title: Dopaminergic control of cognitive flexibility in humans and animals.
abstract: Striatal dopamine (DA) is thought to code for learned associations between cues and reinforcers and to mediate approach behavior toward a reward. Less is known about the contribution of DA to cognitive flexibility-the ability to adapt behavior in response to changes in the environment. Altered reward processing and impairments in cognitive flexibility are observed in psychiatric disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Patients with this disorder show a disruption of functioning in the frontostriatal circuit and alterations in DA signaling. In this review we summarize findings from animal and human studies that have investigated the involvement of striatal DA in cognitive flexibility. These findings may provide a better understanding of the role of dopaminergic dysfunction in cognitive inflexibility in psychiatric disorders, such as OCD.
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Amsterdam, Netherlands ; Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klanker
authors.forename: Matthijs
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Feenstra
authors.forename: Damiaan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Denys
keywords: cognitive flexibility; dopamine; obsessive-compulsive disorder; reversal learning; set-shifting; task switching