title: DAT1 polymorphism determines L-DOPA effects on learning about others' prosociality.
abstract: Despite that a wealth of evidence links striatal dopamine to individualś reward learning performance in non-social environments, the neurochemical underpinnings of such learning during social interaction are unknown. Here, we show that the administration of 300 mg of the dopamine precursor L-DOPA to 200 healthy male subjects influences learning about a partners' prosocial preferences in a novel social interaction task, which is akin to a repeated trust game. We found learning to be modulated by a well-established genetic marker of striatal dopamine levels, the 40-bp variable number tandem repeats polymorphism of the dopamine transporter (DAT1 polymorphism). In particular, we found that L-DOPA improves learning in 10/10R genoype subjects, who are assumed to have lower endogenous striatal dopamine levels and impairs learning in 9/10R genotype subjects, who are assumed to have higher endogenous dopamine levels. These findings provide first evidence for a critical role of dopamine in learning whether an interaction partner has a prosocial or a selfish personality. The applied pharmacogenetic approach may open doors to new ways of studying psychiatric disorders such as psychosis, which is characterized by distorted perceptions of others' prosocial attitudes.
authors.affiliation: Behavioral and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. christoph.eisenegger@gmail.com
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eisenegger
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pedroni
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rieskamp
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zehnder
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ebstein
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fehr
authors.forename: Daria
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Knoch
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D005787:Gene Frequency; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012925:Social Conformity; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; C493214:SLC6A3 protein, human; D007980:Levodopa; D004298:Dopamine