Increased risk-taking in DYT1 dystonia suggests a link between striatal LTP/LTD and decision making in humans
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1
Hadassah Medical Center & the Hebrew University, Israel
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2
Princeton University, United States
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3
Beth Israel Medical Center, United States
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4
Columbia Medical Center, United States
Dystonia is a poorly understood and potentially debilitating movement disorder characterized by abnormal motor output often induced or worsened by purposeful movements. Rodent models of a variant of dystonia caused by a single gene mutation (DYT1 dystonia) demonstrate increased long-term potentiation (LTP) and decreased long-term depression (LTD) in corticostriatal synapses. Based on reinforcement learning theory, which links corticostriatal plasticity to trial and error learning, we predicted that DYT1 dystonia should also show abnormalities in non-motor learning. Specifically, patients should overvalue stimuli associated with probabilistic rewards and, as a result, exhibit increased risk taking. We tested DYT1 dystonia patients on an operant learning paradigm with unpredictable (risky) rewards. Patients were significantly more risk taking than healthy controls and the clinical severity of dystonia was correlated with risk taking behavior. Our results demonstrate novel non-motor manifestations of dystonia and suggest a link between striatal plasticity and choice behavior in humans.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by Dystonia Coalition grant NS065701 from the NIH and by the National Institute for Psycobiology in Israel
Keywords:
Dystonia,
DYT1,
Risk taking,
Reward,
Basal Ganglia,
Striatum
Conference:
5th Biennial Workshop on Dystonia: “Controversies in Dystonia and Parkinsonism” | Nobile Collegio Chimico Farmaceutico, Rome, May 29-30, 2015, Rome, Italy, 29 May - 30 May, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Poster presentation
Topic:
Dystonia
Citation:
Arkadir
D,
Radulescu
A,
Raymond
D,
Lubarr
N,
Bressman
S,
Mazzoni
P and
Niv
Y
(2015). Increased risk-taking in DYT1 dystonia suggests a link between striatal LTP/LTD and decision making in humans.
Front. Neurol.
Conference Abstract:
5th Biennial Workshop on Dystonia: “Controversies in Dystonia and Parkinsonism” | Nobile Collegio Chimico Farmaceutico, Rome, May 29-30, 2015.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fneur.2015.57.00003
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Received:
27 Apr 2015;
Published Online:
29 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
MD, PhD. David Arkadir, Hadassah Medical Center & the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, arkadir@gmail.com