Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute- IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, United States
Laura Ferreri
Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute- IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Ernest Mas-Herrero
Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, MontrealQC, Canada; Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, Montreal, Canada
Helena Alicart
Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute- IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Alba Gómez-Andrés
Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute- IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Josep Marco-Pallares
Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute- IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
Rosa Maria Antonijoan
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Centre d’Investigació de Medicaments, Servei de Farmacologia Clínica, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Leipziger Straße, Magdeburg, Germany; Department of Biological Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Postfach, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany
Marta Valle
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic Modeling and Simulation Group, Sant Pau Institute of Biomedical Research, Barcelona, Spain
Jordi Riba
Human Neuropsychopharmacology Group, Sant Pau Institute of Biomedical Research, Barcelona, Spain
Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells
Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute- IDIBELL, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Campus Bellvitge, University of Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Barcelona, Spain
We recently provided evidence that an intrinsic reward-related signal—triggered by successful learning in absence of any external feedback—modulated the entrance of new information into long-term memory via the activation of the dopaminergic midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum (the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop; Ripollés et al., 2016). Here, we used a double-blind, within-subject randomized pharmacological intervention to test whether this learning process is indeed dopamine-dependent. A group of healthy individuals completed three behavioral sessions of a language-learning task after the intake of different pharmacological treatments: a dopaminergic precursor, a dopamine receptor antagonist or a placebo. Results show that the pharmacological intervention modulated behavioral measures of both learning and pleasantness, inducing memory benefits after 24 hr only for those participants with a high sensitivity to reward. These results provide causal evidence for a dopamine-dependent mechanism instrumental in intrinsically regulated learning and further suggest that subject-specific reward sensitivity drastically alters learning success.
