The role of dopamine in attentional and memory biases for emotional information.
OBJECTIVE
Cognitive models suggest that biased processing of emotional information may play a role in the genesis and maintenance of psychotic symptoms. The role of dopamine and dopamine antagonists in the processing of such information remains unclear. The authors investigated the effect of a dopamine antagonist on perception of, and memory for, emotional information in healthy volunteers.


METHODS
Thirty-three healthy male volunteers were randomly assigned to a single-blind intervention of either a single dose of the dopamine D(2)/D(3) antagonist amisulpride or placebo. An attentional blink task and an emotional memory task were then administered to assess the affective modulation of attention and memory, respectively.


RESULTS
A significant interaction was observed between stimulus valence and drug on recognition memory accuracy; further contrasts revealed enhanced memory for aversive-arousing compared with neutral stimuli in the placebo but not the amisulpride group. No effect of amisulpride was observed on the perception of emotional stimuli.


CONCLUSIONS
Amisulpride abolished the enhanced memory for emotionally arousing stimuli seen in the placebo group but had no effect on the perception of such stimuli. These results suggests that dopamine plays a significant role in biasing memory toward emotionally salient information and that dopamine antagonists may act by attenuating this bias.
Gibbs
Ayana A
AA
Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, P.O. Box 68, De Crespigny Park, London, UK SE5 8AF. a.gibbs@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Naudts
Kris H
KH
Spencer
Edgar P
EP
David
Anthony S
AS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000077582:Amisulpride; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology*; D018492:Dopamine Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D010465:Perception / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D010919:Placebos; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013469:Sulpiride / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
D018492:Dopamine Antagonists; D010919:Placebos; D013469:Sulpiride; D000077582:Amisulpride; D004298:Dopamine