Reward processing is important for understanding behavior in psychopathology. Opportunities to earn money activate the ventral striatum, as shown by the monetary incentive delay (MID) task. Anxiety conditions have been modeled by presenting shocks and startling sounds. To further investigate the co-occurrence of an anxiety condition and a rewarding stimulus, we modified the MID to include a sustained threat of scream. This study investigated neural patterns of the MID task with an uncertain threat of a startling scream. Forty-three young adults completed a functional MRI scan. The task included two conditions (scream and safe) and three cues (gain $5, gain $0, lose $5). Analyses included a whole brain, group analysis using a linear mixed-effects model and a paired t-test. The whole brain analysis revealed a main effect of cue, with increased ventral striatal activation (F₂,₂₁₀ = 58.8, p < 0.001) during cues to gain or lose $5. We observed a main effect of condition during cue presentation, such that bilateral insula and putamen activation was diminished (p < 0.001) in the scream versus the safe condition. A t-test of condition showed increased activation during threat blocks in the insula and putamen. A time course graph revealed that activation in the insula and putamen responded similarly to incentive but had an overall elevation during the scream condition. These results replicated expected activation in reward and in the setting of uncertain threat. Our results show that uncertain threat increases the magnitude of activation in the dorsal striatum.

奖励处理对于理解精神病理学中的行为很重要。赚钱的机会激活腹侧纹状体，如货币激励延迟 (MID) 任务所示。已经通过呈现冲击和惊人的声音来模拟焦虑状况。为了进一步研究焦虑状况和有益刺激的同时发生，我们修改了 MID 以包括持续的尖叫威胁。这项研究调查了 MID 任务的神经模式，其中存在令人吃惊的尖叫的不确定威胁。43 名年轻人完成了功能性 MRI 扫描。该任务包括两个条件（尖叫和安全）和三个提示（获得 5 美元、获得 0 美元、失去 5 美元）。分析包括全脑、使用线性混合效应模型的组分析和配对t-测试。全脑分析揭示了提示的主要影响，即在获得或损失 5 美元的提示期间腹侧纹状体激活增加 ( F ₂ , ₂₁₀ = 58.8, p < 0.001)。我们在提示呈现期间观察到条件的主要影响，例如在尖叫与安全条件下，双侧岛叶和壳核激活减少（ p < 0.001）。吨_- 条件测试显示在岛叶和壳核中的威胁块期间激活增加。时间进程图显示，岛叶和壳核的激活对激励的反应相似，但在尖叫条件下整体升高。这些结果在奖励和不确定威胁的情况下复制了预期的激活。我们的研究结果表明，不确定的威胁会增加背侧纹状体的激活程度。