Mito
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An Update on the Role of Serotonin and its Interplay with Dopamine for Reward
Optogenetic studies in rodents suggest that DA and 5-HT jointly guide learning by positive coding of reward PE signals, whereas absence of DA and presence of 5-HT is associated with reward omission, and possibly punishment PE signals.
Activation of purely serotonergic cells was found to be mostly non-rewarding or purely inhibitory.
In accordance with this, subjective self-reports of human subjects suggest that a singular increase in 5-HT or DA release is not experienced as pleasurable, but the conjoint increase is highly pleasurable.
Thus, 5-HT additionally appears to control motivationally rewarding effects of DA as evidenced via drug addiction.
This complexity has direct consequences for the interpretation of pharmacological, genetic, and correlational studies in humans and indicates that DA and 5-HT do not have opposing functions (Daw et al., 2002), but rather could in concert provide a combined reward signal, whereas its dissociation may encode punishment.
Optogenetic studies in rodents suggest that DA and 5-HT jointly guide learning by positive coding of reward PE signals, whereas absence of DA and presence of 5-HT is associated with reward omission, and possibly punishment PE signals.
Activation of purely serotonergic cells was found to be mostly non-rewarding or purely inhibitory.
In accordance with this, subjective self-reports of human subjects suggest that a singular increase in 5-HT or DA release is not experienced as pleasurable, but the conjoint increase is highly pleasurable.
Thus, 5-HT additionally appears to control motivationally rewarding effects of DA as evidenced via drug addiction.
This complexity has direct consequences for the interpretation of pharmacological, genetic, and correlational studies in humans and indicates that DA and 5-HT do not have opposing functions (Daw et al., 2002), but rather could in concert provide a combined reward signal, whereas its dissociation may encode punishment.
