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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 24, 2008, 28(52):14311-14319; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2058-08.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Mesolimbic Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Activations during Reward Anticipation Correlate with Reward-Related Ventral Striatal Dopamine Release

Björn H. Schott,^1,2,3 * Luciano Minuzzi,^4 * Ruth M. Krebs,² David Elmenhorst,⁴ Markus Lang,⁵ Oliver H. Winz,⁴ Constanze I. Seidenbecher,¹ Heinz H. Coenen,⁵ Hans-Jochen Heinze,^1,2 Karl Zilles,⁴ Emrah Düzel,^2,6  and Andreas Bauer^4,7 

¹Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, 39118 Magdeburg, Germany, ²Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany, ³Department of Psychiatry, Campus Mitte, Charité University Hospital, 10117 Berlin, Germany, ⁴INB-3 (Medicine) and ⁵INB-4 (Nuclear Chemistry), Institute of Neurosciences and Biophysics, Research Center Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany, ⁶Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom, and ⁷Department of Neurology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Björn H. Schott, Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Brenneckestrasse 6, 39118 Magdeburg, Germany. Email: bschott{at}neuro2.med.uni-magdeburg.de

The dopaminergic mechanisms that control reward-motivated behavior are the subject of intense study, but it is yet unclear how, in humans, neural activity in mesolimbic reward-circuitry and its functional neuroimaging correlates are related to dopamine release. To address this question, we obtained functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures of reward-related neural activity and [¹¹C]raclopride positron emission tomography measures of dopamine release in the same human participants, while they performed a delayed monetary incentive task. Across the cohort, a positive correlation emerged between neural activity of the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA), the main origin of dopaminergic neurotransmission, during reward anticipation and reward-related [¹¹C]raclopride displacement as an index of dopamine release in the ventral striatum, major target of SN/VTA dopamine neurons. Neural activity in the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens itself also correlated with ventral striatal dopamine release. Additionally, high-reward-related dopamine release was associated with increased activation of limbic structures, such as the amygdala and the hippocampus. The observed correlations of reward-related mesolimbic fMRI activation and dopamine release provide evidence that dopaminergic neurotransmission plays a quantitative role in human mesolimbic reward processing. Moreover, the combined neurochemical and hemodynamic imaging approach used here opens up new perspectives for the investigation of molecular mechanisms underlying human cognition.

Key words: dopamine; fMRI; reward; midbrain; substantia nigra; nucleus accumbens; neurotransmission; receptor

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Received May 5, 2008; revised Oct. 1, 2008; accepted Nov. 10, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Björn H. Schott, Department of Behavioral Neurology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Brenneckestrasse 6, 39118 Magdeburg, Germany. Email: bschott{at}neuro2.med.uni-magdeburg.de

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