Learning from feedback
Reinforcement learning
Also searched as Reinforcement learning.
In depth
A subdomain of executive function: adjusting behavior based on reward and punishment received. Distinct from decision-making itself — vmPFC patients keep choosing losing decks even after repeated losses.
What drives it
Motivation increases it.
Verbatim: 'Dopamine level reduction in unmedicated Parkinson's Disease patients has been shown to lead to a negative learning bias, i.e. enhanced learning from negative feedback.' (10.1371/journal.pone.0050250). Tier: human observational data. human · unmedicated Parkinson's Disease (endogenous dopamine reduction), no drug administered by the authors · n = 19 PD patients and 40 healthy controls · between-group design. doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0050250
What it drives
It increases Executive function.
The DSM-5 Neurocognitive Work Group agreed on six principal domains of cognitive function, each with subdomains. Executive function comprises planning, decision making, working memory, responding to feedback, inhibition and cognitive flexibility. Taxonomic edge, not a causal mechanism: this is a DSM-5 domain/subdomain relationship, not a pathway acting on another. Sachdev 2014, Nat Rev Neurol 10:634-642 — Classifying neurocognitive disorders: the DSM-5 approach. doi 10.1038/nrneurol.2014.181
It increases Decision making.
10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1307408 — while the control group increased their net score by selecting more advantageous decks across time, those with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) damage continued in selecting from disadvantageous…. doi 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1307408 · PMC11961917
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.