Not logged in.

Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Alexander Soutschek
  • Philippe Tobler
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title eLife
Publisher eLife Sciences Publications Ltd.
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 2050-084X
Volume 12
Page Range 83734
Date 2023
Abstract Text Theoretical accounts disagree on the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice and assume that dopamine either promotes delay of gratification by increasing the preference for larger rewards or that dopamine reduces patience by enhancing the sensitivity to waiting costs. Here, we reconcile these conflicting accounts by providing empirical support for a novel process model according to which dopamine contributes to two dissociable components of the decision process, evidence accumulation and starting bias. We re-analyzed a previously published data set where intertemporal decisions were made either under the D2 antagonist amisulpride or under placebo by fitting a hierarchical drift diffusion model that distinguishes between dopaminergic effects on the speed of evidence accumulation and the starting point of the accumulation process. Blocking dopaminergic neurotransmission not only strengthened the sensitivity to whether a reward is perceived as worth the delay costs during evidence accumulation (drift rate) but also attenuated the impact of waiting costs on the starting point of the evidence accumulation process (bias). In contrast, re-analyzing data from a D1 agonist study provided no evidence for a causal involvement of D1R activation in intertemporal choices. Taken together, our findings support a novel, process-based account of the role of dopamine for cost-benefit decision making, highlight the potential benefits of process-informed analyses, and advance our understanding of dopaminergic contributions to decision making.
Free access at DOI
Digital Object Identifier 10.7554/elife.83734
Other Identification Number merlin-id:23672
PDF File Download from ZORA
Export BibTeX
EP3 XML (ZORA)
Keywords General immunology and microbiology, general biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, general medicine, general neuroscience