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Behavioural Brain Research Jan 2020Learning from feedback is one of the key mechanisms within cognitive flexibility, which is needed to react swiftly to constantly changing environments. The motivation to...
Learning from feedback is one of the key mechanisms within cognitive flexibility, which is needed to react swiftly to constantly changing environments. The motivation to change behavior is highly dependent on the expectancy of positive (reward) or negative (punishment) feedback. Individuals with conduct disorder (CD) with high callous unemotional traits show decreased sensitivity to negative feedback and increased reward seeking. Previous studies have modeled traits associated with CD (i.e. heightened aggression and anti-social behavior) in BALB/cJ mice (compared to the BALB/cByJ mouse as controls). Based on these findings, we hypothesized reduced negative feedback-related cognitive flexibility to be present in BALB/cJ mice. The effect of negative feedback and reward sensitivity on cognitive flexibility in BALB/cJ and BALB/cByJ mice was examined in a reversal learning paradigm. BALB/cJ mice were more flexible in the acquisition of new contingencies under rewarding conditions compared to BALB/cByJ mice, while the presence of an aversive punishing stimulus decreased their learning performance. Additionally, BALB/cJ mice needed more correction trials to reach the reversal learning criterion. This was accompanied by a higher rate of perseverance, which could represent impaired error detection. The addition of a second punishment enhanced punishment sensitivity in BALB/cJ mice. In contrast, the performance of the BALB/cByJ mice was not affected by additional negative feedback. Taken together, the BALB/cJ can be considered to be less sensitive to learn from negative feedback and therefore may be a useful model to further characterize molecular and neural underpinnings of callous unemotional traits in CD.
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Conditioning, Operant; Feedback, Psychological; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Punishment; Reversal Learning; Reward
PubMed: 31626850
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112294 -
PloS One 2018Violence against youth is a global issue; one form of youth victimization is school corporal punishment. We use baseline assessments from a cluster randomized controlled... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
Violence against youth is a global issue; one form of youth victimization is school corporal punishment. We use baseline assessments from a cluster randomized controlled trial to examine the prevalence of school corporal punishment, by gender, and the relationship to levels of peer violence at school, parent corporal punishment, youth food security and youth academic performance and school attendance in Pakistan. Forty homogenous public schools in the urban city of Hyderabad, Pakistan were chosen for randomization into the trial evaluating a youth violence prevention intervention. 1752 6th graders, age 11-14 years, were selected as the target population. Since schools are segregated by gender in Pakistan, data are from interviews in 20 boys' schools and 20 girls' schools. Overall, 91.4% of boys and 60.9% of girls reported corporal punishment at school in the previous 4 weeks and 60.3% of boys had been physically punished at home in the past 4 weeks compared to 37.1% of girls. Structural equation modeling revealed one direct pathway for both boys and girls from food insecurity to corporal punishment at school while indirect pathways were mediated by depression, the number of days missed from school and school performance and for boys also by engagement in peer violence. Exposure to corporal punishment in school and from parents differs by gender, but in both boys and girls poverty in the form of food insecurity was an important risk factor, with the result that poorer children are victimized more by adults.
Topics: Adolescent; Child; Female; Humans; Male; Models, Theoretical; Pakistan; Prevalence; Punishment; Schools
PubMed: 30356245
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206032 -
Nature Communications Apr 2016Socially imposed monogamy in humans is an evolutionary puzzle because it requires costly punishment by those who impose the norm. Moreover, most societies were--and...
Socially imposed monogamy in humans is an evolutionary puzzle because it requires costly punishment by those who impose the norm. Moreover, most societies were--and are--polygynous; yet many larger human societies transitioned from polygyny to socially imposed monogamy beginning with the advent of agriculture and larger residential groups. We use a simulation model to explore how interactions between group size, sexually transmitted infection (STI) dynamics and social norms can explain the timing and emergence of socially imposed monogamy. Polygyny dominates when groups are too small to sustain STIs. However, in larger groups, STIs become endemic (especially in concurrent polygynist networks) and have an impact on fertility, thereby mediating multilevel selection. Punishment of polygynists improves monogamist fitness within groups by reducing their STI exposure, and between groups by enabling punishing monogamist groups to outcompete polygynists. This suggests pathways for the emergence of socially imposed monogamy, and enriches our understanding of costly punishment evolution.
Topics: Adult; Computer Simulation; Female; Fertility; History, 21st Century; History, Ancient; History, Medieval; Humans; Male; Marriage; Models, Psychological; Punishment; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Partners; Sexually Transmitted Diseases; Social Norms
PubMed: 27044573
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11219 -
PloS One 2014Allowing players to punish their opponents in Public Goods Game sustains cooperation within a group and thus brings advantage to the cooperative individuals. However,...
BACKGROUND
Allowing players to punish their opponents in Public Goods Game sustains cooperation within a group and thus brings advantage to the cooperative individuals. However, the possibility of punishment of the co-players can result in antisocial punishment, the punishment of those players who contribute the most in the group. To better understand why antisocial punishment exists, it must be determined who are the anti-social punishers and who are their primary targets.
METHODS
For resolving these questions we increased the number of players in a group from usual four to twelve. Each group played six rounds of the standard Public Goods Game and six rounds of the Public Goods Game with punishment. Each player in each round received 20 CZK ($ 1.25). Players (N = 118) were rematched after each round so that they would not take into consideration opponents' past behavior.
RESULTS
The amount of the punishment received correlated negatively with the contribution (ρ = -0.665, p<0.001). However, this correlation was positive for players in the highest contributors-quartile (ρ = 0.254, p<0.001). Therefore, the graph of relation between the contribution given and punishment obtained was U-shaped (R2 = 0.678, p<0.001) with the inflection point near the left boarder of the upper quartile. The antisocial punishment was present in all groups, and in eight out of ten groups the Justine Effect (the positive correlation between the contribution to the public pool and the risk of suffering punishment in the subpopulation of altruistic players) emerged. In our sample, 22.5% subjects, all of them Free riders and low contributors, punished the altruistic players.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of our experimental game-study revealed the existence of the Justine effect--the positive correlation between the contribution to the public pool by a subpopulation of the most altruistic players, and the amount of punishment these players obtained from free-riders.
Topics: Altruism; Cooperative Behavior; Game Theory; Humans; Punishment; Social Justice
PubMed: 24670974
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092336 -
Psychophysiology Jul 2022Mistakes can lead to aversive outcomes. Error monitoring may help prevent mistakes, but it might be maladaptive for individuals who lack control over aversive outcomes,...
Mistakes can lead to aversive outcomes. Error monitoring may help prevent mistakes, but it might be maladaptive for individuals who lack control over aversive outcomes, as it consumes cognitive processing resources that could be allocated elsewhere. Here, we examined the effect of agency (i.e., control over punishment) on error monitoring using the error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential measure of error monitoring and error rate. Ninety unselected participants performed a flanker task in which they were shocked according to their own errors (controllable punishment, n = 47) or were shocked in accordance with another participant's errors (uncontrollable punishment, n = 43). Participants without agency over punishment showed smaller ERNs and higher error rates compared with participants with agency. Furthermore, punishment only reduced error rates for participants with agency. Together, these results provide the first experimental evidence that agency modulates error monitoring and suggest an adaptive process in which error monitoring is increased/decreased depending on its utility.
Topics: Affect; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials; Humans; Psychomotor Performance; Punishment; Reaction Time
PubMed: 35128675
DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14011 -
Behavioral Sciences & the Law Nov 2022This study examines how formal education in biological and behavioral sciences may impact punishment intuitions (views on criminal sentencing, free will, responsibility,...
This study examines how formal education in biological and behavioral sciences may impact punishment intuitions (views on criminal sentencing, free will, responsibility, and dangerousness) in cases involving neurobiological evidence. In a survey experiment, we compared intuitions between biobehavioral science and non-science university graduates by presenting them with a baseline case without a neurobiological explanation for offending followed by one of two cases with a neurobiological explanation (described as either innate or acquired biological influences to offending). An ordinal logistic regression indicated that both science and non-science graduates selected significantly more severe punishments for the baseline case as compared to when an innate neurobiological explanation for offending was provided. However, across all cases, science graduates selected significantly less severe sentences than non-science graduates, and only science graduates' decisions were mediated by free will and responsibility attributions. Findings are discussed in relation to scientific understandings of behavior, the impact of science education on attitudes towards punishment, and potential criminal-legal implications.
Topics: Humans; Criminals; Biobehavioral Sciences; Punishment; Law Enforcement; Attitude; Criminal Law
PubMed: 35978472
DOI: 10.1002/bsl.2588 -
Nature Communications Mar 2022Learning about positive and negative outcomes of actions is crucial for survival and underpinned by conserved circuits including the striatum. How associations between...
Learning about positive and negative outcomes of actions is crucial for survival and underpinned by conserved circuits including the striatum. How associations between actions and outcomes are formed is not fully understood, particularly when the outcomes have mixed positive and negative features. We developed a novel foraging ('bandit') task requiring mice to maximize rewards while minimizing punishments. By 2-photon Ca imaging, we monitored activity of visually identified anterodorsal striatal striosomal and matrix neurons. We found that action-outcome associations for reward and punishment were encoded in parallel in partially overlapping populations. Single neurons could, for one action, encode outcomes of opposing valence. Striosome compartments consistently exhibited stronger representations of reinforcement outcomes than matrix, especially for high reward or punishment prediction errors. These findings demonstrate multiplexing of action-outcome contingencies by single identified striatal neurons and suggest that striosomal neurons are particularly important in action-outcome learning.
Topics: Animals; Corpus Striatum; Mice; Neurons; Punishment; Reinforcement, Psychology; Reward
PubMed: 35318343
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28983-5 -
Journal of Theoretical Biology Mar 2009Punishing defectors is an important means of stabilizing cooperation. When levels of cooperation and punishment are continuous, individuals must employ suitable social...
Punishing defectors is an important means of stabilizing cooperation. When levels of cooperation and punishment are continuous, individuals must employ suitable social standards for defining defectors and for determining punishment levels. Here we investigate the evolution of a social reaction norm, or psychological response function, for determining the punishment level meted out by individuals in dependence on the cooperation level exhibited by their neighbors in a lattice-structured population. We find that (1) cooperation and punishment can undergo runaway selection, with evolution towards enhanced cooperation and an ever more demanding punishment reaction norm mutually reinforcing each other; (2) this mechanism works best when punishment is strict, so that ambiguities in defining defectors are small; (3) when the strictness of punishment can adapt jointly with the threshold and severity of punishment, evolution favors the strict-and-severe punishment of individuals who offer slightly less than average cooperation levels; (4) strict-and-severe punishment naturally evolves and leads to much enhanced cooperation when cooperation without punishment would be weak and neither cooperation nor punishment are too costly; and (5) such evolutionary dynamics enable the bootstrapping of cooperation and punishment, through which defectors who never punish gradually and steadily evolve into cooperators who punish those they define as defectors.
Topics: Animals; Cooperative Behavior; Models, Genetic; Models, Psychological; Punishment; Selection, Genetic; Social Conformity
PubMed: 18838079
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.09.004 -
Brain : a Journal of Neurology Jun 2023Neurons in the primate lateral habenula fire in response to punishments and are inhibited by rewards. Through its modulation of midbrain monoaminergic activity, the...
Neurons in the primate lateral habenula fire in response to punishments and are inhibited by rewards. Through its modulation of midbrain monoaminergic activity, the habenula is believed to play an important role in adaptive behavioural responses to punishment and underlie depressive symptoms and their alleviation with ketamine. However, its role in value-based decision-making in humans is poorly understood due to limitations with non-invasive imaging methods which measure metabolic, not neural, activity with poor temporal resolution. Here, we overcome these limitations to more closely bridge the gap between species by recording local field potentials directly from the habenula in 12 human patients receiving deep brain stimulation treatment for bipolar disorder (n = 4), chronic pain (n = 3), depression (n = 3) and schizophrenia (n = 2). This allowed us to record neural activity during value-based decision-making tasks involving monetary rewards and losses. High-frequency gamma (60-240 Hz) activity, a proxy for population-level spiking involved in cognitive computations, increased during the receipt of loss and decreased during receipt of reward. Furthermore, habenula high gamma also encoded risk during decision-making, being larger in amplitude for high compared to low risk. For both risk and aversion, differences between conditions peaked approximately between 400 and 750 ms after stimulus onset. The findings not only demonstrate homologies with the primate habenula but also extend its role to human decision-making, showing its temporal dynamics and suggesting revisions to current models. The findings suggest that habenula high gamma could be used to optimize real-time closed-loop deep brain stimulation treatment for mood disturbances and impulsivity in psychiatric disorders.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Habenula; Reward; Neurons; Punishment; Schizophrenia
PubMed: 36445730
DOI: 10.1093/brain/awac456 -
Journal of Theoretical Biology Aug 2010The evolution of cooperation is one of the great puzzles in evolutionary biology. Punishment has been suggested as one solution to this problem. Here punishment is...
The evolution of cooperation is one of the great puzzles in evolutionary biology. Punishment has been suggested as one solution to this problem. Here punishment is generally defined as incurring a cost to inflict harm on a wrong-doer. In the presence of punishers, cooperators can gain higher payoffs than non-cooperators. Therefore cooperation may evolve as long as punishment is prevalent in the population. Theoretical models have revealed that spatial structure can favor the co-evolution of punishment and cooperation, by allowing individuals to only play and compete with those in their immediate neighborhood. However, those models have usually assumed that punishment is always targeted at non-cooperators. In light of recent empirical evidence of punishment targeted at cooperators, we relax this assumption and study the effect of so-called 'anti-social punishment'. We find that evolution can favor anti-social punishment, and that when anti-social punishment is possible costly punishment no longer promotes cooperation. As there is no reason to assume that cooperators cannot be the target of punishment during evolution, our results demonstrate serious restrictions on the ability of costly punishment to allow the evolution of cooperation in spatially structured populations. Our results also help to make sense of the empirical observation that defectors will sometimes pay to punish cooperators.
Topics: Biological Evolution; Cooperative Behavior; Female; Humans; Models, Psychological; Punishment
PubMed: 20540952
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.06.010