The Interaction Between Learning and Effort-Based Decision-Making: Mechanisms, Structural Brain Correlates, and Links to Neuropsychiatric Symptoms
type: CreativeWork
description: We must learn about the inherent uncertainty in our environment to behave adaptively, and a key aspect of adaptive behaviour includes how we decide to allocate effort when making decisions. How we learn about our environment is therefore necessarily connected to how we make choices about effort. However, the literature on effort choice has largely neglected this connection. Studies have shown that across neuropsychiatric disorders, there are impairments in both learning and effort-based decision-making, though no studies to date have systematically examined whether the translation of learned expectations into effort might account for mood and anxiety disorder symptoms such as apathy and anhedonia. One brain region strongly implicated in both learning and motivated action is the habenula, which sits at the crossroads of the serotonergic learning circuits and dopaminergic control of behaviour. Habenula structural integrity has been implicated in both mood disorders and neurological conditions with co-occurring mood symptoms such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), but the relationship between habenula volume, learning and effortchoice is largely unknown. This thesis will investigate the association between expressions of learning and habenula volume, then present a novel experiment optimised to quantify the interaction between learning and effort decision-making. To investigate the relevance of neuropsychiatric symptoms to these behaviours, we collect data from the general population and a clinical sample before returning to the habenula volume and its relationship to learning and motivated behaviour. v Chapter 1 introduces the ideas that motivate the thesis, including transdiagnostic, computational/precision psychiatry approaches. Followed by a description of the relevant literature on learning, effort-based decision making and their neural basis. Then, the chapter will outline the transdiagnostic, neuropsychiatric relevance of these behaviours. In Chapter 2, the first empi…
abstract: We must learn about the inherent uncertainty in our environment to behave adaptively, and a key aspect of adaptive behaviour includes how we decide to allocate effort when making decisions. How we learn about our environment is therefore necessarily connected to how we make choices about effort. However, the literature on effort choice has largely neglected this connection. Studies have shown that across neuropsychiatric disorders, there are impairments in both learning and effort-based decision-making, though no studies to date have systematically examined whether the translation of learned expectations into effort might account for mood and anxiety disorder symptoms such as apathy and anhedonia. One brain region strongly implicated in both learning and motivated action is the habenula, which sits at the crossroads of the serotonergic learning circuits and dopaminergic control of behaviour. Habenula structural integrity has been implicated in both mood disorders and neurological conditions with co-occurring mood symptoms such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), but the relationship between habenula volume, learning and effortchoice is largely unknown. This thesis will investigate the association between expressions of learning and habenula volume, then present a novel experiment optimised to quantify the interaction between learning and effort decision-making. To investigate the relevance of neuropsychiatric symptoms to these behaviours, we collect data from the general population and a clinical sample before returning to the habenula volume and its relationship to learning and motivated behaviour. v Chapter 1 introduces the ideas that motivate the thesis, including transdiagnostic, computational/precision psychiatry approaches. Followed by a description of the relevant literature on learning, effort-based decision making and their neural basis. Then, the chapter will outline the transdiagnostic, neuropsychiatric relevance of these behaviours. In Chapter 2, the first empi…
author: Guinea, Calum
language: eng
keywords: Anhedonia, Anxiety, Apathy, Cognitive Neuroscience, Computational Psychiatry, Depression, Effort-based decision-making, Habenula, Learning, Mental Health, Motivation, Neuroscience, Parkinson's Disease, Psychology, Structural MRI, Uncertainty
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/1ea256c1-6282-4087-bbaf-c50af4a3a9da/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2025-09-29
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:04Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.125317