Dietary dopamine depletion blunts reward network sensitivity to face trustworthiness

Abstract

Research demonstrating responsiveness of the neural reward network to face trustworthiness has not assessed whether the effects are mediated by dopaminergic function. We filled this gap in the literature by investigating whether dietary dopamine depletion would blunt the sensitivity of neural activation to faces varying in trustworthiness across reward regions as well as the sensitivity of behavioral responses to those faces. As prolactin release is negatively regulated by dopamine, peripheral prolactin levels confirmed the efficacy of our manipulation. The dopamine depletion manipulation moderated neural activation to face trustworthiness in the amygdala, medial orbital frontal cortex, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex. Control participants (n=20) showed nonlinear and linear neural activation to face trustworthiness in the amygdala and ventral medial prefrontal cortex, and nonlinear activation in the medial orbital frontal cortex, while depleted participants (n=20) showed only a linear effect in the amygdala. Controls also showed stronger amygdala activation to high trustworthy faces than depleted participants. In contrast to effects on neural activation, dopamine depletion did not blunt the sensitivity of behavioral ratings. While this is the first study to demonstrate that dopamine depletion blunts the sensitivity of the neural reward system to social stimuli, namely faces varying in trustworthiness, future research should investigate behavioral measures that may be more responsive to dopaminergic effects than face ratings. Such research would shed further light on the possibility that individual differences in dopaminergic function that were simulated by our manipulation influence social interactions with people who vary in facial trustworthiness.