Dopamine-D2-Receptor Blockade Reverses the Association Between Trait Approach Motivation and Frontal Asymmetry in an Approach-Motivation Context

Abstract

Individual differences in the behavioral approach system (BAS)—referred to as trait approach motivation or trait BAS)—have been linked to both frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha asymmetry between left and right hemispheres (frontal alpha asymmetry) and brain dopamine. However, evidence directly linking frontal alpha asymmetry and dopamine is scarce. In the present study, female experimenters recorded EEG data in 181 male participants after double-blind administration of either a placebo or a dopamine D2 blocker. As expected, trait BAS was associated with greater left- than right-frontal cortical activity (i.e., greater right- than left-frontal EEG alpha) in the placebo group, but a reversed association emerged in the dopamine-blocker group. Furthermore, frontal alpha asymmetry was associated with a genetic variant known to modulate prefrontal dopamine levels (the catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism). Finally, each of these effects was significant only in the subgroup of male participants interacting with female experimenters rated as most attractive; this finding suggests that associations between frontal alpha asymmetry and both dopamine and trait BAS are detectable only in approach-motivation contexts.