The human brain relies on the neurotransmitter dopamine to encode reward and punishment prediction errors. It is paramount to learning from both positive and negative experiences, enabling the brain to adapt behavior based on outcomes. Using advanced electrochemical techniques and machine learning, researchers have been able to measure real-time dopamine levels during a computer game involving rewards and penalties. Shedding light on the intricate role of dopamine in human behavior, this study has far-reaching implications for understanding psychiatric and neurological disorders.
Neurotransmitters play a pivotal role in brain function dopamine, as a neurotransmitter, has a major role in facilitating communication between nerve cells in the brain and the body. Specifically, it is involved in movement, cognition, and learning. This study is breaking new ground, being the first to examine how dopamine encodes rewards and punishments in the human brain on fast timescales. By unlocking a better understanding of dopamine’s role in rewarding and punishing experiences, insights into psychiatric and neurological disorders can be gleaned, providing a better understanding of how the dopamine system is affected in humans with these conditions. Credit: Neuroscience News
Furthermore, it reveals that dopamine does not only play a role in signaling both positive and negative experiences in the brain. It also encodes rewarding and punishing experiences on slightly shifted timescales, independently, and separated by only 200 to 400 milliseconds. This surprising discovery is a breakthrough in the field and may provide new directions for research to better understand the underlying mechanisms of depression, addiction, and related psychiatric and neurological disorders.
Dopamine usurps its traditional label of the “pleasure neurotransmitter” with evidence showing its involvement in encoding punishing experiences as well. This important discovery underlines the need for new research to fully comprehend how the manipulation of the dopamine system affects the development and treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders.
About this dopamine and learning research
Author: Kenneth T. Kishida
Source: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Contact: Kenneth T. Kishida – Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Image: Credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: “Sub-second fluctuations in extracellular dopamine encode reward and punishment prediction errors in humans” by Paul Sands et al. Science Advances
