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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access originally published online on January 27, 2009
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2009 4(2):158-165; doi:10.1093/scan/nsn051
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Anticipation of monetary and social reward differently activates mesolimbic brain structures in men and women

Katja N. Spreckelmeyer1,*, Sören Krach2,*, Gregor Kohls3, Lena Rademacher1, Arda Irmak1, Kerstin Konrad3, Tilo Kircher2 and Gerhard Gründer1

1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, 2Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Rudolf-Bultmann-Straße 8, D-35039 Marburg and 3Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Child Neuropsychology Section, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Motivation for goal-directed behaviour largely depends on the expected value of the anticipated reward. The aim of the present study was to examine how different levels of reward value are coded in the brain for two common forms of human reward: money and social approval. To account for gender differences 16 male and 16 female participants performed an incentive delay task expecting to win either money or positive social feedback. fMRI recording during the anticipation phase revealed proportional activation of neural structures constituting the human reward system for increasing levels of reward, independent of incentive type. However, in men activation in the prospect of monetary rewards encompassed a wide network of mesolimbic brain regions compared to only limited activation for social rewards. In contrast, in women, anticipation of either incentive type activated identical brain regions. Our findings represent an important step towards a better understanding of motivated behaviour by taking into account individual differences in reward valuation.

Keywords: anticipation; social reward; monetary reward; gender; nucleus accumbens

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Katja Spreckelmeyer, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, Germany, Email: kspreckelmeyer{at}ukaachen.de

*These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received August 12, 2008. Accepted December 4, 2008.


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