• Intermittent Absence of Control during Reinforcement Learning Interferes with Pavlovian Bias in Action Selection 

      Csifcsak, Gabor; Melsæter, Eirik; Mittner, Matthias (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2020-03-02)
      The ability to control the occurrence of rewarding and punishing events is crucial for our well-being. Two ways to optimize performance are to follow heuristics like Pavlovian biases to approach reward and avoid loss or to rely more on slowly accumulated stimulus–action associations. Although reduced control over outcomes has been linked to suboptimal decision-making in clinical conditions associated ...
    • Transcranial direct-current stimulation enhances Pavlovian tendencies during intermittent loss of control 

      Sedlinská, Terezie; Bolte, Lara; Melsæter, Eirik; Mittner, Matthias Bodo; Csifcsak, Gabor (Journal article; Tidsskriftartikkel; Peer reviewed, 2023-05-09)
      Introduction: Pavlovian bias is an innate motivational tendency to approach rewards and remain passive in the face of punishment. The relative reliance on Pavlovian valuation has been found to increase when the perceived control over environmental reinforcers is compromised, leading to behavior resembling learned helplessness (LH).<p> <p>Methods: Sixty healthy young adults underwent a Go-NoGo ...