Biology subjects

Vejloe, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Vejloe, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Dissociable Microstructural Correlates of Learning Rate and Learning Noise in Gamified Reward-Based Decision-Making

Humans learn which actions yield the highest rewards through trial and error, gradually forming expectations about outcomes. Yet, people differ substantially in how quickly and precisely they learn. Such individual variability may partly be explained by differences in the brains microstructural organisation. In this large-scale study, 248 participants completed a gamified reward-learning task and underwent quantitative MRI to assess whole-brain microstructural indices of myelination (R1) and cortical iron (R2*). Using computational modelling, we quantified participants learning rates and learning noise, reflecting variability in how reward information is updated over time. Whole-brain voxel-based quantification analyses revealed that increased myelination in the cerebellum was associated with a higher learning rate, whereas learning noise was linked to increased myelination and iron concentration in the precentral gyrus. Together, these findings show that reward learning is not a unitary process but is instead shaped by distinct neurobiological pathways that support learning precision and noise. This work highlights how microstructural variation in sensorimotor and associative cortices contributes to stable versus variable reward learning behaviour across individuals. Significance StatementThis study deepens our understanding of the neural microstructures involved in reward-related decision-making by employing advanced quantitative imaging and computational modelling to investigate brain microstructures associated with individual differences in noisy reward learning and decision-making, using a gamified task. Our results reveal distinct brain microstructures for learning rate and learning noise, which have not been reported before, thereby providing a new understanding of what may be involved in reward-based decision-making. These results provide new potential target pathways for future clinical research in psychiatric disorders where reward processing is implicated, such as ADHD and OCD.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Microstructural Brain Correlates of Inter-individual Differences in Respiratory Interoception

Interoception, the perception and integration of physiological signals, is a fundamental aspect of self-awareness and homeostasis. While previous work has explored interoceptive processing in relation to the cardiac system, research in the respiratory domain, particularly in relation to brain structure and function, is limited. To address this gap, we utilised a Bayesian psychophysical model to quantify perceptual, metacognitive, and affective dimensions of respiratory interoception in a sample of 207 healthy participants. We also measured individual whole-brain microstructural indices of myelination, myeloarchitecture, and cortical iron using quantitative brain imaging. Voxel-based quantification analyses revealed distinct patterns of cortical microstructure in the insular, cingulate, and primary sensory cortices, which underpin interoceptive perceptual sensitivity and precision. In addition, metacognitive bias was associated with increased myelination of the cingulate cortex and periaqueductal grey, while metacognitive sensitivity correlated with myelination of the midline prefrontal cortex. At an affective level, sensitivity to respiratory resistance was related to the myelination of the primary somatosensory cortex. By revealing specific histological brain patterns tied to individual differences in respiratory interoception, our results uncover the neural pathways that govern perceptual, metacognitive, and emotional facets of interoceptive processing.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Uncertainty in Thermosensory Expectations Enhances an Illusion of Pain

The human brain has a remarkable ability to learn and update its beliefs about the world. Here, we investigate how thermosensory learning shapes our subjective experience of temperature and the misperception of pain in response to harmless thermal stimuli. Through computational modeling, we demonstrate that the brain uses a probabilistic predictive coding scheme to update beliefs about temperature changes based on their uncertainty. We find that these expectations directly modulate the perception of pain in the thermal grill illusion. Quantitative microstructural brain imaging revealed that the myeloarchitecture and iron content of the somatosensory cortex, the posterior insula and the amygdala reflect inter-individual variability in computational parameters related to learning and the degree to which uncertainty modulates illusory pain perception. Our findings offer a new framework to explain how the brain infers pain from innocuous thermal inputs. Our model has important implications for understanding the etiology of thermosensory symptoms in chronic pain conditions.

neuroscience↗