10.5061/DRYAD.0R9P1
Jepma, Marieke
Leiden University
Murphy, Peter R.
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Nassar, Matthew R.
Brown University
Rangel-Gomez, Mauricio
University of California, Berkeley
Meeter, Martijn
VU University Amsterdam
Nieuwenhuis, Sander
Leiden University
Data from: Catecholaminergic regulation of learning rate in a dynamic
environment
Dryad
dataset
2017
Norepinephrine
Dopamine
P3
learning rate
atomoxetine
2017-09-30T00:00:00Z
2017-09-30T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005171
697675 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Adaptive behavior in a changing world requires flexibly adapting one’s
rate of learning to the rate of environmental change. Recent studies have
examined the computational mechanisms by which various environmental
factors determine the impact of new outcomes on existing beliefs (i.e.,
the ‘learning rate’). However, the brain mechanisms, and in particular the
neuromodulators, involved in this process are still largely unknown. The
brain-wide neurophysiological effects of the catecholamines norepinephrine
and dopamine on stimulus-evoked cortical responses suggest that the
catecholamine systems are well positioned to regulate learning about
environmental change, but more direct evidence for a role of this system
is scant. Here, we report evidence from a study employing pharmacology,
scalp electrophysiology and computational modeling (N = 32) that suggests
an important role for catecholamines in learning rate regulation. We found
that the P3 component of the EEG—an electrophysiological index of
outcome-evoked phasic catecholamine release in the cortex—predicted
learning rate, and formally mediated the effect of prediction-error
magnitude on learning rate. P3 amplitude also mediated the effects of two
computational variables—capturing the unexpectedness of an outcome and the
uncertainty of a preexisting belief—on learning rate. Furthermore, a
pharmacological manipulation of catecholamine activity affected learning
rate following unanticipated task changes, in a way that depended on
participants’ baseline learning rate. Our findings provide converging
evidence for a causal role of the human catecholamine systems in
learning-rate regulation as a function of environmental change.
Single-trial behavioral and P3 dataMATLAB file with single-trial
behavioral/task data and P3 amplitudes. See the README file for more
information.RepositedData.mat