Evidence of a diurnal rhythm in implicit reward learning

Many aspects of hedonic behavior, including self-administration of natural and drug rewards, as well as human positive affect, follow a diurnal cycle that peaks during the species-specific active period. This variation has been linked to circadian modulation of the mesolimbic dopamine system, and is hypothesized to serve an adaptive function by driving an organism to engage with the environment during times where the opportunity for obtaining rewards is high. However, relatively little is known about whether more complex facets of hedonic behavior – in particular, reward learning – follow the same diurnal cycle. The current study aimed to address this gap by examining evidence for diurnal variation in reward learning on a well-validated probabilistic reward learning task (PRT). PRT data from a large normative sample (N = 516) of non-clinical individuals, recruited across eight studies, were examined for the current study. The PRT uses an asymmetrical reinforcement ratio to induce a behavioral response bias, and reward learning was operationalized as the strength of this response bias across blocks of the task. Results revealed significant diurnal variation in reward learning, however in contrast to patterns previously observed in other aspects of hedonic behavior, reward learning was lowest in the middle of the day. Although a diurnal pattern was also observed on a measure of more general task performance (discriminability), this did not account for the variation observed in reward learning. Taken together, these findings point to a distinct diurnal pattern in reward learning that differs from that observed in other aspects of hedonic behavior. The results of this study have important implications for our understanding of clinical disorders characterized by both circadian and reward learning disturbances, and future research is needed to confirm whether this diurnal variation has a truly circadian origin.