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Guedj C, Reynaud A, Monfardini E, Salemme R, Farnè A, Meunier M, Hadj-Bouziane F. Atomoxetine modulates the relationship between perceptual abilities and response bias. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2019; 236:3641-3653. [PMID: 31384989 PMCID: PMC6954008 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-019-05336-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2019] [Accepted: 07/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Elucidation of how neuromodulators influence motivated behaviors is a major challenge of neuroscience research. It has been proposed that the locus-cœruleus-norepinephrine system promotes behavioral flexibility and provides resources required to face challenges in a wide range of cognitive processes. Both theoretical models and computational models suggest that the locus-cœruleus-norepinephrine system tunes neural gain in brain circuits to optimize behavior. However, to the best of our knowledge, empirical proof demonstrating the role of norepinephrine in performance optimization is scarce. Here, we modulated norepinephrine transmission in monkeys performing a Go/No-Go discrimination task using atomoxetine, a norepinephrine-reuptake inhibitor. We tested the optimization hypothesis by assessing perceptual sensitivity, response bias, and their functional relationship within the framework of the signal detection theory. We also manipulated the contingencies of the task (level of stimulus discriminability, target stimulus frequency, and decision outcome values) to modulate the relationship between sensitivity and response bias. We found that atomoxetine increased the subject's perceptual sensitivity to discriminate target stimuli regardless of the task contingency. Atomoxetine also improved the functional relationship between sensitivity and response bias, leading to a closer fit with the optimal strategy in different contexts. In addition, atomoxetine tended to reduce reaction time variability. Taken together, these findings support a role of norepinephrine transmission in optimizing response strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carole Guedj
- INSERM, U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct Team, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, 69500, Bron, France. .,University UCBL Lyon 1, F-69000, Villeurbanne, France.
| | - Amélie Reynaud
- Present Address: INSERM, U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct
Team, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, 69500 Bron, France ,University UCBL Lyon 1, F-69000 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Elisabetta Monfardini
- Present Address: INSERM, U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct
Team, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, 69500 Bron, France ,University UCBL Lyon 1, F-69000 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Romeo Salemme
- Present Address: INSERM, U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct
Team, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, 69500 Bron, France ,University UCBL Lyon 1, F-69000 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Alessandro Farnè
- Present Address: INSERM, U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct
Team, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, 69500 Bron, France ,University UCBL Lyon 1, F-69000 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Martine Meunier
- Present Address: INSERM, U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct
Team, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, 69500 Bron, France ,University UCBL Lyon 1, F-69000 Villeurbanne, France
| | - Fadila Hadj-Bouziane
- INSERM, U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct Team, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, 69500, Bron, France. .,University UCBL Lyon 1, F-69000, Villeurbanne, France.
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Stock AK, Colzato L, Beste C. On the effects of tyrosine supplementation on interference control in a randomized, double-blind placebo-control trial. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2018; 28:933-944. [PMID: 29980424 DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2018.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2017] [Revised: 03/22/2018] [Accepted: 05/17/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Exerting cognitive control is an effortful endeavor that is strongly modulated by the availability of dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE), which are both synthesized from the amino acid precursor tyrosine. Supplementing tyrosine may increase the synthesis of both catecholamines. This has been suggested to improve executive functioning and potentially even counteract depletion effects in this domain. Yet, it has remained unclear whether tyrosine also improves interference control and whether subliminally and consciously triggered response conflicts are subject to the same modulation. We investigated this question in a double-blind intra-individual study design. N = 26 young healthy subjects performed two consecutive cognitive control tasks that triggered automatic incorrect response tendencies; once with tyrosine supplementation and once with a placebo. The results show that tyrosine decreased the size of consciously perceived conflicts in a Simon Task, but not a Flanker task, thus suggesting that stimulus-response conflicts might be modulated differently from stimulus-stimulus conflicts. At the same time, tyrosine supplementation increased the size of subliminally triggered conflicts whenever a different, consciously perceived conflict was also present. This suggests that control-related DA and NE release may increase visuo-motor priming, especially when no conflict-specific top-down control may be triggered to counteract subliminal priming effects. Also, these subliminal conflicts might be aggravated by concurrent control investments in other kinds of conflict. Taken together, our data suggest that beneficial effects of tyrosine supplementation do not require depletion effects, but may be limited to situations where we consciously perceive a conflict and the associated need for conflict-specific control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann-Kathrin Stock
- Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Schubertstr. 42, D-01307 Dresden, Germany; Cognitive Psychology Unit and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.
| | - Lorenza Colzato
- Cognitive Psychology Unit and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands; Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; Institute for Sports and Sport Science, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany
| | - Christian Beste
- Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Schubertstr. 42, D-01307 Dresden, Germany
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Evans DR, Boggero IA, Segerstrom SC. The Nature of Self-Regulatory Fatigue and "Ego Depletion": Lessons From Physical Fatigue. PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW 2016; 20:291-310. [PMID: 26228914 PMCID: PMC4788579 DOI: 10.1177/1088868315597841] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Self-regulation requires overriding a dominant response and leads to temporary self-regulatory fatigue. Existing theories of the nature and causes of self-regulatory fatigue highlight physiological substrates such as glucose, or psychological processes such as motivation, but these explanations are incomplete on their own. Historically, theories of physical fatigue demonstrate a similar pattern of useful but incomplete explanations, as recent views of physical fatigue emphasize the roles of both physiological and psychological factors. In addition to accounting for multiple inputs, these newer views also explain how fatigue can occur even in the presence of sufficient resources. Examining these newer theories of physical fatigue can serve as a foundation on which to build a more comprehensive understanding of self-regulatory fatigue that integrates possible neurobiological underpinnings of physical and self-regulatory fatigue, and suggests the possible function of self-regulatory fatigue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel R Evans
- 1 University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA
- 2 Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
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Dopamine antagonism decreases willingness to expend physical, but not cognitive, effort: a comparison of two rodent cost/benefit decision-making tasks. Neuropsychopharmacology 2015; 40:1005-15. [PMID: 25328051 PMCID: PMC4330516 DOI: 10.1038/npp.2014.285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 102] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2014] [Revised: 10/03/2014] [Accepted: 10/06/2014] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Successful decision making often requires weighing a given option's costs against its associated benefits, an ability that appears perturbed in virtually every severe mental illness. Animal models of such cost/benefit decision making overwhelmingly implicate mesolimbic dopamine in our willingness to exert effort for a larger reward. Until recently, however, animal models have invariably manipulated the degree of physical effort, whereas human studies of effort have primarily relied on cognitive costs. Dopamine's relationship to cognitive effort has not been directly examined, nor has the relationship between individuals' willingness to expend mental versus physical effort. It is therefore unclear whether willingness to work hard in one domain corresponds to willingness in the other. Here we utilize a rat cognitive effort task (rCET), wherein animals can choose to allocate greater visuospatial attention for a greater reward, and a previously established physical effort-discounting task (EDT) to examine dopaminergic and noradrenergic contributions to effort. The dopamine antagonists eticlopride and SCH23390 each decreased willingness to exert physical effort on the EDT; these drugs had no effect on willingness to exert mental effort for the rCET. Preference for the high effort option correlated across the two tasks, although this effect was transient. These results suggest that dopamine is only minimally involved in cost/benefit decision making with cognitive effort costs. The constructs of mental and physical effort may therefore comprise overlapping, but distinct, circuitry, and therapeutic interventions that prove efficacious in one effort domain may not be beneficial in another.
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Vassena E, Silvetti M, Boehler CN, Achten E, Fias W, Verguts T. Overlapping neural systems represent cognitive effort and reward anticipation. PLoS One 2014; 9:e91008. [PMID: 24608867 PMCID: PMC3946624 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 118] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2013] [Accepted: 02/07/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Anticipating a potential benefit and how difficult it will be to obtain it are valuable skills in a constantly changing environment. In the human brain, the anticipation of reward is encoded by the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and Striatum. Naturally, potential rewards have an incentive quality, resulting in a motivational effect improving performance. Recently it has been proposed that an upcoming task requiring effort induces a similar anticipation mechanism as reward, relying on the same cortico-limbic network. However, this overlapping anticipatory activity for reward and effort has only been investigated in a perceptual task. Whether this generalizes to high-level cognitive tasks remains to be investigated. To this end, an fMRI experiment was designed to investigate anticipation of reward and effort in cognitive tasks. A mental arithmetic task was implemented, manipulating effort (difficulty), reward, and delay in reward delivery to control for temporal confounds. The goal was to test for the motivational effect induced by the expectation of bigger reward and higher effort. The results showed that the activation elicited by an upcoming difficult task overlapped with higher reward prospect in the ACC and in the striatum, thus highlighting a pivotal role of this circuit in sustaining motivated behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eliana Vassena
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Ghent Institute for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
- * E-mail:
| | - Massimo Silvetti
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Ghent Institute for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Carsten N. Boehler
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Ghent Institute for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Eric Achten
- Ghent Institute for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Wim Fias
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Ghent Institute for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Tom Verguts
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Ghent Institute for Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium
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