Power of Feedback-Induced Beta Oscillations Reflect Omission of Rewards: Evidence From an EEG Gambling Study (2018)

Front Neurosci. 2018 Oct 30;12:776. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00776.

Yaple Z1,2, Martinez-Saito M1, Novikov N1,3, Altukhov D1,4,5, Shestakova A1, Klucharev V1.

Abstract

The functional role of high beta oscillations (20-35 Hz) during feedback processing has been suggested to reflect unexpected gains. Using a novel gambling task that separates gains and losses across blocks and directly compares reception of monetary rewards to a ‘no-reward/punishment’ condition with equal probability we aimed to further investigate the role of beta oscillations. When contrasting different feedback conditions across rewards, we found that a late low beta component (12-20 Hz) had increased in power during the omission of rewards relative to the reception of rewards, while no differences were observed during the loss domain. These findings may indicate that late low beta oscillations in the context of feedback processing may respond to omission of gains relative to other potential outcomes. We speculate that late low beta oscillations may operate as a learning mechanism that signals the brain to make future adequate decisions. Overall, our study provides new insights for the role of late low beta oscillations in reward processing.

KEYWORDS: EEG; beta oscillations; feedback; gain omission; prediction error; reward; risky decision making; time-frequency analysis (TFA)

PMID: 30425616

PMCID: PMC6218571

DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00776