Drift diffusion model of reward and punishment learning in rare alpha-synuclein gene carriers

Abstract

To understand the cognitive effects of alpha-synuclein polymorphism, we employed a drift diffusion model (DDM) to analyze reward- and punishment-guided probabilistic learning task data of participants with the rare alpha-synuclein gene duplication and age- and education-matched controls. Overall, the DDM analysis showed that, relative to controls, asymptomatic alpha-synuclein gene duplication carriers had significantly increased learning from negative feedback, while they tended to show impaired learning from positive feedback. No significant differences were found in response caution, response bias, or motor/encoding time. We here discuss the implications of these computational findings to the understanding of the neural mechanism of alpha-synuclein gene duplication.

Keywords:

• Alpha-synuclein gene
• reinforcement learning
• reward
• punishment
• Parkinson’s disease
• drift diffusion model

Disclosure statement

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.