Published in

Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com], Neuropsychopharmacology, 9(35), p. 1943-1951, 2010

DOI: 10.1038/npp.2010.68

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Striatal Dopamine Mediates the Interface between Motivational and Cognitive Control in Humans: Evidence from Genetic Imaging

Journal article published in 2010 by Esther Aarts, Ardi P. A. Roelofs, Barbara Franke ORCID, Mark J. P. Rijpkema, Guillén S. E. Fernández, Rick C. G. Helmich, Roshan Cools
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Upload
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Policy details
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Dopamine has been hypothesized to provide the basis for the interaction between motivational and cognitive control. However, there is no evidence for this hypothesis in humans. We fill this gap by using fMRI, a novel behavioral paradigm and a common polymorphism in the DAT1 gene (SLC6A3). Carriers of the 9-repeat (9R) allele of a 40 base pair repeat polymorphism in the 3′ untranslated region of DAT1, associated with high striatal dopamine, showed greater activity in the ventromedial striatum during reward anticipation than homozygotes for the 10-repeat allele, replicating previous genetic imaging studies. The crucial novel finding is that 9R carriers also exhibited a greater influence of anticipated reward on switch costs, as well as greater activity in the dorsomedial striatum during task switching in anticipation of high reward relative to low reward. These data establish a crucial role for human striatal dopamine in the modulation of cognitive flexibility by reward anticipation, thus, elucidating the neurochemical mechanism of the interaction between motivation and cognitive control.