Apathy or lack of motivation is increasingly recognized to be a major factor affecting quality of life and prognosis in many neurological conditions. It is particularly prevalent in Parkinson's disease, impacting on every disease stage, including de novo cases, and has been reported to affect up to 70% of cases. Despite the pervasiveness of apathy, challenges remain in its detection, clinical assessment and treatment. Several lines of evidence have implicated fronto-striatal reward related neural pathways in the genesis of apathy but the precise processes remain to be fully explained. This thesis examines the potential mechanisms of apathy using Parkinson's disease as a model to study the condition. Novel oculomotor tasks that used eye movement and pupillary responses were developed to help assess if insensitivity to incentives could be an underlying component of apathy. This was examined in healthy young and elderly participants as well as in patients with Parkinson's disease. Patients were tested both ON and OFF their normal dopaminergic medication so that the effect of dopamine could be assessed and the association with apathy determined. This was also performed in a pharmacological study in young participants with the use of Haloperidol, a dopaminergic D2-selective antagonist. Insensitivity to rewards modulated by dopamine was regarded to be a contributory mechanism of apathy in Parkinson's disease and also applicable to general mechanisms of motivation in healthy populations.

A complex system exists to monitor the body’s energy status and regulate food intake and energy expenditure to maintain a constant body weight. However, this homeostatic system is not the sole system regulating appetite. The hedonic system comprised of the mesolimbic reward pathway influences motivation to eat and acts alongside the homeostatic system to control feeding behaviours. It is often assumed that the hedonic system promotes the consumption of palatable, energy-dense foods and this can disrupt homeostatic mechanisms regulating food intake, resulting in energy overconsumption and weight gain in the long term. Yet, it is unclear to what extent the homeostatic system can defend body weight in an environment rich in palatable, energy-dense foods. I hypothesised that the homeostatic system compensates for the energy in palatable foods by reducing subsequent energy consumption, defined as homeostatic caloric compensation. I investigated homeostatic caloric compensation in a rat model of restricted palatable, high-sugar food access. Rats were schedule-fed moderate amounts of sweetened condensed milk (SCM) daily in addition to ad lib bland diet access. Both male and female rats calorically compensated for the energy consumed from moderate amounts of SCM through a robust and accurate reduction in energy consumed from bland diet, resulting in no short-term changes in body weight gain. However, homeostatic responses were limited as male rats were unable to fully calorically compensate for the scheduled-feeding of large amounts of SCM, an apparent loss of homeostatic control. It was not investigated whether female rats are also unable to fully calorically compensate for large amounts of SCM. It is possible that male rats consume these large amounts of SCM due to hedonic drive but continue to eat bland diet to acquire nutrients that are not present in SCM. To determine whether male rats defend bland diet consumption due to nutrient requirements, rats were schedule-fed large amounts of SCM enriched with protein or fibre. However, male rats did not fully calorically compensate for the energy in large amounts of SCM when enriched with protein or fibre. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the homeostatic system is able to respond to the hedonic consumption of palatable food through caloric compensatory mechanisms to defend body weight. However, it appears that the homeostatic system is unable to effectively respond to excessive hedonic palatable food consumption through caloric compensation alone. To shed light on what homeostatic mechanisms may underlie this compensatory behaviour, I used expression of the immediate early gene c-Fos to investigate neuronal activity following the scheduled-feeding of moderate amounts of SCM in male rats. c-Fos expression was increased in the ventral tegmental area of the mesolimbic reward pathway and in the lateral hypothalamus. The lateral hypothalamus has been proposed to act as an interface between homeostatic and hedonic systems. Therefore, in response to the hedonic consumption of palatable food, the homeostatic system and reward pathway may interact. Additionally, c-Fos expression was increased in satiety mediating brain regions of the homeostatic system, including the nucleus of the solitary tract and dorsomedial hypothalamus. This suggests that the homeostatic system may compensate for the energy in the palatable food by reducing subsequent food intake through inducing satiety. Furthermore, following the consumption of SCM, c-Fos expression was increased in magnocellular oxytocin neurons of the hypothalamic supraoptic and paraventricular nucleus. I demonstrated that the oxytocin system was activated by gut-brain signalling potentially involving the nucleus of the solitary tract. Therefore, the oxytocin system may be involved in homeostatic compensatory mechanisms triggered in response to the hedonic consumption of SCM, as part of a pathway mediating satiety. Moreover, I showed that c-Fos expression was also increased in the hypothalamic supramammillary nucleus (SuM) following the consumption of SCM. It has been previously shown that the SuM is involved in reward-related motivated behaviours and was recently implicated in the motivation to acquire and consume palatable food rewards. I also demonstrated that c-Fos expression in the SuM might be specific to the motivated consumption of palatable food, consistent with the SuM being involved in reward-related motivated behaviours. Furthermore, there is additional evidence from these studies that the SuM may functionally communicate with brain regions in the homeostatic and hedonic systems, including the lateral hypothalamus, dorsomedial hypothalamus and ventral tegmental area. Finally, I explored whether the gut-secreted orexigenic hormone ghrelin activates the SuM, as ghrelin may act at the SuM to influence feeding motivation. However, systemic ghrelin administration did not influence SuM c-Fos expression. As the SuM is activated following the consumption of SCM and may act as an interface between the homeostatic and hedonic systems, it is possible that the SuM could be a key component in the regulation of hedonic feeding. Using a rat model, I have shown that homeostatic compensatory mechanisms are triggered in response to the hedonic consumption of palatable, high-sugar food to regulate energy intake. This response is likely to involve homeostatic satiety mechanisms and interactions between multiple brain regions involved in the homeostatic and hedonic control of food intake. Overall, these findings shed light on how the homeostatic system responds to hedonic energy consumption and highlights specific brain regions that may be involved in hedonic feeding or homeostatic compensatory responses.

A decision process can be conceptually separated into a perceptual process and a decision strategy. The former includes all the different mechanisms that contribute to accumulate information relevant to the decision, whereas the decision strategy determines when enough information has been accumulated and a decision can be taken. Although perceptual processes have been extensively investigated in the last decades, decision strategies have received comparatively little attention. The main aim of this work is to fill this gap by analysing four decision strategies with two different experimental paradigms. We also focus on ancillary decision-making topics, such as the effect of stimulus intensity, foreperiod duration, payoff manipulation, and the response distributions in the rate domain. We initially performed a qualitative analysis of decision strategies by using a classic reaction time tasks on human participants while assuming the Drift Diffusion Model, one of the many models used for simple and fast decisions, as the perceptual process. We found that increasing the time of the trial does not have a relevant effect on the response, which is in contrast with some of the decision rules considered here. However, this approach is limited by the implicit assumption of a perceptual model that would result in different prediction for the decision strategies. We suggest the use of a different experimental design, called the EXACT Paradigm, which allows us to analyse decision strategies without having to assume any perceptual process. We tested the feasibility of such approach and applied it to several experimental studies, including a direct comparison with a classic reaction time task. Overall, two of the four decision strategies (modified Reward Rate and Reward/Accuracy) appeared to model the data satisfactorily. We discuss several ways in which the EXACT Paradigm can be used for expanding our knowledge in the field of decision-making.

Submitted by Kelly Ayala (kelly.ayala@fgv.br) on 2016-09-08T17:45:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação gisela resnitzky.pdf: 1864514 bytes, checksum: f682ccb6bdc88267020cba4394ff6b24 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Kelly Ayala (kelly.ayala@fgv.br) on 2016-09-08T17:46:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação gisela resnitzky.pdf: 1864514 bytes, checksum: f682ccb6bdc88267020cba4394ff6b24 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Kelly Ayala (kelly.ayala@fgv.br) on 2016-09-08T17:48:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação gisela resnitzky.pdf: 1864514 bytes, checksum: f682ccb6bdc88267020cba4394ff6b24 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-08T17:49:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação gisela resnitzky.pdf: 1864514 bytes, checksum: f682ccb6bdc88267020cba4394ff6b24 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / This study aimed to describe how managers working for the Brazilian Federal Government reward and punish their subordinates, having as background Law number 8.112, that regulates laboral relations. The theoretical framework was based on international publications about rewards and punishments, on books about the subject, and on current legislation in Brazil. The method used was based on grounded theory, with adaptations. Civil servants which occupy or have occupied managing positions in Government were interviewed, in 5 Organs of Brazilian Direct Administration and 5 Organs of Brazilian Indirect Administration, all of them based in Rio de Janeiro, with the objective of building a model that expresses the existing reality. The use of performance appraisal has been distorted over time, not reflecting reality at work. The application of sanctions is avoided by managers. The result is the predominant use of informal rewards and sanctions. / A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo descrever como os gestores da Administração Pública Federal recompensam e punem os servidores sob sua subordinação, tendo como pano de fundo a Lei 8.112, que é o regime jurídico que rege as relações de trabalho dos servidores públicos federais. O arcabouço teórico fundamentou-se nos conhecimentos relativos a recompensas e punições existentes em publicações internacionais, em livros sobre o assunto, e na legislação vigente no Brasil. A pesquisa utilizou método baseado no grounded theory, com adaptações, sendo realizada por meio de entrevistas com servidores públicos ocupantes ou ex-ocupantes de cargos em comissão, em cinco órgãos da Administração Direta e em cinco orgãos da Administração Indireta, localizados no Rio de Janeiro, visando a construção de um modelo que demonstrasse a realidade existente. O estudo constatou que a utilização da avaliação de avaliação de desempenho como instrumento de recompensa e punição vem sendo sido desvirtuada ao longo do tempo, não refletindo a realidade laboral. A aplicação de sanções administrativas previstas em lei é evitada pelos gestores, fazendo com que tanto as recompensas, como as punições informais predominem na área pública.

Being a mother is often described as a difficult but rewarding experience. Maternal parenting reward (PR) may serve an important function, helping to facilitate responsive maternal care and healthy infant development. However, it should not be taken for granted that the rewards of parenting will emerge naturally for women, particularly women who were abused by their own caregivers in childhood, within family systems that enabled or perpetuated the abuse. Despite an abundance of research on the neurobiological correlates of PR, surprisingly little is known about mothers’ self-reported experience of PR, both in general and in relation to early adversity. The aims of this survey-based dissertation were to develop and psychometrically evaluate a PR self-report measure, and to determine the extent to which childhood abuse predicts short-term (family betrayal) and long-term (maternal depression, posttraumatic stress, and problematic substance use) sequelae of abuse that are associated with diminished PR. In Study 1, with 203 mothers of young children, the final 14-item questionnaire assessed PR in a way that was not confounded with social desirability or maternal demographic characteristics, and was distinct from the related constructs of parenting pleasure and satisfaction. On average, mothers reported being highly rewarded by parenting, though there were individual differences in PR within and across mothers. In Study 2, with 270 mothers of young children, maternal history of childhood psychological and sexual abuse by caregivers each predicted diminished PR indirectly. Childhood psychological abuse was strongly associated with family betrayal, or actions and inactions by the family of origin that enabled or perpetuated abuse, which in turn predicted recent maternal depression and posttraumatic stress, each of which predicted diminished PR. The association between childhood sexual abuse and diminished PR was mediated by increased maternal posttraumatic stress symptoms only, not by family betrayal or alcohol use problems related to posttraumatic stress, as hypothesized. Although alcohol use problems predicted diminished PR at the bivariate level, they did not predict PR in the full model. Maternal childhood abuse by caregivers is indirectly associated with disruptions to the social rewards of attachment, with potential intergenerational consequences for the mother-infant relationship and infant development. / 10000-01-01

Denna studie har syftat till att undersöka hur finansiella och icke-finansiella belöningar fungerar motiverande för medarbetarna på ett icke-vinstdrivande företag samt vad som får medarbetarna att känna sig uppskattade i sitt arbete. Syftet har besvarats genom följande frågeställningar; Hur resonerar medarbetarna såväl finansiella som icke-finansiella belöningar? Vad upplever medarbetarna motiverar dem i deras arbete? Hur önskar medarbetare att uppskattning visas för deras arbetsprestationer? Forskning visar att finansiella och icke-finansiella belöningar har olika påverkan på medarbetares motivation. Studien har genomförts med kvalitativa telefonintervjuer. Resultatet visar att medarbetarna upplever inre motivation till sina arbetsuppgifter men att de saknar icke-finansiella och finansiella belöningar från ledningen.

Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta um estudo sobre os efeitos de diferentes funções de recompensa, aplicadas em aprendizado por reforço multiagente, para o problema de roteamento de veículos, em redes de tráfego. São abordadas duas funções de recompensas que diferem no alinhamento do sinal numérico enviado do ambiente ao agente. A primeira função, chamada função individual, é alinhada à utilidade individual do agente (veículo ou motorista) e busca minimizar seu tempo de viagem. Já a segunda função, por sua vez, é a chamada difference rewards, essa é alinhada à utilidade global do sistema e tem por objetivo minimizar o tempo médio de viagem na rede (tempo médio de viagem de todos os motoristas). Ambas as abordagens são aplicadas em dois cenários de roteamento de veículos que diferem em: quantidade de motoristas aprendendo, topologia e, consequentemente, nível de complexidade. As abordagens são comparadas com três técnicas de alocação de tráfego presentes na literatura. Resultados apontam que os métodos baseados em aprendizado por reforço apresentam desempenho superior aos métodos de alocação de rotas. Além disso, o alinhamento da função de recompensa à utilidade global proporciona uma melhora significativa nos resultados quando comparados com a função individual. Porém, para o cenário com maior quantidade de agentes aprendendo simultaneamente, ambas as abordagens apresentam soluções equivalentes. / This dissertation presents a study on the effects of different reward functions applyed to multiagent reinforcement learning, for the vehicles routing problem, in traffic networks. Two reward functions that differ in the alignment of the numerical signal sent from the environment to the agent are addressed. The first function, called individual function is aligned with the agent’s (vehicle or driver) utility and seeks to minimize their travel time. The second function, is called difference rewards and is aligned to the system’s utility and aims to minimize the average travel time on the network (average travel time of all drivers). Both approaches are applied to two routing vehicles’ problems, which differ in the number of learning drivers, network topology and therefore, level of complexity. These approaches are compared with three traffic assignment techniques from the literature. Results show that reinforcement learning-based methods yield superior results than traffic assignment methods. Furthermore, the reward function alignment to the global utility, provides a significant improvement in results when compared with the individual function. However, for scenarios with many agents learning simultaneously, both approaches yield equivalent solutions.

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-04-13T18:44:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Frizzo, Anise Carla.pdf: 3155431 bytes, checksum: ca631e22b44a218583bda1320f1ff225 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-05-05T19:39:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Frizzo, Anise Carla.pdf: 3155431 bytes, checksum: ca631e22b44a218583bda1320f1ff225 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-05T19:39:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Frizzo, Anise Carla.pdf: 3155431 bytes, checksum: ca631e22b44a218583bda1320f1ff225 (MD5) / O objetivo desta pesquisa do tipo qualitativa exploratória é identificar desafios e propor estratégias de gestão para o desempenho com base na meritocracia, cuja problemática se estabelece em torno de quais as dificuldades e os desafios suportados pelos gerentes de uma unidade da Petrobras, localizada no Estado de São Paulo, pertencente à área de Exploração & Produção, para a gestão de desempenho de empregados, bem como quais ações estratégicas podem ser implementadas para a melhoria das práticas de meritocracia como sistema de recompensas, que são processos inerentes à gestão de desempenho de pessoas. Poucas pesquisas examinam o impacto da meritocracia dentro das práticas de gestão de desempenho, mas pressupõe-se que o potencial de melhoria desta gestão de pessoas é alto. A base teórica da pesquisa provém de estudos sobre gestão de desempenho e recompensa baseada no mérito e o estudo empírico é baseado na atuação dos gerentes desta unidade da Petrobras, que gerenciam quase 50% dos empregados atuando em regime de trabalho offshore, ou seja, em unidades marítimas de produção situadas da Bacia de Santos em São Paulo e na Bacia de Campos, no Rio de Janeiro. Foram aplicados entrevistas semiestruturadas para quatro gerentes escolhidos criteriosamente, cujas respostas serviram de base para a formulação de questionário fechado, aplicado a todo o corpo gerencial desta unidade. Os resultados revelam seis grandes desafios, categorizados como de cultura, de processo, de tempo, de integração, de comunicação e de igualdade; além de quatro estratégias de gestão direcionadas para a comunicação, para a integração, para os processos e para a cultura, ambos com a finalidade de proporcionar melhorias na gestão de desempenho e na gestão de pessoas como um todo. Esses desafios e estratégias também contribuem para reforçar o impacto importante que o reconhecimento por merecimento desempenha nas práticas de gestão de desempenho nas organizações. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to identify challenges and propose management strategies for performance based on meritocracy, whose problematic if laying down around which the difficulties and challenges supported by managers of a unit of Petrobras, located in the State of São Paulo, belonging to the area of Exploration & Production, for managing employee performance, as well as what strategic actions can be implemented to improve the practices of meritocracy as systems of rewards, which are processes involved in the performance management people system. Few researches examine the impact of meritocracy within the practices of performance management, but it is assumed that the potential for improvement of this people management is high. The theoretical basis of the research comes from studies on performance management and reward based on merit and the empirical study is based on the performance of the manager of this unit of Petrobras, which manage almost 50 % of employees working in scheme of work offshore, or, inmaritime production units located in the Santos Basin in São Paulo and in the Campos Basin in Rio de Janeiro. Semi-structured interviews were applied to four carefully chosen managers whose responses formed the basis for the formulation of closed questionnaire, applied to the entire management team of this unit. The results reveal six major challenges, categorized as culture, process, time, of integration, of communication and of equality beside four management strategies directed to the communication, to integration, to processes and to the culture, both with the purpose of providing improvements in performance management and in the management of people as a whole. These challenges and strategies also contribute to reinforce the significant impact that the recognition by merit plays in management practices of performance in organizations.

The main aim of this thesis is to consider of utilisation of concept of total compensation in selected manufacturing company. The conclusion should recommend proposals to improve efficiency of employees reward based on the result of analysis. It was used questionnaire survey in the chosen department of firm to reach the aim. The analysis has found weaknesses in all quadrants of concept of total compensation. The main weaknesses were found in quadrant I - cash rewards and in quadrant III - training and development, but not the other two quadrants aren´t without problems. Based on the result of analysis were proposed recommendations for every individual quadrant.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Na atualidade observa-se vastos estudos sobre os processos na área do Design acerca de como projetar experiências e prototipar interações entre pessoas e sistemas, e mesmo entre pessoas por intermédio de sistemas. Enquanto todo tipo de produto produz uma experiência de uso, com a evolução da interatividade as relações estabelecidas entre os usuários e os produtos tornaram-se mais complexas e modificaram-se ao longo dos anos. A abordagem teórica destinada a tratar essas questões também expandiu e diversificou-se simultaneamente. A partir de um estudo sobre os processos interativos e o campo teórico relacionado, foi possível identificar um fenômeno relativamente recente em interfaces nas quais pode ser verificado um alto nível de interação, a saber: os sistemas de recompensa. Cabe salientar que este termo foi emprestado da Neurociência, aonde é utilizado para descrever o circuito responsável pelo gerenciamento do comportamento através da indução de prazer e dor. Portanto, o autor desta dissertação propõe uma acepção do termo no âmbito do design de componentes interativos para designar o artifício, que muitas interfaces atuais incorporaram, de conceder aos usuários a possibilidade de apreciarem, ou não, determinado conteúdo em rede. Assim, pode-se compreender que o emprego do termo aqui é metafórico. Neste processo os usuários podem fornecer outros tipos de feedback ao sistema, como por exemplo um comentário, ou compartilhamento, estimulando assim uma série de desdobramentos interativos e repercussões para a experiência de uso do produto. Este trabalho propõe uma investigação qualitativa sobre as interações concernentes aos sistemas de recompensa, abordando tanto questões objetivas funcionais dos sistemas, quanto questões referentes ao feedback dos usuários. O Facebook será amplamente analisado, por ter sido uma interface pioneira na manipulação dos sistemas de recompensa, na qual estes componentes alcançaram um alto nível de desenvolvimento até este momento. A justificativa para esta pesquisa se deve a dois fatores particularmente relevantes: primeiro, a ausência de conteúdo significativo na literatura relacionada atual. Em segundo lugar, a notável expansão dos sistemas criados com esta finalidade, conforme será demonstrado no estudo. O objetivo deste projeto é compreender de que forma o design dos sistemas de recompensa influenciam o fluxo de interações e o comportamento dos usuários atualmente. Para tanto, esta pesquisa procura verificar como determinados aspectos teóricos do design - dedicados à compreensão da dinâmica de processos interativos - se aplicam a experiências reais de interação no mundo contemporâneo. Por exemplo, diversos modelos e frameworks nas áreas de HCI (Interação Humano-Computador), UX (experiência do usuário), e design de experiências destacam conceitos condizentes com aspectos identificados nos sistemas de recompensa que por sua vez encontram-se em processo de desenvolvimento, guiados por tendências comerciais de uma forma quase que intuitiva, no sentido de que pouca atenção tem sido dada na literatura sobre as bases neuronais que fazem este processo funcionar. Desta forma, pretende-se fornecer subsídios para uma melhor compreensão do impacto que os sistemas de recompensa analisados nesta dissertação desempenham sobre a experiência de uso entre consumidores e produtos delineados dentro deste paradigma. / This is a research about the design of reward systems on interactive contemporary interfaces of communication. After a research made on User Experience (UX) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) theory fields, it was possible to identify some particular kind of interface component which was, according to this study, capable of accomplishing several UX and HCI objectives related to affection and complex interaction relations on the generation of a valuable experience. This particular kind of component is the primal object of this study, which was designated by the author as Reward Systems, in a metaphorical meaning, besides the original conception of reward systems in neuroscience. These are components that allows user to appreciate some kind of content retrieving status to it. Facebook is widely discussed, because it was a pioneer in handling the interface of reward systems, where these components have reached a high level of development so far. This research is particularly relevant due to two factors: first, the lack of meaningful content in the current related literature. Secondly, the remarkable expansion of systems designed for this purpose, as will be demonstrated in the study. The project goal is to understand how the design of reward systems influence the flow of interactions and behavior of users today. In order to accomplish this, the research seeks to ascertain how certain theoretical aspects of design - dedicated to understanding the dynamics of interactive processes - apply to real interaction experiences in the contemporary world. For example, several models and frameworks in areas of HCI (Human Computer Interaction) and UX (user experience) highlight concepts consistent with those identified in reward systems which are in process of constant development, guided by commercial tendencies almost in a intuitive manner. Little attention has been paid in literature on neuroscience bases which make this process work.