Role of Dopamine in the Motivational and Cognitive Control of Behavior

“…performance levels has been argued to reflect quantitative variation in baseline levels of dopamine neurotrans-mission, so that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between dopamine receptor stimulation and performance (Williams and Goldman-Rakic 1995; Zahrt and others 1997; Arnsten 1998 2008).”

“Within cognitive psychology this has been described as a trade-off between flexibility and stability (e.g., Cools, 2008; Dreisbach & Goschke, 2004; Dreisbach et al., 2005; Müller et al., 2007).”

“Generally, the FRN might be affected later in the course of disease progression than the ERN because the ventral striatum, relevant for reward processing, seems to be affected by dopamine depletion only at more severe stages of PD (104, 105).”

“Owing to its role in motivational processing underlying learning, memory, cognition, emotion, and reward processing (Cools 2008, Schultz 2002), DA function has been of keen interest regarding adolescence sensation seeking (for reviews, see Padmanabhan & Luna 2013, Spear 2000, Wahlstrom et al. 2010).”

“The linkage between DRD2 variation and these seemingly diverse phenotypes may be driven by an effect on frontostriatal circuitry for flexible, value-based action selection (Cools, 2008; Balleine and O’Doherty, 2010).”

“For example Cools (2008) has identified frontostriatal and limbic-striatal dopaminergic pathways as important regulators of impulsive and/or rigid behaviours, which may reflect deficient motivational or cognitive control.”

“…robust maintenance and flexible updating of working memory representations (e.g. Armbruster et al., 2012; Müller et al., 2007; for reviews see Cools, 2008; Durstewitz and Seamans, 2008; O’Reilly, 2006; van Schouwenburg et al., 2010), whereas serotonergic systems appear to play a role in…”

“…multiple constraint satisfaction problem that confronts agents with fundamental trade-offs between antagonistic adaptive requirements (Goschke, 2000, 2003, 2013; Goschke & Dreisbach, 2008; Gruber & Goschke, 2004; Kuhl & Goschke, 1994) (for related ideas see Cohen, McClure, & Yu, 2007; Cools, 2008).”

“It is less clear whether this is because the mesocortical dopaminergic pathway is driving prefrontal cortex as a whole (e.g. Cools, 2008) or whether it mainly drives dopaminergic D1 family receptors that dominate, but are not restricted to prefrontal cortex (Durstewitz and Seamans, 2008).”

“The dopaminergic system itself is complex and there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the amount of dopamine receptor stimulation and its effect on performance (Cools, 2008).”

“…1996; Schultz et al., 1997), it has been argued that longer-timescale (Btonic^) extracellular dopamine levels might be a neural substrate for tracking average rewards and for controlling the behaviors that depend on them (Beierholm et al., 2013; Cools, 2008; Niv et al., 2006; Niv et al., 2007).”

“This possible link between dopamine and control policies was also strongly emphasized by Cools and D’Esposito (Cools, 2008, 2012; Cools & D’Esposito, 2010).”

“This uniqueness of SS may be explained by the fact that just like the other impulsivity dimensions, it is influenced by the ventral-striatal dopamine system (60), but unlike them, it does not share weakness in other dopamine pathways such as the dorsal nigrostriatal system, which subserves WM and flexible behavioral c…”

“Controlled processing (or executive control) entails the maintenance and stabilization of goal representations in working or prospective memory and the flexibility to update these goal representations when necessary (Cools, 2008).”

“Recent imaging studies of immune-induced fatigue implicate the nigrostriatal pathway, a dopamine pathway that facilitates movement and drives motivational behavior (Cools, 2008).”

“…are often associated with alterations in dopamine transmission in prefrontal cortex and striatum (Arnsten et al., 1994; Cai and Arnsten, 1997; Cools, 2008; Cools and D’Esposito, 2011; Landau et al., 2009; Vernaleken et al., 2007) and dopamine depletion in those brain areas impairs cognitive…”

“, 2012, 2011), and striatal dopamine signaling, particularly in the ventral striatum, has been suggested to serve as an interface between so called “bottom-up” incentive motivational processes and “top-down” cognitive control of behavior (Aarts et al., 2010; Cools, 2008).”

“Response inhibition is the ability to suppress a prepotent or habitual response, including both motor actions and higher-order responses (such as thoughts, memories, or emotions) and is therefore critical to the ability to stop or suppress rapid, automatic behaviors in response to goals or environmental contingencies…”

“While changes occur in numerous neurotransmitter systems, some key findings from the expansive literature on changes in the dopamine (DA) system are highlighted below given its prominent role in reward and cognitive processing (Cools, 2008; Schultz, 2007; Wise, 2004).”

“Dopamine is a key neuro-modulator (Cools, 2008) and appears to play a special role in the control of delay-related responding (Roesch et al., 2007).”

“Interestingly, the brain systems that are targeted by the two major dopaminergic pathways in humans (the frontal and the striatal pathway; see Cools, 2008) are particularly strongly affected by developmental factors and are suspected to keep developing into early adulthood (Gogtay et al., 2004).”

“Below, we discuss findings based on a selection of cognitive tasks dependent on frontal cortical functions comparing PD patients with and without ICDs.”

“Analysis of variance evealed again a significant interaction between drug treatment nd genotype on gambling behavior [F (1,196) 4.”

“In conclusion, dopaminergic variation in healthy adults may be one of many factors (including individual differences in baseline performance of the given task and self-reported trait impulsivity (Cools, 2008)) to influence this range of dopamine availability.”

“The role of ventral versusdorsalmechanisms in ICDs aspart of PD awaits further investigation, but appears of crucial importance [51].”

“Dopamine is known as a critical signal-transmission element between the neurons since it is affiliated with most of the important human body function such as motor control, reward, motivation, and cognitive functions [2-5].”

“Dopamine modulates working memory by controlling the dorsolateral prefrontal cortical circuits (Tanaka, 2006), that is part of the internal reward system (Schultz, 2005), and modulates arousal and attention and the cognitive control of behavior (Cools, 2008).”

“First, there is not just one DA system, but three major pathways, with at least two of them putatively involved in regulating creative thinking and behavior [21]: the mediofrontal pathway originating in the ventral tegmental area, and the nigrostriatal pathway originating in the substantia nigra [12, 22].”

“affecting the dopamine system (Rammsayer, 2008; Meck, 1996), suggesting that this neurotransmitter system, which may underlie such crucial functions as working memory (Cools, 2008) learning (Klein et al.”

“Our findings suggested an effect on reward processing, which in turn is essential for shaping of goal-directed behavior and flexible adaption to volatile environments (Cools, 2008).”

“…produce dopamine respond to different properties of incentives, including salience and valence, and modulate reciprocal interactions between the prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum (which includes the nucleus accumbens), an area highly implicated in the processing of rewards (Cools, 2008).”

“The dopaminergic reward circuitry of the basal ganglia has been a prominent topic of research on associative reward learning (e.g., Cools, 2008; Schultz et al., 1997; Waelti et al., 2001).”

“Neuroimaging studies in humans link drug-associated visual cues with DA release in the dorsal striatum and cocaine craving (Wong et al., 2006; Volkow et al., 2006, 2008).”

“Frontostriatal circuits subserving affective, cognitive, and motor processes are significantly modulated by the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) (for reviews see (Cools, 2008; Schultz, 2002; Wise, 2004), through facilitation of the direct pathway via the action of excitatory DA receptors (D1-like), and inhibition of the…”

“…of D1 and D2 receptors in prefrontal and striatal areas, respectively, affect cognitive functioning by modulating frontal and striatal DA levels (Cools, 2008; Cools and D’Esposito, 2011; Colzato, van den Wildenberg, Van der Does and Hommel, 2010; Colzato, van den Wildenberg and Hommel, 2013;…”

“The dorsal caudate is viewed as critical for cognitive processing [Cools, 2008], as it receives strong connections with cortical regions implicated in cognition such as the dlPFC and dmPFC including the ACC [Selemon and Goldman-Rakic, 1985; Vogt and Pandya 1987; Yeterian and Van Hoesen, 1978; Zhang…”

“…with the possibility that dopamine has a broader role in decision making beyond reward prediction errors extending to signaling punishments (Bromberg-Martin et al., 2010), action requirements (GuitartMasip et al., 2012), and modulating cognitive flexibility and working memory (Cools, 2008).”

“Moreover, several studies have found cortical dopamine to be involved in cognitive flexibility (Frank, 2005; Cools, 2008; Garcia-Garcia et al., 2010), one of the main components of DT.”

“Given the relationship between trait impulsivity, dopamine, striatal, and prefrontal function (Cools, 2008), it is tempting to speculate that differences in the propensity to choke under pressure might be due to naturally occurring differences in endogenous dopamine function.”

“The mesocortical dopaminergic circuitry, considered broadly relevant to motivated behavior [for reviews see Cools (2008), Salamone & Correa (2002), Berridge (2007), and Floresco & Magyar (2006)] also undergoes considerable development during adolescence (Chambers et al., 2003; Ernst & Fudge, 2009;…”

“Several studies have also highlighted the role of neurotransmitters in decision making and reward processing attributing a crucial role to the dopaminergic system (for reviews see Cools, 2006, 2008; Schultz, 2002).”

“This suggests that this measure of impulsivity, which is one of the most widely used (Cools, 2008), may be useful in detecting impulsive behaviour in PD.”

“Also of interest, individual differences in the balance between these two pathways in the corresponding functions have been demonstrated to modulate the size of the AB: it is smaller in individuals with high working-memory span (26) – a frontal function (21) – and with a genetic setup that is associated with high fron…”

“…(Colzato et al., 2014b), this might be taken to imply a stronger impact of TYR on the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway, which is assumed to be involved in switching to novel information, updating, and inhibition (Cools, 2008; Cools and D'Esposito, 2010; van Schouwenburg , Aarts and Cools, 2010).”

“A consequence however, is that the use of levodopa can overdose this nucleus, which may cause feedback-based learning deficits (Cools, 2006).”

“…synthesis capacity measured via FDOPA PET relate to important behavioral and neural signatures in healthy participants (Gallinat et al., 2007; Cools, 2008; Jocham et al., 2012; Schlagenhauf et al., 2012; Schmaal et al., 2012; Gleich et al., 2014; Deserno et al., 2015b) and in schizophrenia…”

“Secondly and even more importantly, it has to be taken into account that the relationship betweenmesolimbic DA, D2-receptor density and impulsivity is not linear, but may rather follow the shape of an inverted-U function (see Cools, 2008).”

“Although disinhibition may benefit creative thinking initially (Cheng et al., 2016), as the process of ideation progresses, disinhibition can allow task-irrelevant material to increase cognitive load (Cheng et al., 2016; Cools, 2008; Dreisbach & Goschke, 2004).”

“Numerous research studies have provided the evidence that dopamine is correlated with motivational and cognitive control of behaviors (Cools, 2008).”

“The neuromodulator dopamine acts as a reward center for the brain and regulates motivational and cognitive-behavioral control [125].”

“Recently also the striatum has been found to play a role in the updating of representations (Frank et al., 2001; Gruber et al., 2006; Cools, 2008; McNab and Klingberg, 2008).”

“…opposing cognitive control functions: while the mesofrontal pathway seems to be important for working memory and the representation and maintenance of goals, the nigrostriatal pathway seems to play a key role in inhibiting ongoing actions and taking in external information (Cools 2006, 2008).”

“Importantly, these groups presumably have more balanced cortical and striatal involvement in performance via balanced D1 and D2 dopamine receptor activation (Cools, 2008; Garcia-Garcia et al., 2011).”

“…the prefrontal cortex (PFC) including the dorsolateral PFC and dorsal ACC (Yeterian and Van Hoesen, 1978; Selemon and Goldman-Rakic, 1985; Vogt and Pandya, 1987; Haber, 2003; Zhang et al., 2012), the caudate nucleus is viewed as a subcortical hub for higher order cognitive functions (Cools, 2008).”

“It is possible that such dopaminergic modulation changed the balance between striatal and prefrontal processing, which might have driven the changes in cognitive control we have observed (cf. Cools 2008).”

“Several studies have found that G/G individuals perform better than those with the A/A allele on tasks demanding cognitive flexibility, while individuals with the A/A allele are better at tasks demanding focused attention [40-43].”

“Both functional (Goschke, 2003; Dreisbach and Goschke, 2004) and neural (Cools, 2008, 2012; Cools and D’Esposito, 2011) considerations suggest that cognitive-control states can vary both intra- and inter-individually to the degree that they either focus the available processing capacity on one…”

“, attentional processes, task-switching) by monetary rewards is specifically linked with increased dopamine release in the striatum and prefrontal cortex (Aarts et al., 2011; Braver & Cohen, 2000; Cools, 2008; Schouwenburg et al., 2010; Westbrook & Braver, 2016).”

“Trait impulsivity is thought to be at least partly the result of heightened reward sensitivity and activity of reward and affective neurocircuitry (Cools et al., 2003; Cools, 2008; Buckholtz et al., 2010; Reeves et al., 2012).”