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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 13, 2026

Comprehensive Profiling of Dopamine Regulation in Substantia Nigra and Ventral Tegmental Area

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Published on: August 10, 2012

Dopamine restores reward prediction errors in old age.

Rumana Chowdhury¹, Marc Guitart-Masip, Christian Lambert

¹Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK. rumana.neuro@gmail.com

Nature Neuroscience

|March 26, 2013

Summary

Aging impairs reward processing and decision-making by altering brain signals. Levodopa (L-DOPA) can restore these signals and improve performance in older adults, suggesting a potential therapeutic avenue.

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Published on: February 14, 2014

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Aging
Neuroimaging

Background:

Aging impacts decision-making, particularly reward processing.
Older adults show altered neural signals related to expected value and reward prediction error (RPE).

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the neural basis of abnormal reward processing in healthy aging.
To examine the effect of levodopa (L-DOPA) on reward-based learning and neural signals in older adults.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity during a decision-making task.
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess structural connectivity between the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA) and striatum.
Administration of levodopa (L-DOPA) to assess its effects on behavior and neural activity.

Main Results:

Healthy older adults exhibited an abnormal expected value signal and an incomplete RPE signal in the nucleus accumbens.
Reduced structural connectivity between SN/VTA and striatum correlated with individual differences in reward value signaling.
L-DOPA treatment improved learning rates and task performance in some older adults, restoring canonical neural RPE signals.

Conclusions:

Aging is associated with a distinct neurochemical signature of impaired reward processing.
Structural brain connectivity is linked to reward value representation in aging.
L-DOPA shows potential for modulating reward processing deficits and improving cognitive function in older adults.