Citation

Cl S, Biskup CS, Herpertz S, Tj G, Kuhn CM, Hood SH, Zepf FD. Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacol. 2015; 18(10): pyv050.

Affiliation

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences & School of Paediatrics and Child Health; Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences; The University of Western Australia (M561), Perth, WA 6840, Australia Specialised Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Department of Health in Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia florian.zepf@uwa.edu.au.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1093/ijnp/pyv050

PMID

25991656

Abstract

The neurotransmitters serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) both have a critical role with regards to the underlying neurobiology of different behaviors. With focus on the interplay between DA and 5-HT it has been proposed that DA biases behavior towards habitual responding, and with 5-HT offsetting this phenomenon and directing the balance toward more flexible, goal-directed responding. The present focus paper stands in close relationship to the publication by Worbe et al., which deals with the effects of acute tryptophan depletion (ATD), a neurodietary physiological method to decrease central nervous 5-HT synthesis in humans for a short period of time, on the balance between hypothetical goal-directed and habitual systems. In the mentioned research ATD challenge administration and a following short-term reduction in central nervous 5-HT synthesis were associated with a shift of behavioral performance towards habitual responding, providing further evidence that central nervous 5-HT function modulates the balance between goal-directed and stimulus-response habitual systems of behavioral control. In the present focus paper we discuss the findings by Worbe and colleagues in the light of animal experiments as well as clinical implications, and discuss potential future avenues for related research.

Language: en