To Do or Not to Do: Dopamine, Affordability and the Economics of Opportunity

Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
Jeff A Beeler, Devry Mourra

Abstract

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. First, we introduce the concept of affordability, suggesting that costs must necessarily be evaluated with respect to the availability of resources to the organism, which computes a value not only for the potential reward opportunity, but also the value of resources expended. Placing both costs and benefits within the context of the larger economy in which the animal is functioning requires consideration of the different timescales against which to compute resource availability, or average reward rate. Appropriate windows of computation for tracking resources requires corresponding neural substrates that operate on these different timescales. In discussing temporal patterns of DA signaling, we focus on a neglected form of DA plasticity and adaptation, changes in the physical substrate of the DA system itself, such as up- and down-regulation of receptors or release probability. We argue that changes in the DA substrate itself fundamentall...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 19, 2020·Acta neurochirurgica·Elin WesternTonje Haug Nordenmark
Dec 14, 2018·Frontiers in Psychology·Franka ThurmShu-Chen Li
May 1, 2021·Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience·Anna MarzecováArmin Maddah
Nov 18, 2020·Current Biology : CB·Alexxai V Kravitz, Bridget A Matikainen-Ankney

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