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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Activation of D1 receptors affects human reactivity and flexibility to valued cues
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Alexander Soutschek
  • Rouba Kozak
  • Nicholas de Martinis
  • William Howe
  • Christopher J Burke
  • Ernst Fehr
  • Alexander Jetter
  • Philippe Tobler
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Neuropsychopharmacology
Publisher Nature Publishing Group
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0893-133X
Volume 45
Number 5
Page Range 780 - 785
Date 2020
Abstract Text Reward-predicting cues motivate goal-directed behavior, but in unstable environments humans must also be able to flexibly update cue-reward associations. While the capacity of reward cues to trigger motivation ('reactivity') as well as flexibility in cue-reward associations have been linked to the neurotransmitter dopamine in humans, the specific contribution of the dopamine D1 receptor family to these behaviors remained elusive. To fill this gap, we conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind pharmacological study testing the impact of three different doses of a novel D1 agonist (relative to placebo) on reactivity to reward-predicting cues (Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer) and flexibility of cue-outcome associations (reversal learning). We observed that the impact of the D1 agonist crucially depended on baseline working memory functioning, which has been identified as a proxy for baseline dopamine synthesis capacity. Specifically, increasing D1 receptor stimulation strengthened Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in individuals with high baseline working memory capacity. In contrast, higher doses of the D1 agonist improved reversal learning only in individuals with low baseline working memory functioning. Our findings suggest a crucial and baseline-dependent role of D1 receptor activation in controlling both cue reactivity and the flexibility of cue-reward associations.
Free access at DOI
Digital Object Identifier 10.1038/s41386-020-0617-z
PubMed ID 31962344
Other Identification Number merlin-id:19166
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Keywords Pharmacology, psychiatry and mental health