Mariya Cherkasova, Prof. Dr.
Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, USA

Reward cues can potently influence behaviour. In people with addictive disorders, cue-reactivity predicts addictive behaviour such as drug seeking as well as relapse. In this talk, I will present studies looking at the effects of reward cues on decision making as a candidate mechanism whereby exposure to cues may bias behavior. Mirroring earlier findings in rodents, my work in humans suggests that reward cues can promote riskier choice and that these effects may depend on dopamine signaling. Individual differences in the propensity to attribute motivational salience to reward cues may modulate these risk-promoting effects.