Temporal Interference Stimulation on the Nucleus Accumbens Modulating Liking and Wanting
Presented During:
Wednesday, June 25, 2025: 6:33 PM - 6:45 PM
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Room:
Great Hall
Poster No:
39
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Shilin Wen1, Yijun Chen1, Zhengde Wei1, Xiaochu Zhang2
Institutions:
1University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 2University of Science and Technology of China, HeFei, AnHui
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Reward, not only elicits positive emotions (liking), but also generates consummatory behaviour (wanting) (Berridge et al., 2009). Neural studies have indicated the nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays an important role in reward-induced pleasure and motivation (Berridge & Robinson, 2016). However, due to the reliance on neuroimaging methods in existing research and the lack of studies directly stimulated the NAc in healthy individuals, the causal relationship between reward and the NAc remains unclear. Temporal interference stimulation (TIS), a novel non-invasive technique (Grossman et al., 2017), enables selective stimulation of deep brain regions like the NAc without affecting the overlying cortex. This study employs TIS to investigate the direct causal relationship between the NAc and reward, and further explore the dissociation between liking and wanting.
Methods:
The final sample included 31 healthy volunteers (16 females, 22.30±2.09) with no musical training. The study employed a within-subjects design with two phases. In Phase 1, structural MRI scans were obtained to personalize stimulation parameter. In Phase 2, participants underwent two sessions of NAc stimulation (active or sham), with conditions counterbalanced across participants. After a 5-minute rest, participants completed a music reward task with 10 unfamiliar pop songs (Mas-Herrero et al., 2018) and 5 favorite songs. The presentation order of song groups was counterbalanced across participants, and songs within each group were fully randomized. Participants rated real-time pleasure during listening and post-listening bid, familiarity, arousal, and emotional valence. TIS used a 2 mA current at 20 Hz, superimposed with 2000 Hz and 2020 Hz, for 30 minutes.
·Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the experimental procedure.
Results:
To investigate the effect of TIS on music reward, we computed changes of pleasure (liking) and motivation (wanting) separately for the participants-selected and experimenter-selected groups of songs. TIS significantly increased both liking and wanting in the participant-selected songs. Moreover, in real-time liking for participant-selected songs, TIS increase the duration of high pleasure and chills ratings significantly. Correlation analyses were conducted between the individual trait questionnaires and TIS-induced changes (active minus sham: ΔLiking, ΔWanting, and ΔHP+Chills) for participant-selected songs. The results showed that ΔLiking and ΔHP+Chills were significantly negatively correlated with the perspective-taking subdimension of the IRI-C (Interpersonal Reactivity Index-Chinese version) and EIS (Emotional Intelligence Scale) scores. In contrast, ΔWanting showed no significant correlations with these measures but was significantly correlated with the TEPS (Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale) score, its anticipatory subdimension, and the sensory experience subdimension of the SHAPS (Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale), suggesting a disassociation between liking and wanting.
·Figure2: Main results.
Conclusions:
Our TIS results reveal that the NAc-TIS causally increases participants' liking and wanting responses to familiar rewards, with increasing the duration of high pleasure and chills. This suggest that the NAc primarily influences reward processing at a physiological level. Correlation analyses revealed that individuals with higher emotional intelligence and empathy were less affected by NAc stimulation in liking, while those with lower sensory pleasure experience and greater emotional sensitivity to pleasant emotions were more affected in wanting. These findings support the view that the brain's wanting system is evolutionarily primitive and driven by bottom-up mesolimbic dopamine processes, while the liking system is more fragile and influenced by top-down cognitive control. The distinct correlations of Liking and Wanting with different components highlight the separation between liking and wanting, offering new insights into how the brain differentiates between the motivation to seek rewards and the pleasure derived from them.
Brain Stimulation:
Non-Invasive Stimulation Methods Other 1
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Music 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
Anatomical MRI
Keywords:
STRUCTURAL MRI
Other - Temporal Interference Stimulation (TIS); Music; Reward; Liking; Wanting
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Was this research conducted in the United States?
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel? NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (2016). Liking, wanting, and the incentive-sensitization theory of addiction. American Psychologist, 71(8), 670–679.
Blood, A. J., & Zatorre, R. J. (2001). Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(20), 11818–11823.
Grossman, N., Bono, D., Dedic, N., Kodandaramaiah, S. B., Rudenko, A., Suk, H.-J., Cassara, A. M., Neufeld, E., Kuster, N., Tsai, L.-H., Pascual-Leone, A., & Boyden, E. S. (2017). Noninvasive Deep Brain Stimulation via Temporally Interfering Electric Fields. Cell, 169(6), 1029-1041.e16.
Mas-Herrero, E., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R. J. (2018). Modulating musical reward sensitivity up and down with transcranial magnetic stimulation. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(1), 27–32.