Creatures of Habit: The Neuroscience of Habit and Purposeful Behavior

Summary & key facts

This article explains that much of everyday behavior comes from habits, which are triggered by cues and run automatically, while goal-directed actions are based on expected outcomes and are more flexible. Brain studies show these two strategies use different but connected circuits: a prefrontal–dorsomedial striatum loop for goal-directed control and a sensorimotor–dorsolateral striatum loop for habits. The balance between these systems can change with stress, brain changes, or illness, and scientists are still studying how these processes relate to conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder and addiction.

Key facts:

• One study that asked people to record their actions every hour found that nearly half of actions were done almost daily and in the same context, suggesting a large role for habit.
• Habits are triggered by context cues, are fast and automatic, and tend to be inflexible; goal-directed actions use predictions about outcomes and can adapt when the situation changes.
• Two classic lab tests for habits are reward devaluation (making the reward less desirable) and contingency degradation (making the reward unrelated to the action); if the action continues unchanged, it is considered habitual.
• Goal-directed behavior is linked to a corticostriatal associative loop that connects the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex with the dorsomedial striatum.
• Habitual behavior is linked to a corticostriatal sensorimotor loop that connects the sensorimotor cortex with the dorsolateral striatum.
• Lesioning parts of the goal-directed loop can make animals behave more habitually, showing the circuits can push behavior toward habits when disrupted.
• Shifts between habit and goal-directed strategies depend on plastic changes in corticostriatal connections and involve neurotransmitter systems including dopamine, glutamate, and endocannabinoids.
• Both animal and human studies show that acute and chronic stress increases reliance on habitual strategies.
• Research has found biases toward habitual behavior in compulsive disorders (for example, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, and substance abuse). One neuroimaging study in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder linked plan

Topics

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function

Categories

Cognitive Neuroscience Life Sciences Neuroscience

Tags

Archaeology Art Context (archaeology) Creatures Embarrassment Epistemology Habit History Law Mistake Natural (archaeology) Nothing Philosophy Political science Psychoanalysis Psychology Social psychology Visual arts