2017

Learning & Reward

The Brain Prize for 2017 is jointly awarded to Peter Dayan, Ray Dolan and Wolfram Schultz for 'their multidisciplinary analysis of brain mechanisms that link learning to reward, which has far-reaching implications for the understanding of human behaviour, including disorders of decision-making in conditions such as gambling, drug addiction, compulsive behaviour and schizophrenia.’

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Brain Prize Films Educational Content

The Brain Prize Winners 2017

Brain Prize 2017 Explainer film:

Reward prediction error, dopamine and happiness. Imagine two students receiving the same grade in an exam but one expected to do better while the other expected to do worse than they did. One student will be happy, while the other is sad. This reveals that it is not just the outcome, but also our expectations that determine how we feel. Ray Dolan describes how the brain compares our expectations with outcomes to generate a reward prediction error and a release of dopamine that determines our subjective state of happiness.

Brain Prize 2017 Portrait film:

Peter Dayan, Wolfram Schultz and Ray Dolan describe how the difference between what we predict will happen and what actually happens leads to a prediction error signal in the brain. They describe their research to understand how and where in the brain these signals are generated and how they help us learn to more accurately predict the outcomes of our actions.

Educational

The work of The Brain Prize winners of 2017 has implications for the understanding of disorders of decision-making under conditions such as gambling, drug addiction, and compulsive behaviour. To obtain free educational material about substance use disorders visit Neurotorium, a free online knowledge platform on the brain and its diseases. Here you will find slide decks covering the history of substance use, diagnosis, prognosis, burden of disease and more. At Neurotorium you can also find an interactive 3D brain atlas, downloadable power point slides, images, articles and more. All content is scientifically reviewed, and the platform is overseen by an editorial board consisting of leading experts. Neurotorium is founded by the Lundbeck Foundation.