Effects of exogenous testosterone on the ventral striatal BOLD response during reward anticipation in healthy women.

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Publication year
2010Source
NeuroImage, 52, 1, (2010), pp. 277-83ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

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Organization
Neurology
PI Group Memory & Emotion
Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
Cognitive Neuroscience
Former Organization
F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
Journal title
NeuroImage
Volume
vol. 52
Issue
iss. 1
Page start
p. 277
Page end
p. 83
Subject
130 000 Cognitive Neurology & Memory; 130 026 VENI Hermans, ‘In a fit of fear’; DCN 2: Functional Neurogenomics; DCN 3: NeuroinformaticsAbstract
Correlational evidence in humans shows that levels of the androgen hormone testosterone are positively related to reinforcement sensitivity and competitive drive. Structurally similar anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are moreover widely abused, and animal studies show that rodents self-administer testosterone. These observations suggest that testosterone exerts activational effects on mesolimbic dopaminergic pathways involved in incentive processing and reinforcement regulation. However, there are no data on humans supporting this hypothesis. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the effects of testosterone administration on neural activity in terminal regions of the mesolimbic pathway. In a placebo-controlled double-blind crossover design, 12 healthy women received a single sublingual administration of .5 mg of testosterone. During MRI scanning, participants performed a monetary incentive delay task, which is known to elicit robust activation of the ventral striatum during reward anticipation. Results show a positive main effect of testosterone on the differential response in the ventral striatum to cues signaling potential reward versus nonreward. Notably, this effect interacted with levels self-reported intrinsic appetitive motivation: individuals with low intrinsic appetitive motivation exhibited larger testosterone-induced increases but had smaller differential responses after placebo. Thus, the present study lends support to the hypothesis that testosterone affects activity in terminal regions of the mesolimbic dopamine system but suggests that such effects may be specific to individuals with low intrinsic appetitive motivation. By showing a potential mechanism underlying central reinforcement of androgen use, the present findings may moreover have implications for our understanding of the pathophysiology of AAS dependency.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [227437]
- Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging [3564]
- Electronic publications [107154]
- Faculty of Medical Sciences [86157]
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