In vivo structural connectivity of the reward system along the hippocampal long axis

Abstract

Recent work has identified a critical role for the hippocampus in reward-sensitive behaviors, including motivated memory, reinforcement learning, and decision-making. Animal histology and human functional neuroimaging have shown that brain regions involved in reward processing and motivation are more interconnected with the ventral/anterior hippocampus. However, direct evidence examining gradients of structural connectivity between reward regions and the hippocampus in humans is lacking. The present study used diffusion MRI (dMRI) and probabilistic tractography to quantify the structural connectivity of the hippocampus with key reward processing regions in vivo. Using a large sample of subjects (N = 628) from the human connectome dMRI data release, we found that connectivity profiles with the hippocampus varied widely between different regions of the reward circuit. While the dopaminergic midbrain (ventral tegmental area) showed stronger connectivity with the anterior versus posterior hippocampus, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex showed stronger connectivity with the posterior hippocampus. The limbic (ventral) striatum demonstrated a more homogeneous connectivity profile along the hippocampal long axis. This is the first study to generate a probabilistic atlas of the hippocampal structural connectivity with reward-related networks, which is essential to investigating how these circuits contribute to normative adaptive behavior and maladaptive behaviors in psychiatric illness. These findings describe nuanced structural connectivity that sets the foundation to better understand how the hippocampus influences reward-guided behavior in humans.