Addiction as a Computational Process Gone Awry
Abstract
Addictive drugs have been hypothesized to access the same neurophysiological mechanisms as natural learning systems. These natural learning systems can be modeled through temporal-difference reinforcement learning (TDRL), which requires a reward-error signal that has been hypothesized to be carried by dopamine. TDRL learns to predict reward by driving that reward-error signal to zero. By adding a noncompensable drug-induced dopamine increase to a TDRL model, a computational model of addiction is constructed that overselects actions leading to drug receipt. The model provides an explanation for important aspects of the addiction literature and provides a theoretic viewpoint with which to address other aspects.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- December 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.1102384
- Bibcode:
- 2004Sci...306.1944R
- Keywords:
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- NEUROSCIENCE