Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Neuroscience
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Neuroscience

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE
PreviousNext
Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

Dopamine D2-Receptor Blockade Enhances Decoding of Prefrontal Signals in Humans

Thorsten Kahnt, Susanna C. Weber, Helene Haker, Trevor W. Robbins and Philippe N. Tobler
Journal of Neuroscience 4 March 2015, 35 (9) 4104-4111; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4182-14.2015
Thorsten Kahnt
1Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Chicago, Illinois 60611,
2Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Thorsten Kahnt
Susanna C. Weber
2Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Helene Haker
3Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland, and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Trevor W. Robbins
4Department of Psychology, and Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Philippe N. Tobler
2Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The prefrontal cortex houses representations critical for ongoing and future behavior expressed in the form of patterns of neural activity. Dopamine has long been suggested to play a key role in the integrity of such representations, with D2-receptor activation rendering them flexible but weak. However, it is currently unknown whether and how D2-receptor activation affects prefrontal representations in humans. In the current study, we use dopamine receptor-specific pharmacology and multivoxel pattern-based functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the hypothesis that blocking D2-receptor activation enhances prefrontal representations. Human subjects performed a simple reward prediction task after double-blind and placebo controlled administration of the D2-receptor antagonist amisulpride. Using a whole-brain searchlight decoding approach we show that D2-receptor blockade enhances decoding of reward signals in the medial orbitofrontal cortex. Examination of activity patterns suggests that amisulpride increases the separation of activity patterns related to reward versus no reward. Moreover, consistent with the cortical distribution of D2 receptors, post hoc analyses showed enhanced decoding of motor signals in motor cortex, but not of visual signals in visual cortex. These results suggest that D2-receptor blockade enhances content-specific representations in frontal cortex, presumably by a dopamine-mediated increase in pattern separation. These findings are in line with a dual-state model of prefrontal dopamine, and provide new insights into the potential mechanism of action of dopaminergic drugs.

  • associative learning
  • dopamine
  • fMRI
  • MVPA
  • orbitofrontal cortex
  • reward
View Full Text
Back to top

In this issue

The Journal of Neuroscience: 35 (9)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 35, Issue 9
4 Mar 2015
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Advertising (PDF)
  • Ed Board (PDF)
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Neuroscience article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Dopamine D2-Receptor Blockade Enhances Decoding of Prefrontal Signals in Humans
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Neuroscience
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Neuroscience.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
View Full Page PDF
Citation Tools
Dopamine D2-Receptor Blockade Enhances Decoding of Prefrontal Signals in Humans
Thorsten Kahnt, Susanna C. Weber, Helene Haker, Trevor W. Robbins, Philippe N. Tobler
Journal of Neuroscience 4 March 2015, 35 (9) 4104-4111; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4182-14.2015

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Request Permissions
Share
Dopamine D2-Receptor Blockade Enhances Decoding of Prefrontal Signals in Humans
Thorsten Kahnt, Susanna C. Weber, Helene Haker, Trevor W. Robbins, Philippe N. Tobler
Journal of Neuroscience 4 March 2015, 35 (9) 4104-4111; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4182-14.2015
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Introduction
    • Materials and Methods
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Keywords

  • associative learning
  • dopamine
  • fMRI
  • MVPA
  • orbitofrontal cortex
  • reward

Responses to this article

Respond to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

Articles

  • Choice Behavior Guided by Learned, But Not Innate, Taste Aversion Recruits the Orbitofrontal Cortex
  • Maturation of Spontaneous Firing Properties after Hearing Onset in Rat Auditory Nerve Fibers: Spontaneous Rates, Refractoriness, and Interfiber Correlations
  • Insulin Treatment Prevents Neuroinflammation and Neuronal Injury with Restored Neurobehavioral Function in Models of HIV/AIDS Neurodegeneration
Show more Articles

Behavioral/Cognitive

  • Cortico-striatal activity characterizes human safety learning via Pavlovian conditioned inhibition
  • Brain functional connectivity mapping of behavioral flexibility in rhesus monkeys
  • Accumulation System: Distributed Neural Substrates of Perceptual Decision Making Revealed by fMRI Deconvolution
Show more Behavioral/Cognitive
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Issue Archive
  • Collections

Information

  • For Authors
  • For Advertisers
  • For the Media
  • For Subscribers

About

  • About the Journal
  • Editorial Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
(JNeurosci logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2022 by the Society for Neuroscience.
JNeurosci Online ISSN: 1529-2401

The ideas and opinions expressed in JNeurosci do not necessarily reflect those of SfN or the JNeurosci Editorial Board. Publication of an advertisement or other product mention in JNeurosci should not be construed as an endorsement of the manufacturer’s claims. SfN does not assume any responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from or related to any use of any material contained in JNeurosci.