Commentary: Monetary, food, and social rewards induce similar Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer effects

In their report, Lehner et al. (2017) adopt the Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm to compare the ability of different rewards to drive behavior. The PIT-tests the extent to which a Pavlovian cue (i.e., a reward-associated cue) can elicit instrumental responses independently paired with the same (specific PIT), or a similar (general PIT), reward (Garofalo and di Pellegrino, 2016). During PIT-test, instrumental responses—previously associated with a reward—are performed under extinction, while task-irrelevant Pavlovian cues are concurrently presented. The crucial question is: can an external stimulus that recalls a reward, modulate reward-seeking behavior? Such a mechanism has both adaptive (e.g., effectively providing for needed food), and maladaptive implications (e.g., looking for food even when not necessary; see Everitt et al., 2001).