Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program, Berlin, Germany.
Commun Biol. 2022 Aug 12;5(1):812. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03690-5.
Instrumental learning is driven by a history of outcome success and failure. Here, we examined the impact of serotonin on learning from positive and negative outcomes. Healthy human volunteers were assessed twice, once after acute (single-dose), and once after prolonged (week-long) daily administration of the SSRI citalopram or placebo. Using computational modelling, we show that prolonged boosting of serotonin enhances learning from punishment and reduces learning from reward. This valence-dependent learning asymmetry increases subjects' tendency to avoid actions as a function of cumulative failure without leading to detrimental, or advantageous, outcomes. By contrast, no significant modulation of learning was observed following acute SSRI administration. However, differences between the effects of acute and prolonged administration were not significant. Overall, these findings may help explain how serotonergic agents impact on mood disorders.
工具性学习是由成功和失败的历史驱动的。在这里，我们研究了血清素对积极和消极结果的学习的影响。健康的人类志愿者接受了两次评估，一次是在急性（单次剂量）后，一次是在长期（一周）每天服用 SSRI 西酞普兰或安慰剂后。使用计算模型，我们表明，血清素的长期增强会增强从惩罚中学习的能力，并减少从奖励中学习的能力。这种与价值有关的学习不对称性增加了受试者随着累积失败而避免行动的倾向，而不会导致不利或有利的结果。相比之下，在急性 SSRI 给药后没有观察到学习的显著调节。然而，急性和长期给药的影响之间没有显著差异。总的来说，这些发现可能有助于解释血清素能药物如何影响情绪障碍。
