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
Cover ArticleResearch Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

Individual Differences in Dopamine Are Associated with Reward Discounting in Clinical Groups But Not in Healthy Adults

Jaime J. Castrellon, Kendra L. Seaman, Jennifer L. Crawford, Jacob S. Young, Christopher T. Smith, Linh C. Dang, Ming Hsu, Ronald L. Cowan, David H. Zald and Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin
Journal of Neuroscience 9 January 2019, 39 (2) 321-332; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1984-18.2018
Jaime J. Castrellon
1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience,
2Center for Cognitive Neuroscience,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Jaime J. Castrellon
Kendra L. Seaman
2Center for Cognitive Neuroscience,
3Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708,
4Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Kendra L. Seaman
Jennifer L. Crawford
4Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jacob S. Young
5Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Christopher T. Smith
5Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Christopher T. Smith
Linh C. Dang
5Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Linh C. Dang
Ming Hsu
6Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Ming Hsu
Ronald L. Cowan
5Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240,
7Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Nashville, Tennessee 37212,
8Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David H. Zald
5Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37240,
7Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Nashville, Tennessee 37212,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for David H. Zald
Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin
1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience,
2Center for Cognitive Neuroscience,
3Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708,
4Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Some people are more willing to make immediate, risky, or costly reward-focused choices than others, which has been hypothesized to be associated with individual differences in dopamine (DA) function. In two studies using PET imaging, one empirical (Study 1: N = 144 males and females across 3 samples) and one meta-analytic (Study 2: N = 307 across 12 samples), we sought to characterize associations between individual differences in DA and time, probability, and physical effort discounting in human adults. Study 1 demonstrated that individual differences in DA D2-like receptors were not associated with time or probability discounting of monetary rewards in healthy humans, and associations with physical effort discounting were inconsistent across adults of different ages. Meta-analytic results for temporal discounting corroborated our empirical finding for minimal effect of DA measures on discounting in healthy individuals but suggested that associations between individual differences in DA and reward discounting depend on clinical features. Addictions were characterized by negative correlations between DA and discounting, but other clinical conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, obesity, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, were characterized by positive correlations between DA and discounting. Together, the results suggest that trait differences in discounting in healthy adults do not appear to be strongly associated with individual differences in D2-like receptors. The difference in meta-analytic correlation effects between healthy controls and individuals with psychopathology suggests that individual difference findings related to DA and reward discounting in clinical samples may not be reliably generalized to healthy controls, and vice versa.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Decisions to forgo large rewards for smaller ones due to increasing time delays, uncertainty, or physical effort have been linked to differences in dopamine (DA) function, which is disrupted in some forms of psychopathology. It remains unclear whether alterations in DA function associated with psychopathology also extend to explaining associations between DA function and decision making in healthy individuals. We show that individual differences in DA D2 receptor availability are not consistently related to monetary discounting of time, probability, or physical effort in healthy individuals across a broad age range. By contrast, we suggest that psychopathology accounts for observed inconsistencies in the relationship between measures of DA function and reward discounting behavior.

  • decision making
  • delay discounting
  • dopamine
  • effort
  • PET
  • probability

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.

View Full Text
Back to top

In this issue

The Journal of Neuroscience: 39 (2)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 39, Issue 2
9 Jan 2019
  • 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.
Individual Differences in Dopamine Are Associated with Reward Discounting in Clinical Groups But Not in Healthy Adults
(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
Individual Differences in Dopamine Are Associated with Reward Discounting in Clinical Groups But Not in Healthy Adults
Jaime J. Castrellon, Kendra L. Seaman, Jennifer L. Crawford, Jacob S. Young, Christopher T. Smith, Linh C. Dang, Ming Hsu, Ronald L. Cowan, David H. Zald, Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin
Journal of Neuroscience 9 January 2019, 39 (2) 321-332; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1984-18.2018

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
Individual Differences in Dopamine Are Associated with Reward Discounting in Clinical Groups But Not in Healthy Adults
Jaime J. Castrellon, Kendra L. Seaman, Jennifer L. Crawford, Jacob S. Young, Christopher T. Smith, Linh C. Dang, Ming Hsu, Ronald L. Cowan, David H. Zald, Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin
Journal of Neuroscience 9 January 2019, 39 (2) 321-332; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1984-18.2018
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

  • decision making
  • delay discounting
  • dopamine
  • effort
  • PET
  • probability

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

Research Articles

  • Vigilance and behavioral state-dependent modulation of cortical neuronal activity throughout the sleep/wake cycle
  • 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 Research Articles

Behavioral/Cognitive

  • Brain functional connectivity mapping of behavioral flexibility in rhesus monkeys
  • Accumulation System: Distributed Neural Substrates of Perceptual Decision Making Revealed by fMRI Deconvolution
  • Recruitment of control and representational components of the semantic system during successful and unsuccessful access to complex factual knowledge
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.