Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom; The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom; The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom; The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom; The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany; University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom; The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
Dopamine is implicated in representing model-free (MF) reward prediction errors a as well as influencing model-based (MB) credit assignment and choice. Putative cooperative interactions between MB and MF systems include a guidance of MF credit assignment by MB inference. Here, we used a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects design to test an hypothesis that enhancing dopamine levels boosts the guidance of MF credit assignment by MB inference. In line with this, we found that levodopa enhanced guidance of MF credit assignment by MB inference, without impacting MF and MB influences directly. This drug effect correlated negatively with a dopamine-dependent change in purely MB credit assignment, possibly reflecting a trade-off between these two MB components of behavioural control. Our findings of a dopamine boost in MB inference guidance of MF learning highlight a novel DA influence on MB-MF cooperative interactions.
