title: Action controls dopaminergic enhancement of reward representations.
abstract: Dopamine is widely observed to signal anticipation of future rewards and thus thought to be a key contributor to affectively charged decision making. However, the experiments supporting this view have not dissociated rewards from the actions that lead to, or are occasioned by, them. Here, we manipulated dopamine pharmacologically and examined the effect on a task that explicitly dissociates action and reward value. We show that dopamine enhanced the neural representation of rewarding actions, without significantly affecting the representation of reward value as such. Thus, increasing dopamine levels with levodopa selectively boosted striatal and substantia nigra/ventral tegmental representations associated with actions leading to reward, but not with actions leading to the avoidance of punishment. These findings highlight a key role for dopamine in the generation of appetitively motivated actions.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom. m.guitart@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guitart-Masip
authors.forename: Rumana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Tali
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sharot
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dayan
authors.forename: Emrah
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Duzel
authors.forename: Raymond J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dolan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015283:Citalopram / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D015259:Dopamine Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D017709:Fractals; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011678:Punishment; D012201:Reward; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D013681:Tegmentum Mesencephali / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015283:Citalopram; D004298:Dopamine; D015259:Dopamine Agents; D007980:Levodopa; D012701:Serotonin; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors