Jeff Dennison

Jeff Dennison

Early researcher interested in how the brain responds to rewards and makes supports decision-making.

Posts by Collection

portfolio

publications

Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams

Published in Nature, 2020

Data analysis workflows in many scientific domains have become increasingly complex and flexible. Here we assess the effect of this flexibility on the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging by asking 70 independent teams to analyse the same dataset, testing the same 9 ex-ante hypotheses1. The flexibility of analytical approaches is exemplified by the fact that no two teams chose identical workflows to analyse the data. This flexibility resulted in sizeable variation in the results of hypothesis tests, even for teams whose statistical maps were highly correlated at intermediate stages of the analysis pipeline. Variation in reported results was related to several aspects of analysis methodology. Notably, a meta-analytical approach that aggregated information across teams yielded a significant consensus in activated regions. Furthermore, prediction markets of researchers in the field revealed an overestimation of the likelihood of significant findings, even by researchers with direct knowledge of the dataset2,3,4,5. Our findings show that analytical flexibility can have substantial effects on scientific conclusions, and identify factors that may be related to variability in the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results emphasize the importance of validating and sharing complex analysis workflows, and demonstrate the need for performing and reporting multiple analyses of the same data. Potential approaches that could be used to mitigate issues related to analytical variability are discussed.

Recommended citation: Botvinik-Nezer, R., Holzmeister, F., Camerer, C. F., Dreber, A., Huber, J., Johannesson, M., ... & Rieck, J. R. (2020). Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams. Nature, 582(7810), 84-88. http://academicpages.github.io/files/paper1.pdf

The Role of Social Reward and Corticostriatal Connectivity in Substance Use - PMC

Published in J. Psychiatric Brain Sci., 2020

This report describes an ongoing R03 grant that explores the links between trait reward sensitivity, substance use, and neural responses to social and nonsocial reward. Although previous research has shown that trait reward sensitivity and neural responses to reward are linked to substance use, whether this relationship is impacted by how people process social stimuli remains unclear. We are investigating these questions via a neuroimaging study with college-aged participants, using individual difference measures that examine the relation between substance use, social context, and trait reward sensitivity with tasks that measure reward anticipation, strategic behavior, social reward consumption, and the influence of social context on reward processing. We predict that substance use will be tied to distinct patterns of striatal dysfunction. Specifically, reward hyposensitive individuals will exhibit blunted striatal responses to social and non-social reward and enhanced connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex; in contrast, reward hypersensitive individuals will exhibit enhanced striatal responses to social and non-social reward and blunted connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex. We also will examine the relation between self-reported reward sensitivity, substance use, and striatal responses to social reward and social context. We predict that individuals reporting the highest levels of substance use will show exaggerated striatal responses to social reward and social context, independent of self-reported reward sensitivity. Examining corticostriatal responses to reward processing will help characterize the relation between reward sensitivity, social context and substance use while providing a foundation for understanding risk factors and isolating neurocognitive mechanisms that may be targeted to increase the efficacy of interventions.

Recommended citation: Sazhin, D., Frazier, A. M., Haynes, C. R., Johnston, C. R., Chat, I. K. Y., Dennison, J. B., ... & Smith, D. V. (2020). The role of social reward and corticostriatal connectivity in substance use. Journal of psychiatry and brain science, 5. http://academicpages.github.io/files/paper2.pdf

Inflammatory Signaling and Corticostriatal Functional Connectivity to Anticipated Valence and Salience of Reward and Threat Stimuli: An Investigation in Depressed vs. Non-Depressed Young Adults

Published in Biological Psychiatry, 2021

Growing research suggests that low-grade inflammatory signaling is associated with neural abnormalities in processing reward and threat cues, with the relationship differing for depressed individuals. No studies have addressed whether the valence or salience of these cues characterizes the abnormalities. Thus, this study examined whether inflammation is associated with distinct neural patterns as a function of anticipated cue valence and salience among individuals with and without depression.

Recommended citation: Chat, I. K. Y., Bart, C., Dennison, J., Smith, D., Miller, G., Nusslock, R., & Alloy, L. (2021). Inflammatory Signaling and Corticostriatal Functional Connectivity to Anticipated Valence and Salience of Reward and Threat Stimuli: An Investigation in Depressed vs. Non-Depressed Young Adults. Biological Psychiatry, 89(9), S298-S299. http://academicpages.github.io/files/paper3.pdf

Decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics: Recent progress and ongoing challenges

Published in WIREs Cognitive Science, 2022

In the past decade, decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics have developed many new insights in the study of decision making. This review provides an overarching update on how the field has advanced in this time period. Although our initial review a decade ago outlined several theoretical, conceptual, methodological, empirical, and practical challenges, there has only been limited progress in resolving these challenges. We summarize significant trends in decision neuroscience through the lens of the challenges outlined for the field and review examples where the field has had significant, direct, and applicable impacts across economics and psychology. First, we review progress on topics including reward learning, explore–exploit decisions, risk and ambiguity, intertemporal choice, and valuation. Next, we assess the impacts of emotion, social rewards, and social context on decision making. Then, we follow up with how individual differences impact choices and new exciting developments in the prediction and neuroforecasting of future decisions. Finally, we consider how trends in decision-neuroscience research reflect progress toward resolving past challenges, discuss new and exciting applications of recent research, and identify new challenges for the field.

Recommended citation: Dennison, J. B., Sazhin, D., & Smith, D. V. (2022). Decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics: Recent progress and ongoing challenges. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 13(3), e1589. http://academicpages.github.io/files/paper4.pdf

Substance use is related to differential activation and connectivity for social relative to monetary rewards

Published in BioRxiv, 2023

Substance use (SU) has been linked to alterations in reward processing in the ventral striatum (VS). However, less is known about how SU relates to striatal activation and connectivity during social rewards (e.g., positive peer feedback). In this pre-registered study, we hypothesized that SU would be associated with activation and functional connectivity of the VS during receipt of social rewards. Participants (N=44) underwent two fMRI tasks to isolate neural response to social and monetary rewards. The tasks involved choosing between two stimuli: either two purported peers, with the goal of identifying the peer who liked the participant (social); or two doors, with the goal of identifying the door containing a $0.50 prize (monetary). We predicted that VS activation in response to social rewards would be correlated with SU, independent of reward sensitivity (RS); however, an exploratory whole-brain analysis revealed SU was related to activation in the temporoparietal junction instead. Moreover, results showed that aberrant RS blunts the relationship between SU and striatal activation during receipt of rewards, regardless of their domain. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis demonstrated that SU was associated with decreased connectivity between the VS and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex for social rewards, independent of RS. Exploratory analyses further revealed that RS is associated with increased connectivity between the VS and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during social rewards. Taken together, these findings shed light on the relationships between potential risk factors for developing substance use disorder.

Recommended citation: Wyngaarden III, J. B., Johnston, C. R., Sazhin, D., Dennison, J. B., Zaff, O., Fareri, D., ... & Jarcho, J. M. (2023). Substance use is related to differential activation and connectivity for social relative to monetary rewards. BioRxiv, 2023-01. http://academicpages.github.io/files/paper5.pdf

Tensorial Independent Component Analysis Reveals Social and Reward Networks Associated with Major Depressive Disorder

Published in BioRxiv, 2023

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with changes in functional brain connectivity. Yet, typical analyses of functional connectivity, such as spatial ICA for resting-state data, often ignore sources of between-subject variability, which may be crucial for identifying functional connectivity patterns associated with MDD. Typically, methods like spatial ICA will identify a single component to represent a network like the default mode network (DMN), even if groups within the data show differential DMN coactivation. To address this gap, this project applies a tensorial extension of ICA (tensorial ICA) – which explicitly incorporates between-subject variability – to identify functionally connected networks using fMRI data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). Data from the HCP included individuals with a diagnosis of MDD, a family history of MDD, and healthy controls performing a gambling and social cognition task. Based on evidence associating MDD with blunted neural activation to rewards and social stimuli, we predicted that tensorial ICA would identify networks associated with reduced spatio-temporal coherence and blunted social and reward-based network activity in MDD. Across both tasks, tensorial ICA identified three networks showing decreased coherence in MDD. All three networks included ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), striatum, and cerebellum and showed different activation across the conditions of their respective tasks. However, MDD was only associated with differences in task-based activation in one network from the social task. Additionally, these results suggest that tensorial ICA could be a valuable tool for understanding clinical differences in relation to network activation and connectivity.

Recommended citation: Dennison, J. B., Tepfer, L. J., & Smith, D. V. (2022). Tensorial Independent Component Analysis Reveals Social and Reward Networks Associated with Major Depressive Disorder. bioRxiv, 2022-08. http://academicpages.github.io/files/paper6.pdf

talks

Published:

Reward-Dependent Corticostriatal Connectivity: A PPI Meta Analysis

Published:

Connectivity between the striatum and prefrontal cortex (PFC), key hubs of reward processing (Bartra, 2013), has been probed during a wide array of reward tasks. (Camara, 2008; Smith, 2014; McCormick,2017). However, it remains unclear whether these studies reveal consistent and specific patterns of connectivity.To address this problem, we conducted a meta-analysis of psycho-physiological interactions (PPI) (Friston,1997) for reward-dependent corticostriatal connectivity.

teaching

, , 2024

Teaching Assistant: Foundations of Sensation and Perception

Undergraduate course, Temple University, Psychology, 2020

Course Description

This 3-credit course will describe how we experience the world. It will describe the biological sensors we use to gather information about the world and the psychological processes involved in interpreting that information. By the end of the course, students should be able to give an answer to the question: How do we see the world? The class will be lecture format with frequent opportunities to ask questions of the immediate material as well as broader questions about how the material may apply to other areas of psychology.

Teaching Assistant: Brain Matters

Undergraduate course, Temple University, Psychology, 2020

Course Description

One of the last frontiers in science is the brain. We know a great deal about the structure and function of the brain and nervous system, but it is challenging to comprehend fully the complexity of a system made up of 100 billion components that are interacting with one another using tens of trillions of connections that can change and rewire during development and aging. Neuroscience is the multidisciplinary field in which brain research falls. Neuroscience is one of the fastest growing domains in all of science - and good bet for a future career path. Neuroscientists investigate brain function from the level of molecular genetics, to cellular dynamics, to brain anatomy and physiology, to relations between brain, behavior, and cognition, to brain development and aging, to diseases of the brain. In this course, we will touch on knowledge about the brain at all these levels, and more. We will also discuss case studies of brain impairment.

Teaching Assistant: Functional Neuro-anatomy

Undergraduate course, Temple University, Psychology, 2021

Course Description

This course provides a broad overview of the structures of the brain and their function. Gross anatomy of the central nervous system will be covered. The organization of the major neural systems underlying sensory, motor, and cognitive function will be emphasized. Within each topic, we will discuss dysfunction of the nervous system and how neuroanatomical changes can produce specific neurological disorders.

Teaching Assistant: Brain Matters

Undergraduate course, Temple University, Psychology, 2021

Course Description

One of the last frontiers in science is the brain. We know a great deal about the structure and function of the brain and nervous system, but it is challenging to comprehend fully the complexity of a system made up of 100 billion components that are interacting with one another using tens of trillions of connections that can change and rewire during development and aging. Neuroscience is the multidisciplinary field in which brain research falls. Neuroscience is one of the fastest growing domains in all of science - and good bet for a future career path. Neuroscientists investigate brain function from the level of molecular genetics, to cellular dynamics, to brain anatomy and physiology, to relations between brain, behavior, and cognition, to brain development and aging, to diseases of the brain. In this course, we will touch on knowledge about the brain at all these levels, and more. We will also discuss case studies of brain impairment.

Instructor: Psychology and Neuroscience: Exploring Mind, Brain, and Behavior

Pre-college special program, Temple University, Psychology, 2023

Course description

Psychology and Neuroscience have opened the understanding of human and animal emotion, cognition, and behavior through the lens of development, genetics, and physiology. This course is intended to be an introduction to the science of Psychology and Neuroscience. Students will explore discoveries in psychology and neuroscience that are providing new insights on human behavior and that are contributing to improving treatments for people experiencing mental health difficulties. This introduction is built to better equip students to decide whether to pursue these topics and to do so successfully.

Teaching Assistant: Current Prospectives on Parenting

Pre-college special program, Temple University, Psychology, 2023

Course description

Psychology and Neuroscience have opened the understanding of human and animal emotion, cognition, and behavior through the lens of development, genetics, and physiology. This course is intended to be an introduction to the science of Psychology and Neuroscience. Students will explore discoveries in psychology and neuroscience that are providing new insights on human behavior and that are contributing to improving treatments for people experiencing mental health difficulties. This introduction is built to better equip students to decide whether to pursue these topics and to do so successfully.

Teaching Assistant: Current Perspectives on Parenting

Undergraduate course, Temple University, Psychology, 2023

Course Goals:

  1. Understand theoretical and research approaches to the study of parenting.
  2. Understand the important influence that parents have on the development of their children, as well as factors that affect parenting behaviors.
  3. Review parenting across different developmental periods (e.g., infancy, preschool, middle childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood).
  4. Discuss contemporary issues in parenting, including parenting in non-traditional families, parents at risk, and cultural influences.
  5. Review and critically evaluate current research related to parenting and child development.