Punishments Enhance Reward Learning by Modulating Striatal Prediction Errors

Abstract

People often make decisions in contexts where rewards and punishments co-occur, yet most human research still examines reward and punishment learning as independent processes. Here, across three studies, we address this gap by demonstrating that punishments amplify reward learning and its neural correlates in healthy human participants. In Study 1 ( N  = 102, 69 females and 33 males), participants performed a probabilistic learning task involving monetary rewards and punishments presented in either intermixed or separated contexts. In intermixed contexts, punishments enhanced reward learning accompanied by changes in computational parameters, including higher learning rates from reward prediction errors. In Study 2 ( N  = 26, 18 females and 8 males), fMRI revealed that punishments amplified reward prediction errors signals in the caudate. Study 3, an fMRI meta-analysis, confirmed that striatal reward responses are consistently stronger when punishments are present. Across studies, we found no reciprocal enhancement of punishment learning by rewards. Together, these findings demonstrate that punishments sharpen reward learning through striatal modulation and underscore the extent to which reward learning is influenced by its broader outcome context.