Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience

Animal work has shown that neural representations of a spatial cognitive map are affected by reward. Here we ask how non-spatial cognitive maps in humans are affected by reward. Sixteen participants performed two sessions of a perceptual discrimination task, before and after extensive reward learning. To identify changes in perceptual cognitive maps post reward learning we used a computational approach of participants behavior inspired by Maximum Likelihood Difference Scaling models. This showed that reward learning increased the spacing between stimuli in the rewarding area, akin to increased perceptual discrimination. These results indicate that reward affects non-spatial cognitive maps and suggest accompanying neural changes.