Dopamine and reward-related vigor in younger and older adults

Hird, Emily J; Beierholm, Ulrik; De Boer, Lieke; Axelsson, Jan; Backman, Lars; Guitart-Masip, Marc

doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.06.003

Dopamine and reward-related vigor in younger and older adults

Hird, Emily J; Beierholm, Ulrik; De Boer, Lieke; Axelsson, Jan; Backman, Lars; Guitart-Masip, Marc

Authors

Emily J Hird

Dr Ulrik Beierholm ulrik.beierholm@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Lieke De Boer

Jan Axelsson

Lars Backman

Marc Guitart-Masip

Abstract

Vigor reflects how motivated people are to respond to stimuli. We previously showed that, on average, humans are more vigorous when a higher rate of reward is available, and that this relationship is modulated by the dopamine precursor levodopa. Dopamine signaling and probabilistic reward learning deteriorate across the adult life span, and thus, the relationship between vigor and reward may also change in aging. We tested this assertion and assessed whether it correlates with D1 dopamine receptor availability, measured using Positron Emission Tomography. We registered response times of 30 older and 30 younger participants during an oddball discrimination task where rewards varied systematically between trials. The average reward rate had a similar impact on vigor in both age groups. There was a weak positive association between ventral striatal dopamine receptor availability and the effect of average reward rate on response time. Overall, the effect of reward on response vigor was similar in younger and older adults, and weakly correlated with dopamine D1 receptor availability.

Citation

Hird, E. J., Beierholm, U., De Boer, L., Axelsson, J., Backman, L., & Guitart-Masip, M. (2022). Dopamine and reward-related vigor in younger and older adults. Neurobiology of Aging, 118, 34-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.06.003

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 12, 2022
Online Publication Date	Jun 20, 2022
Publication Date	2022-10
Deposit Date	Jul 18, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Jul 18, 2022
Journal	Neurobiology of Aging
Print ISSN	0197-4580
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	118
Pages	34-43
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.06.003

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Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)