Effects of dopamine D2/3 and opioid receptor antagonism on the trade-off between model-based and model-free behaviour in healthy volunteers

Autor(en)

Nace Mikus, Sebastian Korb, Claudia Massaccesi, Christian Gausterer, Irene Graf, Matthäus Willeit, Christoph Eisenegger, Claus Lamm, Giorgia Silani, Christoph Mathys

Abstrakt

Human behaviour requires flexible arbitration between actions we do out of habit and actions that are directed towards a specific goal. Drugs that target opioid and dopamine receptors are notorious for inducing maladaptive habitual drug consumption; yet, how the opioidergic and dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems contribute to the arbitration between habitual and goal-directed behaviour is poorly understood. By combining pharmacological challenges with a well-established decision-making task and a novel computational model, we show that the administration of the dopamine D2/3 receptor antagonist amisulpride led to an increase in goal-directed or ‘model-based’ relative to habitual or ‘model-free’ behaviour, whereas the non-selective opioid receptor antagonist naltrexone had no appreciable effect. The effect of amisulpride on model-based/model-free behaviour did not scale with drug serum levels in the blood. Furthermore, participants with higher amisulpride serum levels showed higher explorative behaviour. These findings highlight the distinct functional contributions of dopamine and opioid receptors to goal-directed and habitual behaviour and support the notion that even small doses of amisulpride promote flexible application of cognitive control.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Psychologie der Kognition, Emotion und Methoden, Institut für Klinische und Gesundheitspsychologie, StudienServiceCenter Sozialwissenschaften, Department für Biochemie und Zellbiologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Aarhus University, University of Essex, Medizinische Universität Wien, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Universität Zürich (UZH), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich

Journal

eLife

Band

11

ISSN

2050-084X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.03.482871

Publikationsdatum

12-2022

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

501011 Kognitionspsychologie, 301210 Psychopharmakologie

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Biochemie, Genetik und Molekularbiologie, Allgemeine Immunologie und Mikrobiologie, Allgemeine Neurowissenschaft

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/18ebf8c2-a1ec-4552-a80d-453905e7d2d2