When people learn that surrounding visuals and sounds may signify specific choice outcomes, these cues can become guides for decision making. For people with compulsive disorders, addictions, or anxiety, the associations between cues and choice outcomes can eventually promote poor decisions as they come to favor or avoid cues in a more biased manner. Giuseppe di Pellegrino, from the University of Bologna, led a study to explore associative learning and maladaptive decision making in people.
As reported in their JNeurosci paper, the researchers discovered that some people rely on surrounding cues to make decisions more than others. Furthermore, these individuals may have a harder time updating their beliefs and unlearning these associations when the cues change to signify riskier outcomes. This leads to more disadvantageous decision making that persists over time.
According to the researchers, this work suggests that some people have stronger cue sensitivity and less of an ability to update their beliefs about cues than others. The researchers aim to continue exploring associative learning in patient populations and probing whether harmful decision patterns—which characterize addictions, compulsive disorders, and anxiety—are more likely in those with heightened sensitivity to visuals and sounds that guide their choices.
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About JNeurosci
JNeurosci was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.
About The Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 35,000 members in more than 95 countries.
JNeurosci
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1465-25.2025
People
Reduced Pavlovian Value Updating Alters Decision-Making in Sign-Trackers
22-Dec-2025
The authors declare no competing financial interests.