Affective and decision function of serotonin in humans
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1
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
The ascending monoamine neuromodulatory systems are implicated in healthy and disordered functions so wide-ranging and so apparently heterogeneous that characterizing their function more crisply is an important scientific puzzle. In the case of dopamine, notable progress has been made in the last decade by using a reinforcement learning framework to interpret and connect observations that dopamine is involved, on the one hand, in reward and motivation, and on the other, in behavioral activation and the vigor of movement. By contrast, although the neuromodulator serotonin has functional and clinical importance at least equal to that of dopamine, there is no similarly well-developed framework for understanding any of its roles. In this talk I will present data from a series of experiments with human volunteers, in which central serotonin levels were lowered using the tryptophan depletion procedure. Data demonstrate that such manipulation of serotonin has effects along two similar axes: a motivational axis (appetitive versus aversive) as well as an activational axis (energizing versus inhibiting behavior). Specifically, serotonin depletion was shown to enhance sensitivity to punishment, leading to increased punishment-induced shifting during probabilistic reversal learning and increased anticipation of punishment during prediction learning. By contrast, serotonin depletion enhanced behavioral vigor in a motivated speeding task. Further experiments were designed in which motivational and activational factors were varied independently in a reinforcement learning task, which was performed during fMRI. This work addresses the hypothesis that effects of serotonin can best be understood as serving to couple these two axes rather than affecting them independently.
Keywords:
decision-making,
Serotonin
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Symposium: Oral Presentation
Topic:
Symposium 15: Serotonin, motivation and action in learning and decision-making
Citation:
Cools
R
(2011). Affective and decision function of serotonin in humans.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00560
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Received:
14 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Roshan Cools, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands, roshan.cools@gmail.com