Cargando…

Reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion

RATIONALE: Dopamine is well known to play an important role in learning and motivation. Recent animal studies have implicated dopamine in the reinforcement of stimulus–response habits, as well as in flexible, goal-directed action. However, the role of dopamine in human action control is still not we...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: de Wit, Sanne, Standing, Holly R., DeVito, Elise E., Robinson, Oliver J., Ridderinkhof, K. Richard, Robbins, Trevor W., Sahakian, Barbara J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer-Verlag 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22134475
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2563-2
_version_ 1782220306696372224
author de Wit, Sanne
Standing, Holly R.
DeVito, Elise E.
Robinson, Oliver J.
Ridderinkhof, K. Richard
Robbins, Trevor W.
Sahakian, Barbara J.
author_facet de Wit, Sanne
Standing, Holly R.
DeVito, Elise E.
Robinson, Oliver J.
Ridderinkhof, K. Richard
Robbins, Trevor W.
Sahakian, Barbara J.
author_sort de Wit, Sanne
collection PubMed
description RATIONALE: Dopamine is well known to play an important role in learning and motivation. Recent animal studies have implicated dopamine in the reinforcement of stimulus–response habits, as well as in flexible, goal-directed action. However, the role of dopamine in human action control is still not well understood. OBJECTIVES: We present the first investigation of the effect of reducing dopamine function in healthy volunteers on the balance between habitual and goal-directed action control. METHODS: The dietary intervention of acute dietary phenylalanine and tyrosine depletion (APTD) was adopted to study the effects of reduced global dopamine function on action control. Participants were randomly assigned to either the APTD or placebo group (ns = 14) to allow for a between-subjects comparison of performance on a novel three-stage experimental paradigm. In the initial learning phase, participants learned to respond to different stimuli in order to gain rewarding outcomes. Subsequently, an outcome-devaluation test and a slips-of-action test were conducted to assess whether participants were able to flexibly adjust their behaviour to changes in the desirability of the outcomes. RESULTS: APTD did not prevent stimulus–response learning, nor did we find evidence for impaired response–outcome learning in the subsequent outcome-devaluation test. However, when goal-directed and habitual systems competed for control in the slips-of-action test, APTD tipped the balance towards habitual control. These findings were restricted to female volunteers. CONCLUSIONS: We provide direct evidence that the balance between goal-directed and habitual control in humans is dopamine dependent. The results are discussed in light of gender differences in dopamine function and psychopathologies. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00213-011-2563-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3249188
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2011
publisher Springer-Verlag
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-32491882012-01-11 Reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion de Wit, Sanne Standing, Holly R. DeVito, Elise E. Robinson, Oliver J. Ridderinkhof, K. Richard Robbins, Trevor W. Sahakian, Barbara J. Psychopharmacology (Berl) Original Investigation RATIONALE: Dopamine is well known to play an important role in learning and motivation. Recent animal studies have implicated dopamine in the reinforcement of stimulus–response habits, as well as in flexible, goal-directed action. However, the role of dopamine in human action control is still not well understood. OBJECTIVES: We present the first investigation of the effect of reducing dopamine function in healthy volunteers on the balance between habitual and goal-directed action control. METHODS: The dietary intervention of acute dietary phenylalanine and tyrosine depletion (APTD) was adopted to study the effects of reduced global dopamine function on action control. Participants were randomly assigned to either the APTD or placebo group (ns = 14) to allow for a between-subjects comparison of performance on a novel three-stage experimental paradigm. In the initial learning phase, participants learned to respond to different stimuli in order to gain rewarding outcomes. Subsequently, an outcome-devaluation test and a slips-of-action test were conducted to assess whether participants were able to flexibly adjust their behaviour to changes in the desirability of the outcomes. RESULTS: APTD did not prevent stimulus–response learning, nor did we find evidence for impaired response–outcome learning in the subsequent outcome-devaluation test. However, when goal-directed and habitual systems competed for control in the slips-of-action test, APTD tipped the balance towards habitual control. These findings were restricted to female volunteers. CONCLUSIONS: We provide direct evidence that the balance between goal-directed and habitual control in humans is dopamine dependent. The results are discussed in light of gender differences in dopamine function and psychopathologies. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00213-011-2563-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Springer-Verlag 2011-12-03 2012 /pmc/articles/PMC3249188/ /pubmed/22134475 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2563-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2011 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
spellingShingle Original Investigation
de Wit, Sanne
Standing, Holly R.
DeVito, Elise E.
Robinson, Oliver J.
Ridderinkhof, K. Richard
Robbins, Trevor W.
Sahakian, Barbara J.
Reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion
title Reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion
title_full Reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion
title_fullStr Reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion
title_full_unstemmed Reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion
title_short Reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion
title_sort reliance on habits at the expense of goal-directed control following dopamine precursor depletion
topic Original Investigation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22134475
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2563-2
work_keys_str_mv AT dewitsanne relianceonhabitsattheexpenseofgoaldirectedcontrolfollowingdopamineprecursordepletion
AT standinghollyr relianceonhabitsattheexpenseofgoaldirectedcontrolfollowingdopamineprecursordepletion
AT devitoelisee relianceonhabitsattheexpenseofgoaldirectedcontrolfollowingdopamineprecursordepletion
AT robinsonoliverj relianceonhabitsattheexpenseofgoaldirectedcontrolfollowingdopamineprecursordepletion
AT ridderinkhofkrichard relianceonhabitsattheexpenseofgoaldirectedcontrolfollowingdopamineprecursordepletion
AT robbinstrevorw relianceonhabitsattheexpenseofgoaldirectedcontrolfollowingdopamineprecursordepletion
AT sahakianbarbaraj relianceonhabitsattheexpenseofgoaldirectedcontrolfollowingdopamineprecursordepletion