Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2011 May;32(5):800-11. doi: 10.1002/hbm.21067.
Pramipexole is widely prescribed to treat Parkinson's disease. It has been found to cause impulse control disorders such as pathological gambling. To examine how pramipexole modulates the network of reward anticipation, we carried out a pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging study with a double-blind, within-subject design. During the anticipation of monetary rewards, pramipexole increased the activity of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), enhanced the interaction between the NAcc and the anterior insula, but weakened the interaction between the NAcc and the prefrontal cortex. These results suggest that pramipexole may exaggerate incentive and affective responses to possible rewards, but reduce the top-down control of impulses, leading to an increase in impulsive behaviors. This imbalance between the prefrontal-striatum connectivity and the insula-striatum connectivity may represent the neural mechanism of pathological gambling caused by pramipexole.
普拉克索被广泛用于治疗帕金森病。研究发现，它会引起冲动控制障碍，如病理性赌博。为了研究普拉克索如何调节奖励预期网络，我们采用双盲、自身对照的设计进行了一项药理学功能磁共振成像研究。在预期金钱奖励时，普拉克索增加了伏隔核（NAcc）的活动，增强了 NAcc 与前岛叶之间的相互作用，但削弱了 NAcc 与前额叶皮层之间的相互作用。这些结果表明，普拉克索可能会夸大对可能奖励的激励和情感反应，但会降低冲动的自上而下控制，从而导致冲动行为增加。这种前额叶-纹状体连接和岛叶-纹状体连接之间的不平衡可能代表了普拉克索引起病理性赌博的神经机制。
