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A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice

Theoretical accounts disagree on the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice and assume that dopamine either promotes delay of gratification by increasing the preference for larger rewards or that dopamine reduces patience by enhancing the sensitivity to waiting costs. Here, we reconcile these conf...

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Autores principales: Soutschek, Alexander, Tobler, Philippe N
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995109/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36884013
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.83734
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author Soutschek, Alexander
Tobler, Philippe N
author_facet Soutschek, Alexander
Tobler, Philippe N
author_sort Soutschek, Alexander
collection PubMed
description Theoretical accounts disagree on the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice and assume that dopamine either promotes delay of gratification by increasing the preference for larger rewards or that dopamine reduces patience by enhancing the sensitivity to waiting costs. Here, we reconcile these conflicting accounts by providing empirical support for a novel process model according to which dopamine contributes to two dissociable components of the decision process, evidence accumulation and starting bias. We re-analyzed a previously published data set where intertemporal decisions were made either under the D2 antagonist amisulpride or under placebo by fitting a hierarchical drift diffusion model that distinguishes between dopaminergic effects on the speed of evidence accumulation and the starting point of the accumulation process. Blocking dopaminergic neurotransmission not only strengthened the sensitivity to whether a reward is perceived as worth the delay costs during evidence accumulation (drift rate) but also attenuated the impact of waiting costs on the starting point of the evidence accumulation process (bias). In contrast, re-analyzing data from a D1 agonist study provided no evidence for a causal involvement of D1R activation in intertemporal choices. Taken together, our findings support a novel, process-based account of the role of dopamine for cost-benefit decision making, highlight the potential benefits of process-informed analyses, and advance our understanding of dopaminergic contributions to decision making.
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spelling pubmed-99951092023-03-09 A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice Soutschek, Alexander Tobler, Philippe N eLife Neuroscience Theoretical accounts disagree on the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice and assume that dopamine either promotes delay of gratification by increasing the preference for larger rewards or that dopamine reduces patience by enhancing the sensitivity to waiting costs. Here, we reconcile these conflicting accounts by providing empirical support for a novel process model according to which dopamine contributes to two dissociable components of the decision process, evidence accumulation and starting bias. We re-analyzed a previously published data set where intertemporal decisions were made either under the D2 antagonist amisulpride or under placebo by fitting a hierarchical drift diffusion model that distinguishes between dopaminergic effects on the speed of evidence accumulation and the starting point of the accumulation process. Blocking dopaminergic neurotransmission not only strengthened the sensitivity to whether a reward is perceived as worth the delay costs during evidence accumulation (drift rate) but also attenuated the impact of waiting costs on the starting point of the evidence accumulation process (bias). In contrast, re-analyzing data from a D1 agonist study provided no evidence for a causal involvement of D1R activation in intertemporal choices. Taken together, our findings support a novel, process-based account of the role of dopamine for cost-benefit decision making, highlight the potential benefits of process-informed analyses, and advance our understanding of dopaminergic contributions to decision making. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2023-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9995109/ /pubmed/36884013 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.83734 Text en © 2023, Soutschek and Tobler https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Soutschek, Alexander
Tobler, Philippe N
A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice
title A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice
title_full A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice
title_fullStr A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice
title_full_unstemmed A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice
title_short A process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice
title_sort process model account of the role of dopamine in intertemporal choice
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995109/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36884013
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.83734
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