Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, 10117 Germany
Berlin Institute of Health at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program, Berlin, 10117 Germany.
J Neurosci. 2023 Aug 9;43(32):5848-5855. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1416-22.2023. Epub 2023 Jul 31.
Serotonin is implicated in the valuation of aversive costs, such as delay or physical effort. However, its role in governing sensitivity to cognitive effort, for example, deliberation costs during information gathering, is unclear. We show that treatment with a serotonergic antidepressant in healthy human individuals of either sex enhances a willingness to gather information when trying to maximize reward. Using computational modeling, we show this arises from a diminished sensitivity to subjective deliberation costs during the sampling process. This result is consistent with the notion that serotonin alleviates sensitivity to aversive costs in a domain-general fashion, with implications for its potential contribution to a positive impact on motivational deficits in psychiatric disorders. Gathering information about the world is essential for successfully navigating it. However, sampling information is costly, and we need to balance between gathering too little and too much information. The neurocomputational mechanisms underlying this arbitration between a putative gain, such as reward, and the associated costs, such as allocation of cognitive resources, remain unclear. In this study, we show that week-long daily treatment with a serotonergic antidepressant enhances a willingness to gather information when trying to maximize reward. Computational modeling indicates this arises from a reduced perception of aversive costs, rendering information gathering less cognitively effortful. This finding points to a candidate mechanism by which serotonergic treatment might help alleviate motivational deficits in a range of mental illnesses.
血清素与厌恶成本的评估有关，例如延迟或体力消耗。然而，其在控制对认知努力的敏感性方面的作用尚不清楚，例如在信息收集期间的深思熟虑成本。我们表明，在健康的男性和女性个体中，使用血清素能抗抑郁药治疗会增强在努力最大化奖励时收集信息的意愿。通过计算模型，我们表明这是由于在采样过程中对主观深思熟虑成本的敏感性降低所致。这一结果与血清素以一种普遍的方式减轻对厌恶成本的敏感性的观点一致，这对其在减轻精神疾病中的动机缺陷方面的潜在贡献具有启示意义。收集有关世界的信息对于成功导航至关重要。然而，采样信息是有代价的，我们需要在收集太少和太多信息之间取得平衡。在所谓的收益（例如奖励）和相关成本（例如认知资源的分配）之间进行仲裁的神经计算机制仍不清楚。在这项研究中，我们表明，每周进行为期一周的血清素能抗抑郁药治疗会增强在努力最大化奖励时收集信息的意愿。计算模型表明，这是由于对厌恶成本的感知降低所致，从而使信息收集的认知费力降低。这一发现指出了一种候选机制，即血清素能治疗可能有助于减轻一系列精神疾病中的动机缺陷。
