%0 Journal Article
%T Translational studies of goal-directed action as a framework for classifying deficits across psychiatric disorders
%A Kristi R. Griffiths
%A Richard W. Morris
%A Bernard W. Balleine
%J Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
%D 2014
%I Frontiers Media
%R 10.3389/fnsys.2014.00101
%X The ability to learn contingencies between actions and outcomes in a dynamic environment is critical for flexible, adaptive behavior. Goal-directed actions adapt to changes in action-outcome contingencies as well as to changes in the reward-value of the outcome. When networks involved in reward processing and contingency learning are maladaptive, this fundamental ability can be lost, with detrimental consequences for decision-making. Impaired decision-making is a core feature in a number of psychiatric disorders, ranging from depression to schizophrenia. The argument can be developed, therefore, that seemingly disparate symptoms across psychiatric disorders can be explained by dysfunction within common decision-making circuitry. From this perspective, gaining a better understanding of the neural processes involved in goal-directed action, will allow a comparison of deficits observed across traditional diagnostic boundaries within a unified theoretical framework. This review describes the key processes and neural circuits involved in goal-directed decision-making using evidence from animal studies and human neuroimaging. Select studies are discussed to outline what we currently know about causal judgments regarding actions and their consequences, action-related reward evaluation, and, most importantly, how these processes are integrated in goal-directed learning and performance. Finally, we look at how adaptive decision-making is impaired across a range of psychiatric disorders and how deepening our understanding of this circuitry may offer insights into phenotypes and more targeted interventions.
%K goal-directed action
%K basal ganglia
%K amygdala
%K schizophrenia
%K ADHD
%K depression
%U http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnsys.2014.00101/abstract