Modafinil augments brain activation associated with reward anticipation in the nucleus accumbens

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) works as a key brain structure of the reward system, in which reward-related neural activity is well correlated with dopamine release from mesolimbic dopaminergic neurons.

Since modafinil can modulate dopaminergic transmission through re-uptake inhibition of dopamine, we investigated whether modafinil affects the reward-related brain activity in the NAc in healthy subjects.

Twenty healthy participants underwent two series of functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing monetary incentive delay task in which they were cued to anticipate and respond to a rapidly presented target to gain or avoid losing varying amounts of money, under modafinil or placebo condition. Blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) activation signals during gain and loss anticipations were analyzed in the NAc as an a priori region of interest as well as the whole brain.

Modafinil significantly changed subjective feelings toward positive ones. The activation of BOLD signals was observed during gain anticipation under the placebo and modafinil conditions in the left and bilateral NAc, respectively. The modafinil condition showed significantly higher BOLD signal change at the highest gain (+¥500) cue compared to the placebo condition.

The present study showed that modafinil affects reward processing in the NAc in healthy subjects through enhancing more positive anticipation, and it may provide a basis for the use of this drug for treating anhedonia observed in psychiatric disorders.