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Dopamine Enhances Expectation of Pleasure in Humans

2009; Elsevier BV; Volume: 19; Issue: 24 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.025

1879-0445

Tali Sharot, Tamara Shiner, Annemarie C. Brown, Judy Fan, Raymond J. Dolan,

Eating Disorders and Behaviors

Human action is strongly influenced by expectations of pleasure. Making decisions, ranging from which products to buy to which job offer to accept, requires an estimation of how good (or bad) the likely outcomes will make us feel [1Bentham J. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Hafner Publishing Company, New York1948Google Scholar]. Yet, little is known about the biological basis of subjective estimations of future hedonic reactions. Here, we show that administration of a drug that enhances dopaminergic function (dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine; L-DOPA) during the imaginative construction of positive future life events subsequently enhances estimates of the hedonic pleasure to be derived from these same events. These findings provide the first direct evidence for the role of dopamine in the modulation of subjective hedonic expectations in humans.