Ventral striatal prediction error signaling is associated with dopamine synthesis capacity and fluid intelligence

Wiley-Liss Inc. 2013

Schlagenhauf, Florian
Rapp, Michael
Huys, Quentin
Beck, Anne
Wuestenberg, Torsten
Deserno, Lorenz
Buchholz, Hans-Georg
Kalbitzer, Jan
Buchert, Ralph
Bauer, Michael
Kienast, Thorsten
Cumming, Paul
Plotkin, Michail
Kumakura, Yoshitaka
Grace, Anthony
Dolan, Raymond
Heinz, Andreas

Fluid intelligence represents the capacity for flexible problem solving and rapid behavioral adaptation. Rewards drive flexible behavioral adaptation, in part via a teaching signal expressed as reward prediction errors in the ventral striatum, which has been associated with phasic dopamine release in animal studies. We examined a sample of 28 healthy male adults using multimodal imaging and biological parametric mapping with (1) functional magnetic resonance imaging during a reversal learning task and (2) in a subsample of 17 subjects also with positron emission tomography using 6-[18F]fluoro-L-DOPA to assess dopamine synthesis capacity. Fluid intelligence was measured using a battery of nine standard neuropsychological tests. Ventral striatal BOLD correlates of reward prediction errors were positively correlated with fluid intelligence and, in the right ventral striatum, also inversely correlated with dopamine synthesis capacity (FDOPA $K_{\text{in}}^{\mathrm{app}}$). When exploring aspects of fluid intelligence, we observed that prediction error signaling correlates with complex attention and reasoning. These findings indicate that individual differences in the capacity for flexible problem solving relate to ventral striatal activation during reward-related learning, which in turn proved to be inversely associated with ventral striatal dopamine synthesis capacity.

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Faculty of Health; Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation; School of Psychology & Counselling
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QUEENSLAND UNIV OF TECH
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