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Serotonin Selectively Modulates Reward Value in Human Decision-Making
Open accessAbstract
Establishing a function for the neuromodulator serotonin in human decision-making has proved remarkably difficult because if its complex role in reward and punishment processing. In a novel choice task where actions led concurrently and independently to the stochastic delivery of both money and pain, we studied the impact of decreased brain serotonin induced by acute dietary tryptophan depletion. Depletion selectively impaired both behavioral and neural representations of reward outcome value, and hence the effective exchange rate by which rewards and punishments were compared. This effect was computationally and anatomically distinct from a separate effect on increasing outcome-independent choice perseveration. Our results provide evidence for a surprising role for serotonin in reward processing, while illustrating its complex and multifarious effects.
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“ATD has been shown to affect measures of both ‘cold’ (rational and non-emotional), and ‘hot’ (social and emotional) cognition [13–18].”
From Chronic escitalopram in healthy volunteers has specific effects on reinforcement sensitivity: a double-blind, placebo-controlled semi-randomised study (2023) · cites this paper as [13]
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“Effects of ATD have also been seen on reinforcement behaviour [13], reversal learning [9, 14], learning and memory [15], affective and social cognition [9, 16, 17] and moral judgement [18].”
From Chronic escitalopram in healthy volunteers has specific effects on reinforcement sensitivity: a double-blind, placebo-controlled semi-randomised study (2023) · cites this paper as [13]
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“A previous study examining how reinforcement is influenced by serotonergic modulation showed that acute tryptophan depletion decreased reinforcement sensitivity, by impairing the representation of reward outcome value [13].”
From Chronic escitalopram in healthy volunteers has specific effects on reinforcement sensitivity: a double-blind, placebo-controlled semi-randomised study (2023) · cites this paper as [13]
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“However, three decision-making studies (Seymour et al., 2012; Roy et al., 2014; Eldar et al., 2016) that involved avoiding pain or shock examined prediction errors to successful and unsuccessful avoidance, and two found evidence for striatal prediction errors to successful avoidance of shock.”
From Active avoidance: Neural mechanisms and attenuation of pavlovian conditioned responding (2017) · cites this paper as Seymour et al., 2012
In the citing paper
“The vmPFC, rather than regions included in the NPS, correlates with spontaneous, clinical pain [52], and encodes the learned, behavioral avoidance value associated with painful stimulation [85],[86].”
From Distinct Brain Systems Mediate the Effects of Nociceptive Input and Self-Regulation on Pain (2015) · cites this paper as [85]
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“By contrast, vmPFC activity seems to reflect expected positive value in a variety of contexts and paradigms45, including reward learning, economic choice46, pain avoidance11, and extinction/extinction recall47.”
From Representation of aversive prediction errors in the human periaqueductal gray (2014) · cites this paper as [11]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Seymour, B., Daw, N. D., Roiser, J. P., Dayan, P., & Dolan, R.
- Affiliations
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (GB)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2012-04-25
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 17
- Pages
- 5833-5842
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC5321452
- OpenAlex
- W2083058253
- Cited by
- 252
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 8.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Cambridge University Engineering Department Publications Database (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (091593, 079866)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Keywords
- serotonin, decision-making, reward value, tryptophan depletion, monetary rewards, pain, punishment, reward processing, computational modeling of choice
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Brain Mapping, Conditioning, Operant, Decision Making, Double-Blind Method, Electric Stimulation, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Pain, Pain Measurement, Probability, Punishment, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reward, Serotonin, Statistics as Topic, Tryptophan, Dietary Supplements
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