Neurophysiological characteristics of reward processing in the deaf college students under different social contexts

Xue Du ^* Ting Huang Shiqiong Wu Xingru Wang

• Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China

Background: In the context of social exclusion, individuals tend to make choices that are advantageous to themselves and optimize their interests. Due to hearing impairment, deaf college students face more exclusion in our society. However, the neural mechanisms of reward processing in deaf college students under different situations of social exclusion remain unknown.Methods: 27 deaf college students completed the monetary and social reward delay task while recording ERP data.Results: Behavioral hit rate was sensitive to the main effect of social context, that is, the deaf college students showed a higher hit rate in social inclusion. The amplitude of Cue P3 elicited by reward cues was found to be higher in social exclusion compared to social inclusion, particularly when the amplitudes of monetary cues were higher than social cues. In the reward feedback outcome phase, small-magnitude induced a greater Feedback-evoked P3.Additionally, they exhibited a larger FRN amplitude for large-magnitude (but not small-magnitude) monetary reward cues.Conclusions: Deaf college students were more sensitive to reward cues in social exclusion relative to social inclusion, especially to monetary cues, and more concerned with attaining greater monetary gains.