Dopaminergic modulation of the exploration/exploitation trade-off in human decision-making

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dopaminergic modulation of the exploration/exploitation trade-off in human decision-making

AU - Chakroun, Karima

AU - Mathar, David

AU - Wiehler, Antonius

AU - Ganzer, Florian

AU - Peters, Jan

N1 - © 2020, Chakroun et al.

PY - 2020/6/2

Y1 - 2020/6/2

N2 - Involvement of dopamine in regulating exploration during decision-making has long been hypothesized, but direct causal evidence in humans is still lacking. Here, we use a combination of computational modeling, pharmacological intervention and functional magnetic resonance imaging to address this issue. Thirty-one healthy male participants performed a restless four-armed bandit task in a within-subjects design under three drug conditions: 150 mg of the dopamine precursor L-dopa, 2 mg of the D2 receptor antagonist haloperidol, and placebo. Choices were best explained by an extension of an established Bayesian learning model accounting for perseveration, directed exploration and random exploration. Modeling revealed attenuated directed exploration under L-dopa, while neural signatures of exploration, exploitation and prediction error were unaffected. Instead, L-dopa attenuated neural representations of overall uncertainty in insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Our results highlight the computational role of these regions in exploration and suggest that dopamine modulates how this circuit tracks accumulating uncertainty during decision-making.

AB - Involvement of dopamine in regulating exploration during decision-making has long been hypothesized, but direct causal evidence in humans is still lacking. Here, we use a combination of computational modeling, pharmacological intervention and functional magnetic resonance imaging to address this issue. Thirty-one healthy male participants performed a restless four-armed bandit task in a within-subjects design under three drug conditions: 150 mg of the dopamine precursor L-dopa, 2 mg of the D2 receptor antagonist haloperidol, and placebo. Choices were best explained by an extension of an established Bayesian learning model accounting for perseveration, directed exploration and random exploration. Modeling revealed attenuated directed exploration under L-dopa, while neural signatures of exploration, exploitation and prediction error were unaffected. Instead, L-dopa attenuated neural representations of overall uncertainty in insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Our results highlight the computational role of these regions in exploration and suggest that dopamine modulates how this circuit tracks accumulating uncertainty during decision-making.

U2 - 10.7554/eLife.51260

DO - 10.7554/eLife.51260

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 32484779

VL - 9

SP - 1

EP - 44

JO - ELIFE

JF - ELIFE

SN - 2050-084X

ER -