Dopamine receptors regulate preference between high-effort and high-risk rewards

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Behavioral Economics
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Optimal decision-making involves evaluating rewards against distinct costs like effort or risk.
• Dopamine signaling, particularly via D1-like and D2-like receptors, is crucial for these cost-benefit analyses.
• Traditional rodent models are limited in assessing dopamine's role in choices with multimodal costs.

Purpose of the Study:

• Develop and validate the effort vs. probability (EvP) economic conflict task for rats.
• Model multimodal economic decision-making, specifically the trade-off between effort and risk.
• Investigate the modulatory effects of dopamine receptor manipulation on these choices.

Main Methods:

• The EvP task presents choices between equal-magnitude rewards associated with increasing effort or probabilistic reward delivery.
• Subjects chose between effortful (lever presses) and risky (25% reward omission) options.
• Systemic administration of cocaine, D1/D2 receptor antagonists, and agonists preceded task performance.

Main Results:

• Rats demonstrated the ability to shift preference away from more costly options (effortful or risky).
• Cocaine, D1 activation, and D2 blockade had limited effects on choice preference.
• D2 receptor activation robustly shifted preference towards risky choices, even when disadvantageous.

Conclusions:

• The EvP task effectively models cost-benefit analysis in decision-making under varying effort and risk conditions.
• Dopamine D2 receptors, more than D1 receptors, significantly influence the trade-off between effort and risk.
• D2-like receptors represent a potential therapeutic target for mitigating maladaptive risk-taking biases.