armeria pungens/dopamine

Dopamine is widely associated with reward, motivation, and reinforcement learning. Research on dopamine has emphasized its contribution to compulsive behaviors, such as addiction and overeating, with less examination of its potential role in behavioral flexibility in normal, non-pathological states.

The role of the dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) in regulating appetitive behavior continues to be controversial. Earlier literature suggests that reduced D2R signaling diminishes motivated behavior while more recent theories suggest that reduced D2R, as has been putatively observed in obesity,

Five years ago, we introduced the thrift hypothesis of dopamine (DA), suggesting that the primary role of DA in adaptive behavior is regulating behavioral energy expenditure to match the prevailing economic conditions of the environment. Here we elaborate that hypothesis with several new ideas.

Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in action control. However, influential theories of dopamine function make conflicting predictions about the effect of boosting dopamine neurotransmission. Here, we tested if increases in dopamine tone by administration of L-DOPA upregulate reward learning as