce these stem cells in the laboratory and, thus, improve the quality and quantity of these surgical procedures. This will let patients with no compatible donors be able to benefit from this discovery ...

2 Solar System puzzles solved

2012-07-26

Washington, D.C.— Comets and asteroids preserve the building blocks of our Solar System and should help explain its origin. But there are unsolved puzzles. For example, how did icy comets obtain particles that formed at high temperatures, and how did these refractory particles acquire rims with different compositions? Carnegie's theoretical astrophysicist Alan Boss and cosmochemist Conel Alexander* are the first to model the trajectories of such particles in the unstable disk of gas and dust that formed the Solar System. They found that these refractory particles could ...

Forest carbon monitoring breakthrough in Colombia

2012-07-26

Washington, D.C.—Using new, highly efficient techniques, Carnegie and Colombian scientists have developed accurate high-resolution maps of the carbon stocks locked in tropical vegetation for 40% of the Colombian Amazon (165,000 square kilometers/64,000 square miles), an area about four times the size of Switzerland. Until now, the inability to accurately quantify carbon stocks at high spatial resolution over large areas has hindered the United Nations' Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program, which is aimed at creating financial value ...

Local weather patterns affect beliefs about global warming, NYU and Temple researchers find

2012-07-26

Local weather patterns temporarily influence people's beliefs about evidence for global warming, according to research by political scientists at New York University and Temple University. Their study, which appears in the Journal of Politics, found that those living in places experiencing warmer-than-normal temperatures at the time they were surveyed were significantly more likely than others to say there is evidence for global warming. "Global climate change is one of the most important public policy challenges of our time, but it is a complex issue with which Americans ...

Force of habit: Stress hormones switch off areas of the brain for goal-directed behaviour

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: